Want to get involved in UCA? Let us know and we can help
Engagement with the activities of UCA is the best way to make sure that what comes out of the Association is what you want. To get engaged, all you need to do is raise your hand. Also, it should be recognized that the people who should be capturing your interest (and especially me) may not get back to you immediately. This is a fault of the UCA but we are trying to do better. It really helps us, and helps you too, if you could raise your hands multiple times to make sure you get noticed.
Please do not think you are being ignored. We are all volunteers with day jobs and it is sometimes difficult to make every connection in a timely manner. So, I hope all of you potential volunteers will keep prompting us and keep the good ideas and the good energy coming.
One surefire way of accelerating your involvement in UCA is to volunteer to author an industry guideline document. Bringing the idea, as well as your energy, to such a project immediately benefits both you as an individual and the industry. Bring your idea to the attention of any executive committee member that you know — or email me — and let’s get the ball rolling on whatever you think the industry needs. UCA can help with identifying a committee and industry reviewers to get such a guideline published through SME.
One item that many members are apparently not aware of is the amazing reference library contained within the OneTunnel.org database.
OneTunnel.org contains every paper published in the North American Tunneling conference and Rapid Excavation Tunneling Conference Proceedings volumes, plus many others, for a total of nearly 140,000 technical papers and documents on every possible underground subject. It is a perfect way to check on the latest industry developments; the standard of the practice in many and various fields; as well as providing the author, whom you can call for additional information if needed.
OneTunnel.org provides every UCA member with the ultimate resource of technical information. It is freely available on the UCA web site. To get there, simply go to https:// www.smenet.org/uca; log in using your credentials; look under the “publications and resources” section and click on OneTunnel. You can also type https://www.onetunnel.org/ directly into your browser.
OneTunnel is a keywordsearchable database to which UCA and SME continue to add references. It is a fabulous benefit to you as a member of UCA.
In closing, I am constantly seeking to improve the connection between the UCA and you as a member of the tunnel industry. Let me know how you think the UCA of SME can better serve your needs and the needs of the industry. I look forward to hearing from you.
