The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. It is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. ASCE's vision is to have engineers positioned as global leaders who strive toward building a better quality of life. Its world headquarters is in Reston, Virginia. ASCE was founded in New York City on November 5, 1852 when twelve engineers met at the offices of the Croton Aqueduct and formed the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects. ASCE was the first national engineering society created in the United States.[1] As part of understanding the history of civil engineering and promoting the civil engineering profession, a survey of the historic accomplishments of civil engineers is continually conducted by ASCE members. Such reviews of civil engineering accomplishments have produced various lists of the notable categories and projects of the profession. The society canvassed its members in 1999 to identify the 10 civil engineering achievements that had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century. They chose to recognize broad categories of achievements rather than individual projects:[2] ASCE's mission is to provide essential value to its members and their careers; to its partners and to the public.[3] ASCE seeks to provide value by: The 2008-2009 President is D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE., F.ASCE, the President-elect is Blaine D. Leonard, P.E., F.ASCE and the Past President is David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE. The Executive Director is Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE, the Deputy Executive Director is Phillip Lehn, P.E., G.E., F.ASCE and the Assistant Executive Director and General Counsel is Mr Andre Donell. The Society comprises a national board of direction; more than 600 local affiliates, which include 87 Sections, 158 Branches and 130 Younger Member Groups; 267 Student Chapters; and 11 International Student Groups. ASCE is the world's largest publisher of civil engineering information — producing more than 55,000 pages of technical content each year. The ASCE Publications Division produces 31 professional journals (available both in print and online editions), conference proceedings, standards, manuals of practice, committee reports and monographs under the ASCE Press imprint. A 125,000-entry civil engineering database is available at their website, along with many other resources for practicing civil engineers including a complete publications catalog and the ASCE Online Research Library, providing access to more than 350,000 pages of journal articles and proceedings. ASCE also publishes Civil Engineering, the award-winning official magazine of the Society; ASCE News; and Geo-Strata. ASCE's 31 peer-reviewed highly cited journals are the medium through which civil engineers exchange technical and professional knowledge. Information published in the journals forms an archival record of the technical advances of today's civil engineering profession. The complete volumes from 1990-2006 are available online. ASCE publishes high quality, authoritative books that represent the best thinking in civil engineering research and practice. Prior to publication each title is peer-reviewed by groups of subject matter experts. The list includes more than 1,500 Standards, Manuals of Practice, Committee Reports, Proceedings, and ASCE Press titles. Civil Engineering, ASCE's award-winning monthly magazine, contains articles about significant projects, events, and trends of interest to civil engineers. The mix of articles in each issue is designed to appeal to a broad range of readers, who represent the full spectrum of civil engineering disciplines. Other periodicals include ASCE News which reports on the activities of the Society and Geo-Strata, published on behalf of the Geo-Institute. Each year ASCE hosts over 15 annual and specialty conferences focusing on the specialty field of civil engineering or topics related to it. ASCE hosted the 138th Annual Civil Engineering Conference at the Westin Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh's David Lawrence Convention Center on Nov. 6-8, 2008. ASCE's 139th Annual Civil Engineering Conference will be held in Kansas City, Mo. Each year, the Society holds more than 310 live, face-to-face continuing education seminars and more than 150 live Web seminars on a wide variety of technical and management topics. In addition, the Society has hundreds of distance learning programs available, including on-demand, online courses and courses on CD and DVD. More than 55,000 engineers participated in ASCE's continuing education programs in the previous year. ASCE offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and Professional Development Hours (PDHs) for conferences, seminars and workshops, and most distance learning programs to help professional engineers meet mandatory continuing professional competency requirements in their states. ASCE plans, organizes and conducts activities supporting the formal education process of civil engineers. Initiatives include the ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Workshops that help develop college faculty into effective teachers and the Practitioner and Faculty Advisor Training Workshop that improves the leadership skills of student organization advisors. To provide middle and high school students with an opportunity to learn about civil engineering through realistic, hands-on design experience, ASCE is the primary sponsor of the annual West Point Bridge Design Contest. More than 6,200 civil engineers and allied professionals serve on numerous technical committees and provide other services that benefit the Society and the profession. The Society's Technical Activities Committee (TAC) has 12 Divisions and Councils, some of which are further divide into committees.[5] The 12 Divisions and Councils include the following: ASCE also has eight full-service institutes created to serve working professionals working within specialized fields of civil engineering: ASCE is an ANSI accredited standards development organization that produces consensus standards under direction of the Codes and Standards Activities Committee. Civil Engineering Certification Inc. (CEC), affiliated with ASCE, has been established to support specialty certification academies for civil engineering specialties. The Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) provides vision and guidance on ASCE activities related to critical infrastructure resilience, including planning, design, construction, O&M, and event mitigation, response and recovery. ASCE also serves as Secretariat for The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), a public-private partnership focused on improving the nation's criti, affiliated with ASCE, provides a multi-discipline security rating system for buildings and a certified professional building security credential for individuals. ASCE provides peer reviews of public agencies and projects, at their request. Peer reviews are "a means to improve the management and quality of [public agency] services and thus better protect the public health and safety with which they are entrusted."[6][7] But in 2007, several complaints arose about its participation in the investigation of the failure of floodwalls and levees in New Orleans after Katrina. In response, ASCE announced the appointment of retired U.S. Rep Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to lead an independent task force of outside experts to review how the professional organization participates in engineering studies of national significance. [8] ASCE President David Mongan said the review is aimed at addressing criticisms of the organization's role in assisting the Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored investigation of Katrina failures. The results, released on September 12, 2008 recommended that the society should immediately take steps to remove the potential for conflict of interest in its participation in post-disaster engineering studies. [9] In October 2005, after the failures of the federally designed and built levees in Greater New Orleans, Lt Gen Carl Strock P.E.,M.ASCE, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers requested that ASCE create an expert review panel (ERP) to peer review the Corps-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET), the body commissioned by the Corps to assess the performance of the hurricane protection system in metro New Orleans. Lawrence Roth P.E.,F.ASCE, Deputy Executive Director of the ASCE led the ERP development, served as the panel's Chief of Staff and facilitated the panel's interaction with IPET.[10] The role of the ERP - composed of 14 specialists who possess a range of technical expertise - was to provide an independent technical review of the IPET's activities and findings. Roth stated at a National Research Council meeting in New Orleans, that "an independent review panel" such as the ERP "ensure[s] that the outcome is a robust, credible and defensible performance evaluation."[11] All members of the ERP panel received Outstanding Civilian Service Medals from Lt. Gen Strock on February 12, 2007.[10] The ERP's findings were released three months later on June 1, 2007 in a report entitled The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why.[12][13] Shortly after the release of the ERP's findings, ASCE administration was criticized by The Times-Picayune for an apparent attempt to minimize and understate the role of the Army Corps in the flooding. The Times-Picayune editorial called attention to a press release issued by ASCE which accompanied the ERP report that contained information not present in the report and information that conflicted with the report.[14] On November 5, 2007, New Orleans-based grassroots group Levees.Org released an online Public Service Announcement criticizing the ASCE's close relationship with the United States Army Corps of Engineers [15]. On November 12, 2007 the ASCE asked Levees.Org to take the video off of the internet, threatening the organization with legal action[16]. On November 13, the Times-Picayune reposted the controversial video on their website.[17] On November 14, 2007, following the controversial video affair, the ASCE confirmed the launch of an internal ethics probe of its staff and members based on complaints[18] by University of California-Berkeley professor Dr. Raymond B. Seed, who served on a separate independent panel investigating levee failures. [16] President David Mongan, in a letter to the Times Picayune, assured the citizens of metro New Orleans that ASCE takes "this matter very seriously and that appropriate actions are being taken."[19]