CAEE AGM 2021 April

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Sharlie Huffman

2020 has been a challenge for us all in adjusting our work and personal lives.  Fortunately, as a national organization, we are accustomed to virtual meetings and discussions so little changed for us there. The Board has continued work on CAEE’s strategy and goals.

Our Newsletter remains a staple of our member services. We always need contributors, so please consider submitting articles of general interest or specific to one of our regular columns, questions or comments.

We are establishing some new educational and knowledge transfer offerings and working with Canada’s national Codes’ seismic groups to identify issues of importance to our members and collaborative opportunities. Stay tuned for upcoming webinars!

You may have noticed recent website changes (www.caee.ca) as we continue to update.  Our Members Only section is now active so make sure you have registered to access the full site to be able to vote.  We continue to welcome comments and suggestions from the membership.

In 2019 we elected our Board of Directors with half on 4-year terms and half on 2-year terms in order to ensure that the Board had continuity over time.  That means that this year the four 2-year term Director positions are up for election but they will continue forward as 4-year terms.  Please review the profiles of an excellent slate of nominees on-line and be sure to vote.

There is also a vote required for a proposed Bylaw change.  Our quorum has been a percentage of the membership, but with increasing membership and virtual meetings, it has become difficult to always achieve quorum.  The proposal is to change the quorum to 15.

Our next conference 13CCEE will be held in Vancouver in 2023 and will be a joint conference with the Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering (PCEE), so it is definitely a conference you will not want to miss.  So start thinking now about it and consider what presentations you will be submitting.  So far we are still expecting we can all attend in person by then.

Congratulations to Paul, our Student Activities Chair, on his graduation and our thanks for your hard work in establishing the committee.  Our new co-Chairs (Rocio Segura from Sherbrooke and Timir Baran Roy from Concordia) are leading the committee in developing plans to increase student engagement, with input from committee members across Canada.

What can you as a member do to help?

• Please send in your comments and suggestions on every topic. Tell us what you would like the CAEE to be for you.
• Encourage your students to become involved in the student chapter and help develop fun and worthwhile contests and activities.
• Send in comments, letters and articles on technical topics to the Newsletter.
• Tell us what topics you would like to see in a seminar or instructional webcast.
• What type of Awards do you think CAEE should bestow?
• If you have an interest in a specific committee and feel you can contribute, please contact the Chair of that committee.

Our Team and Chairs are all listed on our website as well as on our AGM agenda.  We would like to hear from you.

And last, I thank all of you who are able to attend our AGM this year.  Stay safe.