My Blog-Updates

This first week back in the office went as well as could be expected. We welcomed several Resource Center staff (former full-time remote workers) into our space. Even so, we now have more empty spaces now than we did in January. Because of this situation, I was moved to a larger office.

A photo of an office with gray walls, several bookshelves full of books and binders, hanging diplomas and awards, and a fair bit of clutter.

Let's have a look at what I did. Once again, there is a fair amount of jargon since I am referencing to my performance plan. I'll break things down a bit below the bullets.

Provided timely, policy compliant, and technically sound technical assistance to field staff on multiple active construction projects.
Provided timely, policy compliant, and technically sound review of design deliverables.
Utilized innovation to improve quality of project design.
Proactively communicated with teammates to ensure project delivery in face of changing resourcing.
Attended presentation sponsored by a national technical association to keep up to date on state of practice.

Bullet 3 captures my work on a challenging wall design on a site with interbedded shale and sandstone with a history of landslides. I'm integrating geotechnical borings with shallow seismic survey results to generate a more complete subsurface profile for analysis. Having more data has given me more confidence in my analysis and allowed for a more efficient design.

Bullet 5 is attendance at my local AEG chapter. My evaluation criteria include maintaining membership in at least one national technical association, on the basis that I remain abreast of developments in the Geotech and Geology professions. I've been active in AEG since returning from New Zealand, and in the last 5 years I've taken on several positions of responsibility. From 2019 to 2021 I was my local chapter chair. From 2023 to present, I have been the co-chair of the Landslide Technical Working Group. Becoming more involved in AEG has been hugely rewarding. CFL has generally been supportive, paying the costs for me to attend the annual meeting and allowing me to present about our projects.

Now, my continued participation is in doubt. A recent EO ordered a halt to all "non-essential" travel by most Federal employees. I already submitted an abstract for on of the FHWA regional geotechnical conferences, and was planning to submit an abstract for AEG. But without travel support, my participation is in doubt.

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