RMP CONVOCATIONS EVERYWHERE!

Maui — September 2007

A record turnout of more than 1,000 attendees enjoyed the ACEC Fall Conference in Maui that featured compelling speakers, exceptional business education and enchanting island festivities. The Council of American Structural Engineers (CASE) celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special Conference program. The CASE 20th Anniversary Banquet celebrated the coalition's accomplishments and leadership over the past two decades and featured guest speaker Glenn Bell, CEO of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., who discussed engineering-driven architecture. At the ACEC awards luncheon, ACEC Fellow George Nishimura was presented with the CASE Past Chairman's Award recognizing his efforts that contributed to the creation of CASE. The CASE Executive Committee also held its meeting during the conference. In Maui the CASE Risk Management Program (RMP) Convocation featured many tracks on timely topics for structural engineers, including BIM, Risk Drivers, CASE Toolkit and Building Code Complexity.

Atlanta — November 2007

More than 100 structural engineers heard expert advice on effective risk management practices, including how to recognize and avoid negative clauses in contracts, at the recently concluded CASE Risk Management Convocation held in Atlanta. In an address to attendees, Sam Miur, an attorney with Collins, Muir & Stewart, emphasized the importance of structural engineers being included in all project policies. He said that if all other participants in the project such as the owner, general contractor, subcontractors, vendors, fabricators, and construction managers, are covered by one carrier and the structural engineer is not, "it can quickly create an 'us vs. them' situation where the structural engineer can only lose." The CASE Convocation included education sessions presented by industry experts on a variety of business and risk management themes, such as BIM, Structural Engineering Reports, Electronic Discovery, Risk Drivers, Premature Demands for Quantities and Costs, Limitations on Scope of Work, Standard of Care, and Tools to Reduce Risks.

Vancouver — April 2008

CASE is on track to present its first RMP Spring Convocation held in conjunction with the Structural Engineering Institute’s 2008 Structures Congress, April 24-26, 2008, in Vancouver, British Columbia. On Thursday, April 24, the CASE RMP Dinner with War Stories will take place at 7:30 p.m. On Friday, April 25, a full day's track of CASE RMP sessions will take place. The topics and descriptions are shown below. Make plans to be there! Click here to go to the Structures Congress webpage.

CASE Plenary Session I: Building Information Modeling (BIM): The Promise and The Reality for A/E/C Firms
This session will examine BIM as a concept, demonstrate how it is being put into real life practice by the interacting professional teams involved and how your firm can best prepare for a BIM future. Including transition plans, IT budgeting, and legal issues and risks.

Construction Administration as a Risk Management Tool
Bad projects seldom start out that way, and are frequently the result of many factors occurring after completion of design and well outside the control of the design professional — bad contractor — bad owner/client — bad karma. Most often, these factors have more to do with unreasonable expectations and poor communication than with design error. But they all lead to lost deductibles, lost policy limits, lost productivity in your practice and lost sleep at home. Some of these factors can be controlled, some can be limited and some can be avoided altogether. All can be documented in a way that will help provide you with a legally compelling defense when your client hires a lawyer. Analysis of other "projects from hell" can help you navigate and avoid claims. Examples from actual claims and litigated cases will be presented for discussion, with emphasis on recognition of the factors leading to each disaster.

Ways to Make Your Life Easier and the World a Better Place: Scope, Contracts and Contract Document Tools
The CASE Risk Management Program’s Tool Kit Committee will be presenting its latest tools to mitigate risk. The first is a tool to create a scope of work for you project. The second is a program to highlight the "red flag words" in your contracts. The final tool will be a supplement to the CASE document "A Guideline Addressing Coordination and Completeness of Structural Construction Documents."

Risks Associated with the Latest Structural Engineering Software
(description not available at this time)

Staying Ahead of the Curve — Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Clients are demanding the use of BIM and structural engineering firms want to provide it. Implementing BIM into the office, coordinating the BIM model with the architect, and fabricating from the BIM model geometry has many challenges. However, firms are still able to benefit financially from the BIM process, reduce their risk, and cope with the legal issues of BIM provided that all the expectations and contract language of each BIM project are clearly defined.

Closed Claims — "Lessons Learned"
This session will explore several closed professional liability insurance claims brought against structural engineers to analyze what was done that caused each case to become a claim. Each case to be discussed is based on actual events. In addition to reviewing these claims, the presenters will also discuss a methodology founded in the CASE Ten Foundations for Risk Management, to assist attendees in the prevention of future claims.

CASE Plenary Session II: Do Different Types of Clients Pose Different Types of Risks?
This session will focus on project delivery methods, BIM, and various contractual risks and how they differ based on client types (e.g., private vs. public, Architect vs. General Contractor, etc).

Montreal — October 2008

The CASE RMP Convocation will roll into Montreal, Quebec, in conjunction with the October 19-22, 2008 ACEC Fall Conference. The CASE RMP Convocation Committee is already working on a great lineup of speakers and topics. Some of the sessions that are being developed are: What is a Forensic Engineer?, The Independent Expert Cost Estimator in Dispute Resolution, Ethics, Risk Issues Related to Green Design and Green Building Certification, Understanding and Managing Structural Engineering Claims, Risk Management Tools and Closed Claims Studies — Lessons Learned.

Past Convocations