NZGS News

Posted on February 9th, 2010

ISSMGE President 90 Day Progress Report – 10 January 2010

Distinguished Colleagues, Dear Friends,

This is my third progress report after 90 days as your President. In this report, I would like to tell you about the progress we have made with The ISSMGE Foundation. As you may recall, creating The ISSMGE Foundation was one of my campaign promises. I attach a document that we have prepared which describes what The Foundation is about and how it will work. In brief, The Foundation exists to help less fortunate geotechnical engineers around the world who cannot afford some of the basic educational advantages that others can: things like attending conferences, listening to a webinar, purchasing geotechnical textbooks or proceedings, and so on. Creating such a foundation and bringing it to success is a major undertaking. It requires raising money to fund The Foundation activities, establishing the financial and accounting system to set up The Foundation, developing the guidelines for the operation of the Foundation including how to apply for grants and select the winners.

Guidelines: the guidelines on how to apply for grants and to select winners will be developed by the Membership, Practitioners, and Academicians Committee (MPAC). Professor Harry Poulos is the chair of the committee. If you wish to apply for a grant, please follow the preliminary guidelines in the attached document and send your application to the Secretary General: Professor Neil Taylor (secretary.general@issmge.org).

Financial set up: a special account dedicated to The ISSMGE Foundation will soon be created as part of the ISSMGE finances. Professor Neil Taylor is in charge of this.

Raising money: this is the most vital part of the success of The Foundation. The donors will be acknowledged in the ISSMGE Bulletin on every issue and during all ISSMGE Conferences. The pledges will be cumulative and acknowledged by categories as follows:

1. 1) Diamond: $50,000 and above
2. 2) Platinum: $25,000 to $49,999
3. 3) Gold: $10,000 to $24,999
4. 4) Silver: $1000 to $9,999
5. 5) Bronze: $0 to $999

So far I have raised $88,500 in pledges as follows

1. 1) Diamond: ISSMGE
2. 2) Platinum: None
3. 3) Gold:
   1. - Janet and Jean-Louis Briaud
   2. - IGM International (Marc Ballouz, CEO), Lebanon
   3. - Geo-Institute of USA
4. 4) Silver:
   1. - John Schmertmann, USA
   2. - Deep Foundation Institute, USA
5. 5) Bronze: None

I want to thank all the donors for their pledges. I also wish to thank Professor Taylor, Professor Poulos, and the Board for their support in this important effort. Please make a contribution to The ISSMGE Foundation if you can. All amounts are appreciated and there is no amount too small. Help us help our less fortunate colleagues.

Best wishes,

Jean-Louis Briaud