Here we are in October and I owe apologies as I missed the September newsletter after the summer hiatus. We’ll be finishing off the year with a frenzy starting with this week’s chapter meeting, The SEAoT state conference in Houston the following week, and our November chapter meeting before taking another break until January. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get started. All year I‘ve been keeping an eye on the legislative proceedings and providing updates in this column. While renewing my license in September, I was surprised and pleased to find that the $200 professional fee had been repealed thanks to House Bill 7. I somehow missed this piece of legislation that should be of favorable interest to all of us. The TBPE board letter has an excellent summary of the 84th Texas Legislature in their newsletter at
http://engineers.texas.gov/newsletters/TBPEnewsletter2015.pdf
Our September 17th meeting featured Mike Smith of Forta Corporation presenting on macro-synthetic fiber reinforcement of concrete (FRC). We were provided some analytical comparisons of bi-lineal continuous reinforcement and three-dimensional FRC, along with some project profiles featuring the most common uses of FRC, with some dramatic
examples of improved ductility and durability of finished surfaces. I am confident that we will be seeing more of these products in the years to come. Visit http://www.forta-ferro.com/ to learn more about these products, their benefits, and their applications. SEAoT Houston Gulf Coast Chapter Newsletter The SEAoT State Conference visits Houston on October 22-23, 2015 at the Hilton North Hotel. The State Conference will not be back in Houston for another 7 years, so it’s a great opportunity to stay local, play some golf on Thursday morning, pick up 12 PDHs, and meet engineers from across the state, along with an extensive list of vendors who make the conference possible.
At the last meeting we suggested that we would try something new for the November meeting by holding it at lunch time. This meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 19. Please stay tuned for more information.
On that matter, we are trying to make a commitment towards improving communication of chapter events, meetings, benefits, and information provided by members. This will likely involve a revamped website, better use of social media, and more effective use of email lists / calendar invites. This takes a good bit of effort and also requires feedback from our members.
Please do not hesitate to contact any of your board members with comments or suggestions – or please volunteer if you have experience with these sorts of things. On that note, annual elections are coming in November and now is the time to nominate folks for board positions. Please forward any nominations to one of your board members.
As always, we’re still looking for newsletter content from our members. Do you have a technical article you’d like to share? Please pass on your information to me, and we will work with the publisher to include it with a future newsletter.
Thanks as always for your participation and see you at the October meeting and state conference!
