 Dear Colleagues, Client Representatives, and Friends:
Welcome to ASFE/The Geoprofessional Business Association. ASFE is a not-for-profit organization of firms whose 125,000 employees provide geoprofessional services; i.e., geotechnical, geologic, environmental, construction materials engineering and testing, and related professional services vital to the well-being of society, now and in the future.
I am honored to serve as ASFE’s president during the organization’s May 1-April 30 2010-2011 fiscal year.
ASFE’s Rich Tradition
ASFE has four decades of experience making the world better for its members. The ten men who met in December 1968 to conceive ASFE, which was launched in May 1969, did so to gain relief from professional liability claims so frequent and so severe their firms were, literally, uninsurable. ASFE’s founders realized that changes in business practices were necessary for our profession to survive. The organization responded. According to an independent survey conducted in 1985, ASFE-Member Firms were able to obtain professional-liability insurance from a number of sources at rates lower than those paid by any other design professionals. The same survey also showed that ASFE members were the most profitable of all comparable firms.
From the beginning, ASFE has been an innovator and a catalyst for the changes that have allowed the geoprofessions to not only survive, but prosper. ASFE will continue its reassuring tradition while looking to meet an even more daunting challenge.
ASFE’s Challenging Future
Although ASFE’s risk-management programs, services, and materials have been extraordinarily effective over the years, they have focused on the symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself: the marginalization and commoditization of geoprofessionals, a situation that now challenges the welfare and even the very survival of the geoprofessions. ASFE has reestablished itself to respond to the problem, by adopting a new strategic plan, a new committee structure, a new name, and a bold, new purpose, namely, to…
Maximize the geoprofessions’ importance and value to the marketplace.
Our new strategic plan calls for us to achieve our purpose incrementally, in discrete three-year stages. To succeed, we will need to help all concerned geoprofessionals achieve excellence in their business and professional practices. In that way – and only in that way – we will earn the respect required to function as our clients’ trusted professional advisors. And by demonstrating our abilities and value, we will stimulate demand for such services by informed project owners in all sectors of the economy; by architects, engineers, and other technical professionals; contractors; construction mangers; and others who engage or rely on geoprofessional services.
ASFE/The Geoprofessional Business Association
ASFE is the only organization that focuses on geoprofessional firms’ business and professional practice issues. And we do it for firms of all sizes: from those best described as “solo practitioners” to organizations that are among the largest of their kind in the world. This diversity underscores ASFE’s unique approach: The organization helps its member firms principally by helping the individuals who comprise those firms. ASFE’s educational and leadership-development programs, services, and materials are second to none and are a recognized value. ASFE membership is also open to allied firms, such as those providing design/construct and design/remediate services, as well as individual faculty members, government engineers and geologists, consultants to member firms, and others who have an interest in practice issues.
Clients Benefit from Their Geoprofessional Consultants’ Involvement in ASFE
Clients benefit by relying on firms that participate in ASFE, because that participation sensitizes firm personnel to the risks and opportunities created by key project variables, and to the importance of identifying, discussing, and addressing clients’ business and technical needs and preferences. Early and continued project involvement by an ASFE-Member Firm can add real value to a project by helping clients achieve their project goals successfully and cost-effectively.
We invite you to browse the ASFE website and return at least monthly; we update often. Whenever you have questions, simply contact ASFE by telephone (301/565-2733) or e-mail (info@asfe.org). ASFE exists to serve.
Regards,
Jay Martin
James W. “Jay” Martin, P.E. Consulting Engineer |
