As I compose my first message as the President of the Minnesota Section, I have just finished attending ASCE’s 141st Annual Civil Engineering Conference. It was inspiring to see the great works performed by members of our profession ranging from the revitalization of the waterfront in Milwaukee, WI, to the remediation of the ash spill in Kingston, TN, and to the structural evaluation of roofs in NYC to allow the development of “urban farms.” The conference reinforced my view of Civil Engineering as a profession that serves people, society, and the world as a whole. I thank you for all the work that you do. In keeping with the idea of service, I want to congratulate Steve Olson and the team that worked to stabilize the historic stone arch bridge. As described herein, the group has won a prestigious ASCE award for their efforts. Building on this theme, the MN Section is seeking to expand our service activities in the coming year. We are in the midst of selecting a piece of our state’s highway system to adopt through the “Adopt-A-Highway” program. Our plan is also to link our May section meeting to a service activity. The experience with the stone arch bridge and service activities organized by the YMG has shown that when called, ASCE members will meet the challenge. If you have an idea for a service project to which ASCE members can contribute or a way to increase the profile of civil engineers in the community, please let me or another member of the board know so we can raise the call to action.

Civil engineers need to be visible so that the value of our work and the infrastructure we design and build is known. To this end, we are seeking to support MN 2050, a partnership among professional organizations that is working to raise awareness of the effects of our under-investment of infrastructure in the coming months. The increase in our annual section budget is primarily for these efforts, and the funds would come from ASCE’s State Public Affairs Grant (SPAG) program, to which we have submitted an application.

Lastly, as we begin our new board year, I want to thank all of the board members and committee chairs of the Minnesota Section for their past and future efforts. The leaders of the section, however, are here to serve you. If there is something that you want or want to see improved from ASCE MN, please let me or one of the other board members know. We value the input, for we are striving to make sure everyone gets the most out of their ASCE membership. I hope to see you at our events over the coming year.

Bill Arnold,
Minnesota Section President