PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE DFI On The Move A s I complete my first year as president of DFI, I thank the members, officers and staff of the DFI who work with tireless enthusiasm to advance the state of the deep foundations industry around the world. It is a pleasure and honor to serve. It has been a busy year. At the 2011 Winter Planning Meeting, the trustees developed action items for several key initiatives; some have begun to be realized in the last few months. One example is this issue of Deep Foundations Magazine, the first of six this year. The increased frequency is part of the cont inuous improvement process developed by the trustees of DFI to provide better communication and increasing service to members. In this issue is the first of our new features on regional committees, with news and information on DFI India. In coming issues we will report on DFI Middle East and on DFI Europe. We hope our membership finds these summaries useful and informative. The alliance with OneMine announced earlier this year is also coming to fruition. Most of the DFI publi- cations catalog is now up and available for free download to voting members. We also completed a very successful annual meeting in Boston, with over 700 attendees from around the world. My observations, and comments of attendees, confirm that the quality of information presented and the presenters were excellent. I thank the Boston organizing committee and the tireless DFI staff for setting a new benchmark for conference quality. I also had the pleasure of attending a joint meeting between the DFI and the Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineering (SMIG) in Mexico City in November (p. 27). Atten- dance was over 300. The Mexican foun- with the world in future magazine articles. I was also impressed by the large turnout of students and young engineers, over 100 of whom came to the conference from across Mexico. Their enthus- James A. Morrison, P.E. President [email protected] iasm and intelligence was inspirational. The future of the Mexican foundation engi- neering community is clearly in good hands. The DFI looks forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with SMIG. In this issue is the first of our new features on regional committees, with news and information on DFI India. dation engineering and construction com- munity is using innovation and expertise to solve complex soft-ground foundation problems. I hope we can share their lessons Brazil Seminar: July 17-20, 2012 All the equipment manufacturers, tools and products, and service providers for the foundation and geotechnical industry will be gathered for SEFE7 – the 7th Seminar on Special Foundations Engineering and Geotechnics and the 1st Foundations Industry and Geotechnics Show. The biggest event in Latin America is in São Paulo, Brazil from June 17-20. For further information, visit www.sefe7.com.br Register for OneMine DFI members can access and download over 80,000 articles, technical papers and books from organizations all over the world — at no cost. The web-based document library, which began with the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), now includes documents from related industry organizations. DFI is adding its publication documents to the library incrementally including proceedings, technical manuals, reference documents, Journal papers and magazine articles. To access the resources, simply create a OneMine registration. You will need to select DFI as your society of affiliation, and use your DFI membership number when registering. For additional help registering, contact OneMine.org at 1-303-948-4248. In November, the executive committees of the DFI and ADSC met in New Jersey for an open discussion on how the two organizations can continue to work together to advance the state of the industry, and what we need to do to continue to be relevant and serve our members. In addition to joint administration of the International Society of Micropiles (p. 19), the two groups have agreed to continue joint committee activity and cooperation on future events. We look forward to a long and prosperous cooperation with ADSC. The 2011 Winter Planning Meeting resulted in substantial improvements to our communications media, to seminars and conferences, globalization, estab- lishing funding for committee activities, and improving our alliance with other organizations. The DFI has been busy this year. I hope you enjoy the new and improved benefits of membership. But we have many miles to go before we sleep… DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JAN/FEB 2012 • 5
