While the economy has slowed, the pace of activity in COPRI remains high.
COPRI exists to provide professional services to our members, and I am happy to report that those services continue even when the economy weakens. Of course, as a volunteer-driven organization, those services only continue through the hard work of members like you. In this newsletter, I would like to highlight a few of the events being planned and solicit your help in leading or assisting with these events and Institute endeavors.
One exciting new initiative is the creation of local COPRI chapters in different geographic regions. For those who follow the ASCE organizational structure, you know that ASCE has numerous local branches and sections organized in what ASCE terms the “Geographic Regions.” COPRI on the other hand is part of the “Technical Region.” The COPRI Board has approved creation of geographic COPRI chapters that would be part of the local geographic region but affiliated with COPRI. Through this affiliation, local chapters would become eligible for financial and programming support from COPRI to provide local events, speakers, workshops, etc. If your local ASCE section has members with interests in the coasts, oceans, ports, or rivers, please consider forming a local COPRI chapter. See related article for details.
Another new initiative is the formation of a Committee on Renewable Energy. While the “ocean” side of COPRI has been mainly concerned with offshore oil exploration and production, it is clear that the future will include more large-scale development in the oceans to harness renewable forms of energy. Given the emphasis in the Obama administration on alternative energy sources, the COPRI Board has called for a new committee to develop professional civil engineering leadership in the area of ocean or marine renewable energy. Please volunteer to lead or join this effort. New initiatives could include conferences, workshops, short courses, webinars, or a monograph providing general guidance in the subject.
For those of you with an interest in supporting our student members, the COPRI Board formally approved creation of a Student Participation Fund. By creating the Student Participation Fund, COPRI can now designate voluntary contributions to this fund for the sole purpose of supporting student involvement and professional development. Please consider making a voluntary contribution to this fund when you renew your membership. The first planned use of this fund is to support a student paper competition at the Ports 2010 Conference. Additional use of fund will be to recognize best student papers and support student travel grants for other future COPRI conferences.
On the Publications side, the Governing Board would like to encourage and solicit submission of more case studies and practice-oriented papers in the Waterways, Ports, Coasts, and Ocean Journal. The journal has traditionally published high quality papers under two categories: technical papers and technical notes. Several of our sister Institutes have initiated practice-oriented periodicals separate from their technical journals. In COPRI, we believe that we can accomplish the same objective within the existing journal format by establishing a formal category of papers as “case studies.” These would be reviewed using established review policies put forth by the journal editor and editorial board. This effort may require some additional members of the editorial board - please contact our journal editor, Dr. Vijay Panchang, if you would be interested in serving. And if you are a practitioner who has worked on an interesting and innovative project - please write a paper and submit!
Another exciting development is the Governing Board’s appointment of a committee under past-president Steve Curtis to plan the first-ever COPRI Congress to be held in late 2010. COPRI was established in 2000 and the Board wanted an event to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Other ASCE institutes have routinely held a “Congress”, which brings everyone together for a general membership meeting, keynote speakers of interest to the full membership, and breakout sessions. Unlike a traditional technical conference, however, the breakout sessions would feature workshops, short courses, roundtable discussions, and panels of invited speakers. They would feature subjects such as policy, regulations, legal issues, education, federal and academic research and state and local issues. They also could touch on issues such as climate change, post-disaster investigation, (re)building infrastructure, and business management/development for small firms. Additionally, the Congress will provide an ideal opportunity for face-to-face committee meetings. To get involved, please contact Tom Chase, Steve Curtis, or myself.
Lastly, I want to encourage you to take a moment before June 1 to submit one of the great projects you are working on for the Institute’s Project Excellence Award. As work demands increase in this tight economy, it’s nice to have your work applauded by your professional Society. It’s also fun to share your achievements with your colleagues.
On behalf of the COPRI Governing Board and our Director, Tom Chase, I’d like to invite you to share your thoughts, ideas, or concerns with us. You can email me at kriebel@usna.edu or Tom at tchase@asce.org. Please let us know what you would like to see us work on as we continue building COPRI for the future and into our second decade.
