Penn State, UT, and Ole Miss have 8-1 football records as of this writing, making November a season-defining month. PDCA Chapter Members (pictured) show off their favorite contenders.

Much like college football in November, PDCA Chapters are at a pivotal point in the year which will determine how they enter 2024. During this week and next, PDCA Chapters are hosting meetings, and in most cases, they will be electing a leadership team to guide their 2024 meetings, educational seminars, and other events. If you are a member of a PDCA Chapter, or you are interested in participation in one of them, consider attending one of the following meetings:

PDCA Northeast Chapter Casino Night (click here to register): The Chapter meets on November 8th at 6:00 PM EST at Campino Restaurant in Newark, NJ. The event includes a business meeting followed by a presentation on piling technology by Matt Eastburn from Junttan USA. This is the final gathering for the group in 2024. After the work is done, Chapter members will partake in a Casino Night event. Your favorite casino games will be available on site. Despite it being a non-cash affair, there are several, highly desirable prizes, so long as you know when to hold 'em. You could win: 4 tickets to New Jersey Devils hockey with Lounge access and parking, admittance to a New Year's Eve NFL matchup between the Giants and Rams, various packages of spirits ahead of the Holiday Season, and a $100 gift card to Campino Restaurant.

PDCA South Carolina Chapter 4th Quarter Meeting (click here to register): It'll be a busy night in Charleston where the South Carolina Chapter meets for the last time this year. On November 9th at 6:00 PM EST, members will gather at the Town & Country Inn and Suites for networking and refreshments. The business portion of the meeting will determine the Chapter officers for 2024 and include a presentation called"Axial Load Limits on Prestress Concrete Piles," by subject matter expert John Ryan, PhD, PE. If that's not enough, there's more! One deserving engineering student from The Citadel will be announced as the 2023 winner of the annual "Mac" Nigels Scholarship and there will be final presentation for 2023 of The Harry Robbins Chapter Awards. 

PDCA Gulf Coast Chapter 4th Quarter Meeting (click here to register): There is no cost to attend the last 2023 gathering of the PDCA Gulf Coast Chapter, but beware, the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi, MS where the event takes place, offers you plenty of opportunities to leave money behind if you choose to visit the floor when the meeting finishes. Beginning at 5:45 PM CST on November 9th, Chapter members and friends will participate in a networking happy hour and a plated dinner, followed by a business meeting. During that time, eligible, voting members will elect the leadership to guide Chapter activity in 2024. The meeting concludes around 8:00 PM, at which time, interested attendees may try their luck on the various games available at the Casino.

PDCA Texas Chapter Q4 Meeting (click here to register): Plan to attend the Chapter's last 2023 meeting where members will elect officers for 2024. The event takes place at Spindletap Brewery (10622 Hirsch Rd., Houston) on November 16th, beginning at 4:00 PM CST. The PDCA Texas Chapter is coming off an exciting and inspiring, Inaugural Golf Tournament they held in Houston in September, and they invite you to attend this meeting to share in the success. The Chapter, now finishing its second year of existence in its modern form, is gaining momentum and striving for big goals in 2024. Members and participation are the fuel to its ongoing success. 

While there is not a November meeting of the PDCA Pacific Coast Chapter, the group is preparing to announce a brand new, 2024 leadership team and begin work on the annual Scholarship Shoot, coming to Birds Landing, CA next spring. If you missed it, the Chapter recently announced an impressive group of students who were named 2023 Scholarship Winners. 

Thank you for supporting PDCA Chapters, which are dedicated groups of volunteers who assist PDCA in the important task of driven pile advocacy in key regions around the U.S. If you are interested in getting involved with a PDCA Chapter, please contact us today at info@piledrivers.org.

For the purpose of maximizing pile driving advocacy, PDCA has established various deep foundations industry relationships to promote the driven pile through available channels. One such relationship is with the Deep Foundations Institute, or DFI. The education-focused organization gathers members of the industry on various occasions each year and PDCA serves as a Cooperating Organization at some of these events, the DFI Annual Conference is one of them. This event took place October 31-November 3, 2023, in Seattle, WA, and PDCA was on-location to support the event, engage with members who are DFI participants, and to attend various pile driving specific sessions that take place as part of the Conference, such as the Driven Pile Committee meeting, co-chaired by PDCA members Greg Canivan of S&ME, Inc. and Seth Hamblin of GTR Engineering Sciences, (pictured).

(L-R) Seth Hamblin, Greg Canivan

Dr. Katherine Petek

The event featured several educational sessions where PDCA members, academics and public officials presented content related to pile driving. PDCA congratulates longtime member Dr. Katherine Petek (pictured) of Shannon & Wilson, Inc., who served the 2023 DFI Annual Conference as Technical Program Co-Chair. PDCA member companies who presented content included Schnabel Engineering, Terracon, Universal Engineering Sciences, GEOKON, GRL Engineers, Inc., Giken USA, and Bauer Equipment America, in addition to representatives of Seattle-based, Shannon & Wilson.

Several PDCA Members participated in the DFI Annual Conference as exhibitors and sponsors. The Exhibit Hall was at capacity and the expansive space featured nearly 30 PDCA member companies who engaged with attendees about pile driving. They included:

American Piledriving Equipment (APE) Alaska Rubber Group  Associated Pile & Fitting Atlas Tube Bauer Equipment America CZM Foundation Equipment Dawson Contruction Plant LTD. Duroterra Equipment Corporation of America (ECA) GEOKON Giken Hammer & Steel JD Fields & Co. Jinnings Equipment

Junttan USA Keller Liebherr Meever USA Morris-Shea Bridge Company Nucor Skyline OMS Pile Driving Equipment GMBH PACO Ventures PDI, Inc./GRL Engineers, Inc. Pinnacle Drilling Products PVE Equipment USA Samuel Roll Form Group Service Steel Warehouse Sheet Pile LLC

Numerous PDCA members provided sponsorship of various activities at the DFI event, including the Women in Deep Foundations Reception, a 5K Fun Run, and more. The generous benefactors for these peripheral events included:

Bauer Equipment America ECA PDI, Inc./GRL Engineers, Inc. ICE-International Construction Equipment, Inc. Junttan USA Keller APE CZM Foundation Equipment

Liebherr Triad Metals Piling GEOKON Terracon Mammoth Carbon Products JD Fields & Co.  GTR Engineering Sciences

The DFI Annual Conference reported to have around 950 attendees this year, offering them a wide variety of sessions and activities. PDCA staff was on-site and captured photos of various sites at the event. The photos below depict PDCA members who were SPOTTED during networking opportunities and the Women in Deep Foundations Reception which took place on Halloween. Enjoy!

(L-R): PDCA Communications Committee Chair Jason Moore, Social Media Subcommittee member Amy Cristiani 

Internet users understand the importance of technology in business operations, and most are aware that online technologies are continually evolving. One example of an evolving technology is the powerful tool of social media. Barely two decades old to mainstream audiences, social media has become a reliable tool for communication through its capability to expeditiously distribute multiple forms of media including photographic images, video, live production, and many other resources unheard of just one decade ago.

PDCA has maintained an online presence through a few generations of its website over the years. It has also established a social media presence on various platforms. In addition to more traditional communications, PDCA has increasingly used social media to bolster its dissemination of news, announcements, and other communications that are relevant to PDCA members. 

Thanks to PDCA publications partner Lester, which also produces PileDriver magazine and A Pile of News e-newsletter, PDCA boasts a professional social media product, often incorporating new and emerging effects. As the popularity of social media continues to grow, PDCA has gained a growing demand among stakeholders for more and diversified content. Jill Harris (pictured), PileDriver publisher, oversees the social media production and advised that in order to maximize PDCA's social media reach and reliability, some content parameters to protect the consistency of the PDCA brand were needed. 

The PDCA Board of Directors learned of the impact that PDCA's social media has on the organizational membership and industry at-large, and embraced Jill's expert advice. The leadership tasked the PDCA Communications Committee Chairman Jason Moore to address some of the shortcomings with social media operations. Moore assembled the Social Media Subcommittee which involved a handful of the Communicaitons Committee members, to develop necessary guidance for the increasing desire of PDCA Chapters and PDCA Committees to include their content on the PDCA social media platforms, predominantly, LinkedIn. (The Association also has a presence on Facebook and Instagram.)

Amy Cristiani from Associate Member company THI Pipe and Piling was a participant on the Social Media Subcommittee and is credited with helping develop the concepts and deliverables for two new resources that are now available to PDCA Chapters and Committees, to contribute to the PDCA social media feed. Said Cristiani of her motivation to volunteer in this capacity, "By streamlining PDCA social media submission guidelines, we have made it easier to ensure communication requests are tracked, time-stamped, and executed with greater efficiency. We want your voice to be heard and your experience to be hassle-free."

PDCA Chapter leaders and committee chairs who are interested in submitting content to PDCA social media platforms are encouraged to contact the PDCA staff to obtain two new resources: 1) PDCA Style Guide for Social Media, and 2) PDCA Social Media Submission Guidelines. Please send your requests to matt@piledrivers.org.

Thank you to D.W. Kozera, Inc. for supporting the PDCA Inaugural EDPI with the Conference Name Badge Lanyard sponsorship!

The Engineers Driven Pile Institute (EDPI) is an innovative, professional development program geared toward engineers who have gained 2-10 years of career experience. Attendees who complete the two-day program, gain in-depth instruction on current driven pile foundation design and construction practices, under the tutelage of recognized industry experts Jerry DiMaggio, PE, D.GE, a senior principal civil engineer with Applied Research Associates, Inc., Patrick Hannigan, PE, president emeritus at GRL Engineers, Inc., and Van E. Komurka, PE, D.GE, senior engineer at GRL Engineers, Inc. The objective of EDPI is to provide mid-level engineers with additional tools to recommend, design, specify and/or inspect driven pile foundations. 

EDPI presenters, (L-R): DiMaggio, Hannigan, Komurka

 

EDPI offers opportunities for sponsorship and support of the first-of-its-kind, program. These opportunities will provide a unique experience for the attendees, as well as support the course in order to offer lower registration fees. Parties interested in helping underwrite this innovative program may consider the following, sponsorship options:

1. Conference Support Sponsor: Directly support the EDPI Conference with a sponsorship that offsets conference expenses, such as food & beverages, AV support, and attendee materials. All sponsor logos will be co-branded on coffee cup sleeves for the two-day course, as well as on event signage displayed during the conference.

2. Marketing Sponsor: Support the overall EDPI Conference and engage attendees with a promotional item (provided by sponsor) in their conference bag. Examples of promotional items include, but are not limited to, hats, koozies, tech gadgets, hard hat stickers, etc.

To register as an attendee, and/or a sponsor of EDPI, please click the button below to be redirected to the event website. Thank you, in advance, for supporting EDPI!

The Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. has a long tradition of participation and leadership in the Pile Driving Contractors Association; several current members are based or operate branch offices in the area. In some instances, local members have elevated into organizational leadership at PDCA. Two recent Executive Committee members include past president Larry Moore and past secretary Karl Higgins, both pictured below. For several years, a PDCA Mid-Atlantic Chapter was available to members in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (the DMV), to provide opportunities for consistent, local participation and engagement. In the absence of a Mid-Atlantic Chapter, PDCA is working to reignite local involvement.  In 2022, it hosted 'Networking in Norfolk' to serve membership in the southern part of the region. Now, PDCA announces a similar event coming to the northern part of the former chapter. It is called The Maryland Mixer, happening November 16th at the Crooked Crab Brewing Co. in Odenton, MD.

(L-R) PDCA Executive Committee alumni from Mid-Atlantic: past president Larry Moore, past secretary Karl Higgins

There is no cost to register and attend The Maryland Mixer, but we ask that you let us know you are coming so we can be prepared to provide you refreshments. Attendees and sponsors, alike, can secure space at the event by clicking the button below and completing a short registration form.

Fall 2023 class of participants in DFDTA Seminar and Workshop

If you missed the October 2023 Deep Foundations Dynamic Testing & Analysis Seminar/Workshop (DFDTA) coordinated through an ongoing partnership between Pile Dynamics, Inc. (PDI) and PDCA, you will have two opportunities to attend the 2024 classes taking place in the spring and fall. The three-day event is traditionally offered in Orlando, FL March and then in Cleveland, OH in October. Watch your inbox and the PDCA website for forthcoming announcements containing further details about DFDTA in 2024.

The Fall 2023 DFDTA brought a variety of engineers, project owners, contractors, and other deep foundations professionals to the PDI corporate offices in Cleveland from October 11-13, where the group of 'students' heard a one-day seminar on Deep Foundation Integrity Testing and Wave Equation Analysis. Then, it participated in a workshop on High Strain Dynamic Foundation Testing, concluding with an optional proficiency test.

Subject matter experts including Patrick Hannigan, PE, Michael Morgano, PE, and Garland Likins, PE, M.ASCE (pictured above, L-R), all from PDI and sister engineering firm, GRL Engineers, Inc., presented during the span of three days, on various topics pertinent to the testing and analysis.

In addition to gaining expert training on topics such as wave mechanics, non-destructive testing, PDA Applications, CAPWAP, and more, attendees were also provided with a copy of the presentation (digital/hard copies), a Certificate of Completion, and proficiency certification for those who took and passed the exam. 

PDCA recognizes the Fall 2023 DFDTA class for its participation in this rigorous, professional development program.