• Provide professional development and encourage involvement for students and young professionals within the DFI and its technical committees • Pursue additional partnering opportunities to provide further value for DFI members and stakeholders DFI Board Meeting On Friday morning prior to the board meeting, Emilio Fandino, DFI director of administration, led an orientation workshop for new trustees, which focused on roles, responsibilities and awareness of DFI’s finances. Three new DFI trustees began their terms: David Paul, P.E., from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Howard A. Perko, Ph.D., P.E., from Magnum Piering; and Lori Simpson, P.E., G.E., from Langan. In addition, three new Educational Trust board members began their terms in 2017: Andrew Verity of Terracon Consultants; Bernie Hertlein, F.ACI, M.ASCE, of GEI Consultants; and Mark Rice of McNeil, Silveira, Rice & Wiley. During the board meeting, the DFI Committee Project Fund program was discussed and the 2017 awarded projects were announced. This is the sixth year DFI has designated funds to the program. More importantly, the amount of funding available for 2017 was increased by about $25,000 from last year’s funding of about $100,000. In short, technical committees submit for review and approval one or more research proposals that “support approved undertakings, those deemed useful toward advancing deep foundation technology.” Since its inception, 22 proposals have been awarded and the breakdown of topics are as follows: • 3 web-based tools (e.g., database, calculator, teaching website) • 6 state-of-practice surveys/assessments of practice studies • 10 design procedure reviews/development • 1 laboratory study • 1 field study • 1 workshop This year 5 of the 7 proposals submitted were recommended to receive funding by a multidisciplinary and geographically diverse panel consisting of 11 active DFI members. John Wolosick, DFI immediate past president, described the review process and announced the recommendations to fund five projects for a collective total of $125,327. (A report on the Committee Project Fund can be found on pg. 25.) Regional Chapter reports were presented by telephone by Maurice Bottiau, past DFI trustee and current DFI Europe board member and Monika de Vos, the new DFI Europe secretariat, for the DFI Europe chapter and by Emad Sharif for the DFI Middle East chapter. Sunil S. Basarkar, Ph.D., executive committee member of DFI of India, made a long journey to the U.S. to attend the WPM, where he provided an extensive report on the chap- ter’s activities. Dr. Basarkar provided a brief state of the economy in India, which is projected to grow between 7 and 8 percent in both 2017 and 2018. He reported that DFI of India is actively involved with improving quality and safety in construction practices by spreading awareness of the latest foundation technologies in India through quarterly seminars and workshops in various regions and annual conferences at premier institutions. In 2016, a technical conference was held in Shibpur, Kolkata, and four workshops were held in Guntur, Raipur, Kolkata and Delhi. Another technical conference is scheduled for October 6-7, 2017, at IIT Madras, Chennai. Four workshops are also planned for 2017 on different topics and in different parts of the country. However, Dr. Basarkar indicated that more training and technology implementation efforts still need to be done throughout India. DFI of India also hosts monthly meetings, distributes a quarterly newsletter, and is developing a program for operator training. The treasurer’s report was delivered by Michael Wysockey, DFI Sunil S. Basarkar, Ph.D., DFI of India treasurer, which presented the DFI financial reports, investment account report and the 2017 operating budget. Theresa Engler, DFI executive director, reported on membership statistics, regional and student chapters, reviewed the events of 2016 and provided an overview of the activities for 2017 and beyond. 30 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2017
