Public Affairs Activity: Seeds of Reality?

Abstract

The paper describes the futility of initiating some public affairs activities in the Roanoke branch and in the Virginia section of ASCE. The branch and section meetings, which involved public as well as technical aspects, fail to generate adequate political impact. Two of the resolutions drafted by section committees to fulfill the engineer's public obligations to protect the public's safety have failed to be adopted by the District 6 Council even though revised by the Section Board of Directors. These deal with the Engineer‐in‐Training (EIT) examination as an educational requirement and with the need to pinpoint responsibility for all engineering practice when the engineer's sound judgment is overruled by managers or legislators. Another resolution for providing professional support for safety conscious whistleblowers has pass unanimously and was endorsed by two other councils. Its movement for twelve months through the society's bureaucratic maze is too slow to avert future technical crises or for engineers to guide technology. Suggestions are made on how the profession's activities and policies can be streamlined so as to enlist public support for such guidance.