What Have We Done For You Lately? September 2011
LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY
- Met with the City of Boston Public Works Department as part of ongoing partnering efforts.
- Continued providing input to the Water Infrastructure Finance Commission. Sent letter to Governor Patrick in support of funding a study to analyze the gap between project needs and currently available revenue.
- Met with State Rep. Strauss, New Chair of Joint Committee of Transportation and discussed issues of ACEC/MA.
- Testified at Hearing in support of H 1751, a bill that would prohibit any further “stretch codes” that could create exceptions to the State Building Code.
- Sent out a letter as part of a coalition, Our Transportation Future (OTF), to Joint Committee of Transportation regarding a toll bill.
- Sent out an alert to members regarding a potential ballot questions that would limit a municipality’s ability to increase water and sewer rates.
- Continue to evaluate senate and house bills which may affect our industry.
- Continued to Tweet on @ACECMA. ACEC/MA has more than 200 followers.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
- Formed a joint task force with BSCES and MALSCE representatives to review and provide input on potential continuing education.
- Held very successful second Annual ACEC/MA Education Corporation golf tournament in September raising funds for engineering student scholarships.
- Launched a member survey focused on diversity benchmarking through Commonwealth Compact. Survey is a result of our HR Forum’s diversity workshop in spring 2011.
- Posted 2012 ACEC/MA Education Corporation scholarship application, increasing the scholarship amount to $5000.
- Hosted 2nd annual President’s meeting of New England and New York ACEC member organizations in July. Meeting provides a forum for executive directors and senior leadership from the neighboring states to share ideas on common issues within our industry.
MASSACHUSETTS AGENCIES - Met with Executive Director Fred Laskey and other representatives of the MWRA to promote partnering discussions.
- Met with DCAM Commissioner Carole Cornelison and her staff to introduce her to ACEC/MA and discuss common issues. Joint partnering meeting with ACEC/MA, BSA and DCAM planned for October.
- Executive Director Abbie Goodman participated in a panel discussion as part of the FHWA’s and MassDOT’s July Highways for LIFE I-93 Fast 14 Showcase. Many members attended the workshop that included a tour of the Fast 14 Project.
- Attended Joint FHWA-CIM-ACEC/MA Accelerated Bridge Program task force meeting in late June.
- Represented on the MA School Building Authority Advisory Board (Dom D’Eramo), the MSBA Designer Selection Panel (Leo Peters), the MassDOT EveryDay Counts Task Force and the Joint MassDOT/FHWA/ACEC/MA/CIM Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP) Task Force.
- Continued to hold partnering meetings with key agency leaders at MassDOT, MBTA, MassPort, DCAM and DCR to discuss issues of concern to members (ACEC/MA TALC Committee).
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