AACE Bulletin
Bulletin Section news for December
AACE International sections from around the world are encouraged to submit write-ups and photos of their monthly section meetings and other activities. For the December Source, submissions were received from the British Columbia Section and from the Seattle Section.
British Columbia Section
The British Columbia Section in Region 1 is announcing and introducing members of its current year Section Board of Directors. In this report, we introduce the Section Vice President, Bill Earis, and the Section Treasurer, Kelman Ng.
Section Vice President,
William (Bill) Earis
Section Vice President
William (Bill) Earis has over 30 years of experience in the construction industry. Starting in 1990, Bill was part of a team that built automated distance early warning stations in Canada’s high Arctic. Bill spent the early-mid 90’s with Peter Kiewit Sons’ Co., estimating and constructing various heavy civil projects. These were primarily in BC’s South Coast, but also in California and Quebec. Bill moved to the BC Ministry of Highways next and focused on bridge construction, as well as bridge maintenance and asset management activities. Since 2002, Bill has been working at BC Hydro where he started as a senior engineer – estimating. He progressed through to managing the estimating department and then to running the construction/contract management business for the Generation Business Group. In 2015, Bill became the director of the Lower Mainland Transmission Projects. In 2018, Bill then transferred into the Operations Business Group to become the director of program and contract management. Bill has recently transferred to the Site C Project, running the contract/submittals management functions. Bill is a PMI Project Management Professional; received “Expert” designation from the World Contracting & Commerce Association; and is a practicing Professional Engineer with the Province of BC. Bill received his B.Sc. Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba; his M.Sc. Engineering from the University of British Columbia; and his Contract Law Certificate from Capilano University.
Section Treasurer
Kelman Ng
Section Treasurer
Kelman Ng is the current treasurer of the British Columbia Section. He has been a board member since 2012. Kelman has been working in the Generation Stations Estimating Team at BC Hydro since 2008. He enjoys time off with his family and kids.
In the coming months, the British Columbia Section will continue to feature and introduce the members of its Section Board of Directors for the 2021-2022 program year.
Seattle Section
Like most sections, the Seattle Section had to rise to the challenges of the 2021 calendar year by hosting virtual webinars. While we always prefer in person, the webinars covered a wide range of topics, and were mostly well attended with the lowest being 12 and the remaining averaging 38. In January, Janice Zahn, Mathew Preedy, Chris Mack, and Mark Sliger lead a discussion on Work Condition during Pandemic (Mental Health/Productivity/etc.) In June Peter Starnes discussed the Use of BIM to Facilitate Cost Estimating on BART to Silicon Valley Extension. In September Peter Starnes and Jay Mezher presented BIM for Cost Estimating and the Benefits of 4D/5D Modeling. In October John K. Hollmann engaged listeners with his talk on Parametric Quantification of Systemic Risks for Transportation and Projects. Finally, in November Larry Dysert, CCP CEP, DRMP, FAACE presented Conceptual Estimating Methodologies. As we move into the holiday season the section is excited to host an in-person meeting for the month of December.