June 2021 President’s Report

This is my final President’s Report, I am turning over the reins this month to the competent hands of 2021-2022 BSCES President Shallan Fitzgerald, PE, from Harvard University | Harvard Allston Land Company.  I am convinced more than ever of the value of BSCES to its members.  As commonly observed, we as a country are more splintered than ever.  The interconnections offered by social media have not satisfactorily replaced the real bonds that otherwise tie us together as a community.  Organizations like BSCES are essential in countering the trend towards greater social isolation and providing the means for joint efforts of those of like mind.   I encourage all of you that share this belief to step forward and commit to helping to continue BSCES’s enduring, 173-yearold legacy.   

It is self-evident that the future of BSCES is in the hands of our existing younger members and those that will enter the profession in the coming years.  By some measures we are failing.  The percentage of younger civil engineers born in the 1980s and later that are members of BSCES is less than those of the baby boomer generation.  If the trend is not reversed, then we risk declines in our Society membership and the stamp of irrelevance that is worn by institutions that fail to inspire the loyalty of those they aim to serve.  (Think Sears Roebucks, the Boy Scouts, the USSR).  On the other hand, I have seen tremendous vitality within the Younger Member Group and participation by younger members, which leads me to believe that the future of BSCES is not so bleak.   

This month, we held our 172nd annual awards celebration, honoring many of the esteemed figures in our community, including among others, our newest Honorary Members James Lambrechts from Wentworth Institute of Technology and Christine Keville of Keville Enterprises Inc., and our 2021 Engineer of the Year Peter Richardson who is recently retired from Green International Affiliates, Inc..  Many of the awards also went to younger members that are beginning to leave their mark on our Society and will hopefully continue to be engaged in the organization for years to come.  The President’s Award is presented at my personal discretion to members that have gone above and beyond in their service to BSCES.  Three of the four President’s Awards handed out this year were received by younger members.  Olivia Richards from VHB received an award for her efforts in support of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.  Annahid Dastgheib- Beheshti from Arup received her President’s Award for efforts on behalf of the Public Awareness & Outreach Committee activities, and Gregory Mirliss from AECOM received a President’s Award in recognition of his efforts in leading the development of our five-year strategic plan and reinvigorating the Legislative Fellowship program.  In addition, Mark Ruberti from Sanborn, Head & Associates, Inc. did a stellar job in chairing the Younger Member Group in a year that called for innovative thinking to come up with activities to replace the typical YMG events that could not be run this year due to COVID-related safe-distancing requirements.  Further, a number of the BSCES group chair positions were held in the past year by younger members, including Denise Prussen from CDM Smith who chaired the Environment & Water Resources Institute Boston Chapter; Arianna Paul from Green International Affiliates, Inc. the chair of our Committee on Sustainability; and Artur Lebedev from Hines who chaired the Construction Institute Boston Chapter. 

If BSCES were a baseball team, I’d say that we are in a rebuilding phase, our young talent is deep with many good players across multiple positions.  The future bodes well for BSCES’s next generation. 

In closing, I would like to thank this year’s Society and Program Sponsors and recognize AECOM a Society Sponsor and the sponsor of this issue of BSCESNews.  Please be sure to read the two articles they developed for inclusion in this newsletter.  The first, entitled “Understanding Our Changing Behavior in Response to Climate Change” was written by Antje Lang. The second, entitled “Better Data Acquisition from the Supply Chain: Steps to Take” was written by Tristan Harvey-Rice.