CAPG Strategic Initiatives and Task Force Progress (2011-2013)
CAPG Task forces
In May-September 2011 the CAPG put forward 28 creative suggestions on improving their position and visibility in ISSMGE. These were subject to a vote, and the 6 best ideas were identified as follows:
- J.-L. Briaud, ISSMGE President
- For Regional Conferences, the Organizing Committee should strive to increase industry/practitioner membership and lead roles such as Chair and the like. Keynote lecturers should be given as appropriate by industry. Emphasis on case records should be given in ISSMGE related publications.
- D. Becker, Golder Associates
- Corporate Associates should have a possibility to make presentation of their work at the International and Regional Conferences.
- M. Lisyuk, Georeconstruction
- Allow full page advertisement for CAs in the bulletin on a rotating basis.
- J.-L. Briaud, ISSMGE President
- Open up the case studies database to public view and enable CAs to add their case studies in a pre-approved and consistent format.
- Chaido (Yuli) Doulala-Rigby, Tensar Intl Ltd.
- ISSMGE can organize workshops/seminars for CA on practical aspects of geotechnical engineering, during meetings of CAPG.
- M. Lisyuk, Georeconstruction
Three Task Forces have been formed at the meeting, based on the best ideas selected previously by the CAPG members.
Progress of Task Forces
TASK FORCE 1 on Interaction
academician/consultants/contractors/manufacturers/clients
Research list practice/academicians
Leader: Sukumar Pathmanandavel (Coffey, Australia)
The task force has decided that the development of Streams 1 & 2, as outlined below, will be the main focus in the short to medium term
Stream 1 Improvement in Education and Research
| When teaching students, improve the knowledge of the portion of uncertainty/non-accuracy typical of geotechnics maths as a tool and not a certainty when used in geotechnics; use ones common sense | Improve the relevance of research to practice solving existing problems |
Stream 2 Improvement in Client Perception
| Be able to better assess quality of geotechnical consultants, contractors, manufacturers in international markets (quality label, database of performed projects including rating of performance, etc.) | Have structured overview/database of available consultants, contractors, manufacturers and their capabilities | Improve profile of geotechnical engineering in community, but specifically amongst the asset owner/decision makers | Improve the profile of the contractor's geotechnical engineer to the client/consultant in such a way that he also can have a relevant weight in making joint decisions from a practical and site-specific-feedback point of view |
The Task force's next steps are
- To clearly articulate the benefit for CAPG members to join our active committee and help develop the above 2 streams.
- To broaden the number of CAPG members participating in the regular meeting calls.
- To arrive at focussed and practical activities for Streams 1 & 2 to which the CAPG and ISSMGE can direct their efforts.
TASK FORCE 2. Open up the case studies database to public view and enable CA's to add their case studies in a pre-approved and consistent format
Leader: Chaido (Yuli) Doulala-Rigby (Tensar, UK)
A cover letter and the format for the Case Study (CS) was prepared by Yuli Doulala-Rigby.
The cover letter explains in brief what CAPG is and also outlines the expected content of the CSs to be submitted (up to 5 CSs per CA per year) a good balance between technical and commercial information
The cover letter and CS template was circulated to the CAPG active members (as per Sukumar's email) including Philippe Henry, who has offered to help Yuli in this task, and Dimitris Zekkos who will help with publishing the CSs
The cover letter and CS template was amended to the circulation group's comments
An email with cover letter and CS template was sent to all CAs on 4/4/2013;
Deadline for receipt of CAs CSs was set at May 31st, 2013.
Planned activity:
Depending on the CAs response, we might have to extend the May deadline;
Collect all CSs received, review and circulate to a group of people to scrutinise suitability of CSs for publishing, i.e. not too heavily commercial or too technical;
Once scrutinised, forward the Case Studies to CAPG Chairman for on line publication through the CAPG website;
Send notification email to ISSMGE members informing them of the new facility and including the CAPG web link of where they can find the CAs' Case Studies.
CORE MEMBERS
Core team of members was formed to advance advancing the development of the CAPG task forces was formed.
The core team of CAPG members are:
Michael Lisyuk (Georeconstruction, Russia)
Sukumar Pathmanadavel and Glenys Fogarty (Coffey, Australia)
Kim Chan (GHD, Australia)
Karel Allaert (Jan de Nul, Belgium)
Gabriele Zapf & Nils Guhl (Siemens, Germany)
Yuli Doulala-Rigby (Tensar, UK)
Four regular meetings have been held (by telephone) at about 6 weekly intervals and have been well contributed by the CAPG active members
ARCHIVES / CAPG Aims and Goals
Corporate Associates Presidential Group was created in 2011 following the initiative of ISSMGE President Prof. J.-L. Briaud.
I would like CAPG to achieve two things:
- Tell me what ISSMGE can do for you; what benefits can ISSMGE provide to you?
- Grow significantly the number of Corporate Associates of ISSMGE.
Prof. J.-L. Briaud
