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Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
from South America.Corresponding members are kept informed
of the work and progress of the SYMPG and can contribute
accordingly, but are not allowed to formally vote on any
initiatives.
Based on the activity level of the corresponding members,
there is the opportunity for them to be nominated for full
membership when a position opens up on the SYMPG. Out of
the 18 full SYMPG members at the end of the 2013 term, 5
were formerly corresponding members. This helps provide
some incentive to join the corresponding members group. While
the SYMPG is limited to 18 full members, the number of
corresponding members is unlimited.
3
TASKS
To begin, each member and corresponding member was asked
to provide three ideas that they thought would help achieve the
SYMPG mission. Ideas were grouped and then ranked by the
members, with the four top high priorities moving forward
initially. Subgroups were developed to handle each of these
tasks. Each subgroup consisted of 3-5 SYMPG members
working towards the defined goal based on an established
statement of work. Upon completion or resolution of each task,
additional tasks were added based on the priority list
established.
The following are the tasks that the SYMPG undertook
throughout the course of the past four years:
1)
Improve the ISSMGE website: The work involved
identifying website issues related to content,
functionality, and ease of use communication and
providing suggestions to improve them.
2)
Improve communication between the ISSMGE and
younger members: The work involved identifying
methods to improve communication between the
ISSMGE and students and young members in order to
attract them to society activities.
3)
Increase TC involvement for young members: The work
involved identifying ways to increase the involvement of
young ISSMGE members in various activities of the
ISSMGE Technical Committees.
4)
Create S/YM Membership: The work involved
establishing a separate student and young professional
(SYP) membership classification within ISSMGE.
5)
Improve knowledge of and consistency for young
geotechnical engineers’ conferences (YGECs): The
work involved refining the current guidelines for
organization of iYGECs, and developing standard
guidelines for regional YGECs.
6)
Develop motivation mechanisms: The work involved
identifying and implementing mechanisms to motivate
and increase participation of young members in the
ISSMGE.
7)
Develop student and young member activities at the
ISSMGE quadrennial conference: The work involved
designing competitions and networking opportunities for
students and young members at the quadrennial
International Conference for Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE).
8)
Collaborate with industry/academia: The work involved
identifying devices to bridge the gap between industry
and academia. (Ongoing)
In addition, a second call for initiatives was performed at the
end of 2012 to generate new ideas; members and corresponding
members contributed. From this list, three general categories
were identified:
1)
Financial support: The work will involve identifying
sponsorship opportunities to provide support and
assistance for S/YMs to attend rYGECs and iYGECs.
2)
Advertising: The work will involve developing
mechanisms to highlight S/YM activities within
ISSMGE, such as a SYMPG webinar, forum on Geo-
World, YM Bulletin, etc.
3)
Science Divulgation: The work will involve creating and
establishing an International Journal for YM to provide
access for YMs to publish and bridge the gap between
research and practice.
Because of the time limitations with the terms of reference, it
was decided by the SYMPG to wait on these new initatives until
the next group of SYMPG members began their term in 2013;
however, because it is different membership with different
ideas, the list is subject to change.
4
PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Seven of the eight initial tasks have been completed or
retired based on Board feedback. The following deliverables
and results were achieved, in order of Tasks from Section 3,
above:
1)
Two liaisons from the SYMPG to the IDC were
named to ensure that student/young member (S/YM)
interests were represented and included in
developments of GeoWorld. In addition, a specific
SYMPG page was created on GeoWorld.
2)
A web-based survey of young members (and potential
future members) from different parts of the world was
developed and will be uploaded to GeoWorld. The
aim of this survey is to determine how (and/or if)
current young members of the ISSMGE are receiving
information from the ISSMGE; changes or
improvements that young members would like to see;
what can be done to attract more younger members;
and determine what percentage of youth in member
societies are active ISSMGE members. In addition, a
flyer was developed outlining the SYMPG.
3)
The ISSMGE instituted the grade of corresponding
members for each TC with unlimited participation
from YMs.
4)
A survey of member societies was completed and
recommendations were submitted to the Board for a
S/YM classification; however, the idea could not
move forward within ISSMGE since it is a society of
societies, not individual members (only national
societies can have SYP designations). As such, the
task was retired.
5)
A database of known iYGECs and rYGECs was
developed. In addition, updated iYGEC and new
rYGEC guidelines were drafted and submitted to the
Board for approval. A minimum of bi-annual rYGECs
was given with Board help needed to encourage
member societies. The Board approved the
recommendation to have additional representatives,
up to three, nominated by the regional VP for
rYGECs.
6)
A new YM award was developed: “Outstanding
Young Geotechnical Engineer Award.” The first
award will be presented at the 18
th
ICSMGE in Paris,
France.
7)
A proposal on a S/YM competition was presented
along
with
networking
opportunities
(e.g.
CAPG/SYMPG meet-and-greet, S/YM reception,
career fair, etc.) for the quadrennial conferences. Due
to the time constraints for the 18
th
ICSMGE, each of
the three potential candidates for the 19
th
ICSMGE
was contacted with our proposal; all are including
S/YM activities in their own proposals.
8)
Communication with the CAPG president on
proposed methods to collaborate with industry and
academia has occurred. Work continues on this task,
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