Council of American Structural Engineers (CASE)
CASE is a national association of structural engineering firms. It provides a forum for action to improve the quality of structural engineering through enhancement of business practices, decreased professional liability exposure and increased profitability. CASE is organized into a Risk Management Program and a Business Practices program.
Welcome!
What may be new to you is actually a 20-year-old organization dedicated to the professional and financial success of structural engineering firms nationwide. Born out of a professional liability insurance crisis, and formed within one of the most powerful and influential engineering organizations in the Nation, the Coalition of American Structural Engineers (CASE) is working to help you — and we need your help.
Structural Engineering is a profession that is key to public safety and economic development. Without buildings and infrastructure we would all be still in the caves hunting and gathering. We know it is a rewarding, technically complex and professionally challenging profession. The never ending drive for cost efficiencies, the introduction of new materials and construction techniques, the proliferation of design standards, building codes and computer programs that attempt to address the lessons learned from failures and natural disasters have left us scrambling to keep up.
CASE is a gathering of over 200 firms nationwide that come together and work to craft guidelines and contracts that delineate what we are suppose to do, as well as a host of risk management tools aimed at showing us how to keep our liability under control and in check. Our mission is to make structural engineering firms successful by reducing claims, increasing profitability, improving quality, and enhancing management practices.
Please browse through these pages and find risk management tips, sound business practices, model contracts, risk management tools, learning opportunities both on line, in publications and at convocations, meetings and conventions.
Join CASE today and benefit from free access to materials of significant value and opportunities to get involved in advancing the practice and raising the bar on the quality of the profession. We are looking forward to working with you.
Write to me about your interests and concerns. I would love to hear from you.
Chris D. Poland
Chairman, 2007-2009
cpoland@degenkolb.com
CASE Quality Workshop
CASE Quality Workshop
February 4, 2009
Dallas, TX
Click here for registration forms.
Read All About It
Current edition of the Business Practice and Risk Management Newsletter
Recent articles highlight the work of structural engineers. Click here to read more.
CASE RMP Convocations are Everywhere!
The CASE RMP Convocation Committee has been very busy developing meaningful risk management convocations at various venues this year and next. Click here for the RMP Webpage to see details of upcoming events.
CASE RMP: Not your Grandfather’s Risk Management Program!
Edward W. Pence, Jr., P.E., S.E., F. ASCE
CASE Past Chairman 2006/07
The management of risk is something that we all do every day as we go about our daily activities. Whether driving 3 miles across town to the grocery store or flying 3000 miles across the country, there is a certain amount of risk involved. We measure the risk and make a decision—conscious or otherwise— to accept it or not. There are many factors to consider as we make these day to day decisions, and prudent individuals will do everything possible to mitigate risks. Before making the trip to the shopping center, you always make sure the car in which you will be traveling is well maintained, and everything is in proper working order. You choose to avoid unnecessary traffic and congestion, and drive defensively. For the trip across country, you might consider the safety record of the airline before purchasing a ticket, evaluate the weather conditions along your route, and submit to the unpleasant but necessary security screening.
But what about the risks we face every day in our professional lives as structural engineers? Statistics from companies that provide professional liability insurance for structural engineers indicate that not only do we have the highest frequency of claims, but also the greatest severity. Are we doing everything possible in our day to day practice to mitigate risk? We live in a complex and litigious society with more lawyers per capita than any country in history and people are taught that nothing is ever their fault- if they are damaged then someone else should pay. Gone are the days of our grandfathers when hard work and good intentions were enough! We have to manage the risks everyday.
CASE (The Council of American Structural Engineers)—celebrating its’ 20th Anniversary this year—was organized in the midst of a liability insurance crisis to deal with risk management and business practice issues. Although the goals remain the same today, the methods have changed. In response to the changing environment, CASE’s new Risk Management Program (RMP) is based on The 10 Foundations of Risk Management.
As you read and think about these principals, you quickly realize that there are no magic answers here for managing risk- just simple, sound, logical, proven concepts. If applied consistently, they can have a significant impact on your practice. The development of “tools” to assist firms with the implementation of the 10 Foundations has been a priority for CASE for the last couple of years, and will continue to be so. Sessions on the 10 Foundations will be presented at the 2007 Fall ACEC Conference in Maui on September 26 & 27, and at the 2007 CASE Convocation in Atlanta, on November 1 & 2.
For additional information about The 10 Foundations for Risk Management, click here.
For more information about CASE, please contact David C. Bixby at (202) 347-7474 or dbixby@acec.org.
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