THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The Board has finalized our monthly meeting program and I'm very pleased with the range of topics we will be providing to the membership. I hope that each of you finds something of interest. There are some changes in a few dates and topics from the October issue, so be sure to use the notice on page 6 in this issue of THE NEWS to mark your calendar.
Some of the program changes include, adding a speaker on the Oklahoma City bombing and other disasters for our February meeting; conducting our tours of the Core States Spectrum II on three successive afternoons; and some date changes to accommodate sister organizations who are hosting our Joint Meetings.
As the Section President, I've begun to receive a great deal of communication and correspondence regarding Section activities. In areas of recognition, Wendy P. Oliver has won the ASCE Zone 1 Award of the 1995 Daniel W. Mead Prize for Younger Members for her paper Do Civil Engineers Have an Ethical Responsibility to their clients at the Expense of the Environment? Philadelphia. Section Past President Joseph Syrnick has received a Certificate of Appreciation from ASCE National as Chair of the Government Engineers Policy Issues Committee. I have also received notice of numerous Section members being appointed or re-appointed to ASCE committees. These awards and acknowledgments of contribution serve to show just how vibrant and active our Section membership is.
We have also had correspondence regarding the appointment of a non-engineer as PennDOT District 6 Administrator. We are working with the other Pennsylvania Sections to follow-through on the request for reconsideration ASCE sent to the Secretary of Transportation and Governor.
I have indicated that I'd like to educate the membership about the Humphrey Fund, a source of financial security to the Section, and seek input to update the Board's guidance as to how to administer the Fund. This I intend to do over the course of the year. At this time, I'd like to present the history of the creation of the Humphrey Fund.
In October of 1926, ASCE held its 56th National Convention in Philadelphia. Richard L. Humphrey, one of the founders of the Philadelphia Section, and a Past-President, was Chairman of the local Committee on Arrangements. Largely through his efforts, an entertainment fund for the Convention was raised, and when the Conference ended there remained a $16,000 surplus.
With the consent of the contributors, this balance was designated as a permanent fund of the Section and its care and investment was entrusted to a three-person committee whose members are designated by the Board. That practice has been followed ever since.
Mr. Humphrey died two years after the Convention on November 2, 1928. Unfortunately, his financial situation at this time of his death was a difficult one. Indeed, his burial expenses were covered by the Fund. In recognition of his services to ASCE nationally and the Section in particular, the Philadelphia Section on January 23, 1939 renamed the fund as the Richard L. Humphrey Memorial Fund.
In my next message I'd like to discuss the guidance that the Board and the three-person Humphrey Fund Committee is following, which dates back to the 1970's, and open the question of what objectives and guidance the Membership thinks the fund should operate under now.
I hope to see each of you at one or more of our Section meetings.
Sincerely,
William G. Richards, P.E.