United Kingdom Section

Firstly, Happy New Year.

On Monday 8th January we began our program of monthly lectures featuring Civil Engineers talking about a wide range of topics.  For our inaugural lecture we were proud to host Mating Knights who is an eminent tunnelling engineer.  His talk was on the Thames Tunnel.

Unfortunately the talk did not go ahead, because zero members attended.

Martin has very kindly agreed to come back at a future date.  But before I invite him back I need to know from you the UK members, do you want firstly want these lectures, and if you do are you going to support them?

I should add that the lectures are free.  The only requirement for attending is your curiosity and time.

Please let me known you are intending to support this service?  Otherwise the planned series of lectures will be cancelled.

Kind Regards

Ian

ASCE UK Group President.

------------------------------
Ian Parke P.E., M.ASCE
President ASCE UK Group
Rotherham
------------------------------

Dear Ian,  Trying again.  This time, I am drafting a reply in Word and hope to 'cut and paste it into the response box.  I shall avoid carriage-returns in case that is a problem.  It will make the response less easy to read of course (sorry).  1.  My wife and I were disappointed that Martin's talk did not go ahead, but agree that you took the right decision.  2. We almost never watch live television, but watch an online lecture typically about twice a month, choosing from The Roy.Ac.Eng., ICE, RSA, HKPoly, and a few less frequent options.  Almost exclusively, we choose early evening lectures/talks.  The only exception is HKPoly (a 7 hours time difference).  ASCE-UK talks would be a welcome addition to the available sources, but we would not slavishly tune in every time.  3.  I agree that it would be wise to invite members to register in advance.  This policy is followed by all of the above and also by most others that we have followed.  4. Typically there is a cut-off date and an unspecified maximum number of attendees.  5. Links are sent after the cut-off date.  Some automatically become entries in calendar.  Others do not.  The latter require action and memory by every recipient – not a reliable process.  6. I am not on Linkedin or on any social media (and never have been).  There are disadvantages, of course, but the policy suits me splendidly. 7. I hope that you have a reasonable response to your request.  8. Tongue-in-cheek:  'Zero' attendees.  I counted two (and a wife).    Best wishes and good luck, Alan.

------------------------------
Alan Vardy P.E., F.ASCE
Research Professor
Dundee Tunnel Research
Perthshire
------------------------------

I understand you are disappointed and Martin Knights is disappointed, but one week notice for a meeting [e-mail arrived on 3rd January for an 8th January presentation] is not sufficient to plan and rearrange life. You also need to be aware of clashes with other presentations, in your case the first 2024 meeting of the UK Midland Geotechnical Society, also starting at 7pm. Their meetings are clearly programmed [https://midlandgeotechnicalsociety.org.uk/meetings.shtml], and usually take place on the first or second Monday each month. Then we have British Geotechnical Association meetings every month [https://www.britishgeotech.org/events].

It also helps to include an Outlook/Google/Apple calendar link with the invitation.

Please rearrange the presentation by Martin Knights but give us a bit more warning and please try and avoid clashes with other geotechnical presentations that have been planned and programmed for some time.

------------------------------
Chris Raison P.E., M.ASCE
Consultant Geotechnical Engineer
Raison Foster Associates Ltd
Coventry
------------------------------