ISSMGE President Briaud's "State of the Society" Address Highlights Outstanding Progress within ISSMGE Organization

In September 2013, during the Paris International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, President Jean-Louis Briaud presented the "State of the Society" Address. The President's report is also available as an attachment right below the article.

The report outlines the activities undertaken by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) during the last four years. The society had a high-energy 4-year period under Briaud's leadership. Here are a few things that happened within the last four years:

• The President established a new organizational structure and founded the board-level committees of the ISSMGE that are intended to engage more members to the organization. These are: The Technical Oversight Committee, the Membership, Practitioners, and Academicians Committee (MPAC),
• the Innovation and Development Committee (IDC), the Awards Committee (AWAC), the Public Relations Committee (PRC), the Students and Young Members Presidential Group (SYMPG) and the Corporate Associates Presidential Group (CAPG). These committees, along with the technical committees of the organization, and its member societies, have been the heart of the organization. 
• The total number of individual members increased from 18,561 in 2009 to 19,755 in 2013 or a 6.4 % increase.
• A number of honor lectures have been established on specific areas of the geotechnical engineering field to recognize exceptional contributions to the profession.
• ISSMGE established a webinar series featuring many distinguished speakers. A total of 12 webinars were held and they are available for free through the ISSMGE website: http://www.issmge.org/en/resources/recorded-webinars
• ISSMGE established the ISSMGE foundation to support geotechnical engineers worldwide. The Foundation had raised more than $150,000 already and has funded 19 individuals. More information is available here: http://www.issmge.org/en/issmge-foundation
• The ISSMGE has strengthened its relationship with companies through its corporate associates program. More than 50 corporate associates are now supporting ISSMGE.
• The International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories (http://www.geocasehistoriesjournal.org/) has become more integrated with the activities of the ISSMGE organization.
• ISSMGE established a new website that now hosts the webinars, the new electronic lexicon of 1593 geotechnical terms in 14 languages (http://www.issmge.org/en/resources/lexicon), the bulletin, and other resources.
• The organization also made some excellent steps towards promoting the geotechnical profession at a global scale, through its outreach video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uElPkghqoJw) and an outreach website (http://whatisgeotech.org/).

More details, as well as additional achievements are provided in the report. President Briaud has truly made a lasting impact on the organization. Briaud's tenure was completed in September 2013, and Prof. Roger Frank was elected as the new President of ISSMGE. More information about the new President of ISSMGE can be found here: http://www.issmge.org/en/the-society/the-president/about-the-president