Among its many activities, the SEI Board of Governors (the Board) is engaged in long-term strategic planning. Over the past few years, as part of the planning, the Board has met, conducted surveys, and formed task committees to study specific initiatives. In October 2013, one of the task committees issued A Vision for the Future of Structural Engineers and Structural Engineering: A Case for Change, a Vision for the Future Report that focuses on leadership and innovation skills (www.asce/SEI). Based in part on that report, in April 2014 the Board advanced several initiatives. …

As our careers have developed over time, most of us can think back to that special engineer or two that spearheaded our development as structural engineers. That special bond between mentor and mentee began in an informal fashion, and it wasn’t until later in our careers that the value of that relationship was recognized. At NCSEA, we believe relationships like these strengthen the careers of those involved and significantly increase the value of participating in our organization. …

Imagine for a moment that the building official for one of your projects decided that they were not going to enforce the code provisions for fire protection or the provisions for exiting requirements. How do you think the project architect would react? Or, if the building official decided that a certain structural design provision could be ignored. …

Have you ever given any thought to the future of our profession? Not the profession next month or next year, but rather the profession that we will leave to our successors. Driven by automation, globalization, contractor-led procurement, and many other forces, our profession is changing like never before. …

After experiencing “Gravity” at the theater, I left with a sense of inspiration and awe at witnessing an excellent film, a story about experts, highly trained astronauts, professionals, the best at what they do, able to focus in the most dangerous and stressful circumstances, with a calm reliance on their extensive training to deal with almost any situation. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are on a spacewalk when an accident causes everything to go terribly wrong. As depicted in the movie, maintaining focus on their training wasn’t easy, but was faithfully done with amazing results. …

Last spring, I had the opportunity to attend one of the several terrific presentations that were part of the CASE Risk Management Convocation at the 2013 Structures Congress. This session was presented by James Parker and Pedro Sifre of Simpson, Gumpertz, and Heger, and I thank them for allowing me to present a portion of it to a wider audience. …

For many decades, Structures Congress has been bringing together a national, international and diverse community of structural engineers to advance the practice within buildings, bridges, and non-building structures. Over the years, this annual event attracts more than 1,200 attendees from practice, academia, government, industry, and allied fields and has grown to become the premier event for all structural engineering professionals. Structures Congress 2014 is in Boston on April 3-5. …

The most effective people I know always seem to have time to take care of everything. They volunteer, they exercise, they spend quality time with their families, they seem to do it all! When I was in college, I asked one of my teaching assistants how he made time to do everything that was expected. His answer was simple: “You always have time for whatever you make time to do.” I’ve thought a lot about it over the years and often think about how wise that simple statement is. It really is a matter of deciding what you need to prioritize, and the rest should work itself out. …

A few weeks ago, I met with new employees of our firm to introduce our risk management program to them. It is one of my duties as the risk management director for our office. Because of the economic downturn, I had not had the opportunity to make this presentation for a while, and it felt good to be able to do one again. As I was preparing for this presentation, I had the opportunity to consider risk management and how it really requires that your firm have a culture of risk management. A culture of risk management is the first of CASE’s Ten Foundations of Risk Management. It is not something that can only be touched on occasionally, but must be a constant presence in the design process. …

SEI is pleased to highlight two new opportunities for students: Student Membership Grade and Graduate Student Chapters. A joint effort of the Membership Committee and the Local Activities Division (LAD) – one of the four SEI divisions responsible for growing and supporting the local activities – students interested in pursuing careers in structural engineering are encouraged to join SEI. …