The Younger Member Forum paid tribute to the Section's newly inducted Life Members on April 25, 2007. This year’s dinner was held at New York City College of Technology with Met Section President, Larry Chiarelli, welcoming the honorees. The event also included the presentation of awards to outstanding members of student chapters at area colleges and universities. A fellow Ridgway Award recipient himself, Larry stressed the importance of staying involved with ASCE. This event is unique in that the Life Members share their experiences and offer words of wisdom to the future leaders of our profession. One Life Member inductee, Karl Rubenacker, summed up his experiences with the following Top Ten List:

• Be consistent and persistent.
• Be sensitive and understanding of the needs of others such as: colleagues, other disciplines, the community, and the environment. Use an interdisciplinary approach when solving problems. Be flexible in your design.
• Recognize when you need help or expertise – ask for it.
• Remember if you can’t see it (such as underground utilities, soils, and water tables), it can and will hurt you. Young engineers must go visit the field! Try to visualize problems in three dimensions.
• Recognize a technology’s limitations. Always check what you do and questions whether it makes sense!
• Presentations and drawings should speak for themselves.
• Try to look ahead - especially in areas of management, budgets, and time.
• Exceed expectations and don’t get discouraged.
• Remember it’s a small world, don’t burn any bridges.
• Most of all – enjoy what you do! (And speak up when you’re not.) Life Member status is an honor awarded to members that have made a lifetime commitment to ASCE and the civil engineering profession by remaining members for the full length of their professional career.

To obtain Life Member status, individuals in the grade of Fellow, Member, Associate Member, or Affiliate must: a) be at least 65 years old; b) have paid dues in any membership grade except student for at least 30 years; and c) have had ten years continuous membership immediately preceding the attainment of Life Member.

Student Award Winners

The students in attendance were recipients of the Ridgway Award or the Younger Member Forum Award. The Ridgway Award is presented in recognition of a student’s dedication to their civil engineering studies and for outstanding academic performance. The Younger Member Forum Award is presented in appreciation of a student’s continued commitment and contributions to their ASCE student chapter.