Scott Murrell 2024    

UCLA coaching legend Sue Enquist said, “Life is a team sport; it's not about you”.

Right now, United States sports fans have the opportunity to watch great teams compete in multiple sports including baseball, football, hockey, basketball and soccer (fútbol). If you watch the best of these teams, you will see individual players flawlessly performing their assigned roles while seamlessly working together to achieve excellence.

Many of us play a role on a team delivering excellence in transportation and development. These teams often have more than formally trained civil engineers on the roster. In my own experience, I have worked with engineers from other disciplines, programmers, technologists, technicians, and scientists. All of these contribute to the successful delivery of projects. ASCE has long considered how to recognize the contributions of the non-civil engineer members of our project teams and now is poised to act. The ASCE board has “endorsed a path forward toward streamlining member categories to potentially make the profession more welcoming to the entire engineering team”.

"Because the change would require updates to the ASCE governing documents — along with separate criteria related to service on the board — the specific language of the new membership grades and criteria must be approved by the board later this year before going on the Society election ballot in 2025."

I encourage you to read the full article on the proposed changes and vote when the changes to the governing documents are on the ballot in 2025.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships. — Michael Jordan

Respectfully,

Scott Murrell, P.E., M.ASCE
President, Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI)
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)