6
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
2 THE BOARD (2009-2013)
I had a great team of 11 Board members who helped me
accomplish all those initiatives. The Board members are shown
in Fig. 2. Standing and from left to right are Samuel Ejezie
(Vice President for Africa), Ikuo Towhata (Appointed board
member), Ivan Vanicek (Vice President for Europe), Roger
Frank (Appointed board member), Charles Ng (Appointed
board member), Roberto Terzariol (Vice President for North
America). Sitting and from left to right are Askar Zhussupbekov
(Vice President for Asia), Michael Davies (Vice President for
Australasia, first vice president and treasurer), Neil Taylor
(Secretary General), Jean-Louis Briaud (President), Pedro Pinto
(Past President), and Gabriel Auvinet (Vice President for North
America).
3 BOARD LEVEL COMMITTEES
One of the first step was the creation of Board Level
Committees (BLC) (Fig. 3) to engage more members in the
affairs of ISSMGE. This process allowed me to have the
participation of some 100 new people in charge of major
decisions for The Society. The Technical Oversight Committee
(TOC) chaired by Suzanne Lacasse in Norway was in charge of
quality control for all 29 ISSMGE Technical Committees (TCs).
The Membership, Practitioners, and Academicians Committee
(MPAC) chaired by Harry Poulos in Australia was in charge of
customer service for our 86 member societies including
bringing academics and practitioners closer together. The
Innovation and Development Committee (IDC) chaired by
Dimitrios Zekkos in the USA was in charge of impacting The
Society with new ideas and development of these ideas. In life,
we rarely take the time to think so I decided that I would create
a group whose job it would be to think. The Awards Committee
(AWAC) chaired by Francois Schlosser in France would handle
awards guidelines, awards decisions, and the creation of new
awards if necessary. The Public Relations Committee (PRC)
chaired by Marc Ballouz of Lebanon would start work on
making geotechnical engineering more visible. The Students
and Young Members Presidential Group (SYMPG) chaired by
Jennifer Nicks in the USA would work directly with the
President to accomplish some of the goals that would better
serve that part of our Society. The Corporate Associates
Presidential Group (CAPG) chaired by Michael Lisyuk would
play a similar role for practitioners.
Fig. 3 ISSMGE Organization Chart.
Some of the accomplishments and changes created by these
Board Level Committees with subsequent approval of the Board
are listed below
1. Young members can participate in Technical Committees
as corresponding members without limit. They have to be
nominated by the member society
2. Technical committees are no longer disbanded when a new
President is elected. They continue right through the president
election. However TOC and the President retain the right of
closing a TC if it does not perform or change the leadership if
the chair does not perform well.
3. The tenure of the chairs of the TCs is four years renewable
once. New chairs are suggested to TOC and the President by
the members of the TC.
4. The TCs send a progress report to TOC every two years on
which basis TOC decides to renew the TC or not but always
after conferring with the President.
5. A short video was created by the public relations committee
to explain in layman’s terms what geotechnical engineers do.
6. A number of innovations were created by IDC and are
detailed subsequently.
4 MEMBER SOCIETIES
We have a total of 86 member societies (Fig. 4). On the map of
Fig. 4, the member societies are in dark. As you can see from
the map, we need to continue our work in Africa to bring in
more countries from that region to join ISSMGE. During the
last four years two societies lost their membership because of
repeated lack of dues payment but three new societies joined
ISSMGE: Belarus, Chinese Taipei, and Lebanon. The total
number of individual members increased from 18561 in 2009 to
19755 in 2013 or a 6.4 % increase. The members are distributed
a follows:
1. Africa: 875
2. Asia: 3673
3. Australasia: 1590
4. Europe: 7985
5. North America: 4285
6. South America: 1347
The largest member societies are the USA (3294) followed by
Japan (1155) and the UK (1130). The smallest society has 13
members. All societies have one vote.
Fig. 4 ISSMGE Member Societies in 2013
ISSMGE Members and Member Societies
ISSMGE Council
ISSMGE Secretariat
FedIGS Board
ISSMGE Board
5 THE NAME OF OUR SOCIETY
We had a great discussion on the possible change of name of the
society. The proposal was for ISSMGE to become ISGE: the
International Society for Geotechnical Engineering. Arguments
in favor and against were presented at the Council meeting in
Toronto in 2011. The motion was proposed by several countries
and the vote was 23 yes, 39 no, 1 abstain. We had a wonderful
and professional discussion on this topic which brought out the
passion all of us have for our profession. One of my goal during
my presidency has been to engage the membership, I believe
this topic definitely contributed to that. This was a very
meaningful debate. It is my prediction that the name change to
ISGE is only a matter of time but it may be a couple of decades
before it occurs; soil mechanics is in our blood but it does not
have to be in our name. I further predict that the word
geotechnical engineering will soon become geo-engineering.
6 TECHNICAL COMMITTEES
Fig. 5 Location of the TC Chairs and sponsoring member societies
Technical
Oversight
Committee
SuzanneLacasse
(Norway)
Membership,
Practitioners,and
Academicians
Committee
HarryPoulos
(Australia)
Innovationsand
Development
Committee
DimitrisZekkos
(USA)
ISSMGE Foundation
HarryPoulos
(Australia)
Students and Young
MembersPres Group
JenniferNicks (USA)
AwardsCommittee
FrancoisSchlosser
(France)
CorporateAssociates
PresidentialGroup
Michael Lisyuk (Russia)
Public
Relations
Committee
MarcBallouz
(Lebanon)
