EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE DFI’s Landmark Moments I t seemed perfect timing for the Deep Foundations special issue on Landmarks when I sat down to write this update during our annual conference in Phoenix. Many people were honored at the conference, and this made me think about how they were involved in landmark moments in DFI’s history. The first moment I will note is January 28, 1976, the day DFI was officially incor- porated as an association. The landmark moment was probably sometime in 1975 when the idea of forming an assocition was considered. This happened during a PileTalk Seminar, held by Associated Pile & Fitting and organized by Jack Dougherty and Hal Hunt. Al McKinnon, an attendee, stood up and said something like “…pile driving is going to get so specific and specialized one day, it ought to have its own Institute.” The idea took hold and then broadened to include all deep foundations. Jack, Hal, Al and the rest of the charter members provided this landmark moment. Another charter member, Bill Loftus, provided another moment; his landmark idea in 1986 was to take DFI overseas. DFI started in China, and with William Bermingham as president, took the show to Europe. Holding international confer- ences needed a driving force like Hal Hunt. John Mitchell was chosen to fulfill this role, a dynamic engineer from London, and he did a great job. Other notable landmarks were reaching 200 conference attendees at DFI’s San Francisco Annual Confer- ence in 1996 (a record that has since been broken many times) and reaching 200 corporate members in 1999 (we now have over 400). When DFI decided to partner with the European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC) in 2000 to hold a conference in N.Y., attendance was over 700! That relationship has continued. The 6th joint event will be held next May in Sweden. The recent development of the Carbon Calculator is another example of that partnering. The key reason I decided to use DFI’s Theresa Rappaport Executive Director [email protected] We have a landmark moment coming up on January 1, 2014, when DFI will have its first female trustee. membership this fall and will start her three-year term on that date. I look forward to not being the only “girl” in the room for a change. Almost every day I work at DFI provides a landmark moment — there is always some new idea to be pondered and developed, new activities to be managed and new strategies to pursue. Keep ’em coming. New DFI Website landmark moments for this message was that in Phoenix we honored Manny Fine for the landmark impression he’s left on DFI from 1989 to 2013. He had many roles in the organization (see photo). Another impetus was the celebration of Arturo Ressi di Cervia’s participation in DFI during the Awards Banquet. Arturo Ressi passed away on August 23, 2013, not long after he was chosen for this year’s Distinguished Service Award (see page 23 for more). Both were wonderful mentors to me, with a tremendous love of our industry. Both have been instrumental in my development as DFI Executive Director. We have a landmark moment coming up on January 1, 2014, when DFI will have its first female trustee. Marine Lasne of Soletanche-Freyssinet was voted in by We have launched a new website at www.dfi.org. • New inviting design • Updated, streamlined content • “My DFI” feature where members can check their status, pay dues, update their contact information and be automatically logged-in to OneMine.org to obtain free publications • User-friendly and easy to navigate • Easy-to-find resources • Powerful search capability • Dynamic technical committee pages • Enhanced publication ordering • And more DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2013 • 9
