President’s Message
Greetings and salutations Great Lakes Chapter members, I hope everyone had a good winter season and spring is offering a bit of relief!
The 2023 IECA Annual Conference & Expo co-located with the Geosynthetics Conference with Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) on February 5 – 8, 2023 at the Kansas City Convention Center. It was great to see many of you there, and we had a great Chapter meeting and social.
We then rolled into the first Stormwater Management Commission (SMC) and Great Lakes International Erosion Control Association (GLIECA) Best Management Practices Field Day in April at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake, IL. This successful event brought in over 120 erosion, sediment and stormwater professionals. Thanks to the help of our incredible organizing committee we reviewed proper installation techniques, common issues and best management practices with live demonstrations. A huge shout out to our own Board Member, Jonathan Koepke, and his incredible team at Encap Inc. for making this an event that will set the bar high for the standards of future events.
We look forward to growing our Chapter membership in 2023. A plan we would like to implement this year is to have each member focus on finding one new member. Please challenge yourself to identify a colleague that you believe would benefit by becoming a member.
Please remember that we are here to assist you in your unique education needs, so feel free to reach me with topics and presenters that you believe would benefit the Chapter. The Chapter continues to have many great training events scheduled, so please visit our webpage to view the schedules and dates. Remember to check the webpage periodically so you do not miss out on any of our outstanding educational opportunities. All IECA Members receive a discounted rate on all virtual courses in the IECA eHub (https://ehub.ieca.org/), and have access to the free member library of courses.
On behalf of IECA’s Great Lakes Chapter, have a great spring/summer! If you have any comments, questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or the other Board Members.
Matt Welch, CPESC, CESSWI
IECA – Great Lakes Chapter President