Richard Matson, PE, Team Leader, Bridge & Tunnel Inspections, AECOM
Welcome. I want to take a moment to thank our outgoing BSCES President, Katie Swanson, for her contributions to BSCES, specifically her visionary insights on restructuring many BSCES policies, her relentless energy to advocate for engineering at K-12 and college level students by attending many events in-person, and by increasing BSCES grants and scholarships to a staggering $50,000+ in FY26. Katie did an amazing job preparing our board for a successful year and BSCES is primed to continue advancing forward into FY27. Thank you Katie!
If you are interested in becoming a BSCES volunteer leader, we have some immediate vacant positions that need to be filled due to shifts in our board and past committee chairs needing to step down. If you have any interest in these positions, reach out to me directly: [email protected] or to Michelle Monette, BSCES’ membership associate: [email protected].
- Treasurer (Gregory Mirliss is acting treasurer until a replacement is identified)
- Assistant Treasurer
- Newsletter Editorial Board Committee Chair
- Public Awareness & Outreach Committee – Reed Brockman is the current chair, but needs help with running programs and/or identifying a new chair.
- Government Affairs & Professional Practice Committee Co-Chair or Chair
Click here to learn more about these positions.
Before we jump into my priorities for FY27 and what I plan to achieve in my tenure as BSCES President, I want to highlight many events that happened over the summer months.
June started off with two events on June 3 where our COPRI Boston Chapter hosted a presentation on Boston Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study Update: A USACE-City of Boston Partnership and our YMG & SEI Boston Chapter co-hosted a Structural Jeopardy game night. Following these two events, our Continuing Education committee hosted the FHWA-NHI Bridge Inspection Techniques for Nonredundant Steel Tension members (NSTM) training in Worcester from June 9-11.
On June 11 BSCES hosted the Annual Awards Dinner to celebrate our 177th year. The night began with our engaging social hour reception before we went upstairs into the ballroom where Katie provided the opening remarks and thanked our society sponsors for their contributions. Luciana Burdi, Chief Infrastructure Officer at Massachusetts Port Authority, provided our keynote address and we found out it was on her birthday of all days! Thank you Luciana for celebrating with us on your special day. It certainly was a night to celebrate as BSCES then announced the winners of six scholarships – congratulations to the student recipients!
There was a surprise award I was not made aware of until the announcement at the event, where Katie presented the President’s Award to me for my contributions as President-Elect and Acting President while Katie was on maternity leave for 5 months. I was deeply humbled and at a loss for words in the moment for this award and thank you Katie once again for the recognition. I am honored!
Following the Annual Awards Dinner, on June 16 the T&DI Boston Chapter held the Legislative Update at the State House where State Senator Brendan Crighton, co-chair of the Joint Transportation Committee, spoke about the latest activities the committee is working on and responded to questions. On June 17 the YMG held an end of year Beach Social and Pizza Party at Carson Beach in Boston. On June 18 the CI Boston Chapter held a presentation and tour of Lyra, a 34 Story mixed-use Luxury Residential Tower in Boston. To conclude the fiscal year, the EMG and T&DI Boston Chapter held a joint social networking mixer event on June 24. This membership mixer was designed to engage with and identify new members to join these committees and was very successful with several new members in attendance. BSCES will plan to introduce more mixer events with various committees throughout the year.
The big reveal of the summer happened at the State House on July 23 with the release of the Inaugural Report Card for Massachusetts Infrastructure, where Massachusetts received an overall grade of a D+, two steps below the national grade of C! The report card release can be found here: Inaugural Report Card for Massachusetts’ Infrastructure Has Been Released. This report card was a 2-year development process from civil engineers, academics, and industry professionals that was spearheaded by the BSCES Government Affairs & Professional Practice Committee Chair, Patrick Tierney, PE, NETTCP. Thank you Pat and to all those that contributed countless volunteer hours to these efforts. The report card is a comprehensive, data-driven assessment of the Commonwealth’s critical infrastructure systems across seven key sectors: Roads, Bridges, Transit, Dams, Stormwater, Drinking Water, and Wastewater. The resulting grades provide an objective snapshot of the current state of Massachusetts’ infrastructure and help identify priorities for investment and improvement. View ASCE’s full press release here, and watch NBC10 Boston’s coverage here.
BSCES took August off from putting on events as the new board and the new committee chairs prepared for the new fiscal year and many fall events. In September, the YMG hosted two events: a Bocce event at Revere Beach on September 10 where there was a great turnout of young professionals, BSCES senior leadership, and student members on a beautiful 85°F and sunny afternoon as well as Carson Beach Cleanup on September 19.
There are many exciting events still to come:
- The newly revamped PE Civil – Structural Exam Refresher Training that began on September 22
- FHWA-NHI Bridge Inspection Refresher Training September 29 to October 1
- Site tour of the Suffolk Downs Redevelopment with the Construction Institute Boston Chapter on October 15
- Beyond Regulation: Stormwater, Flooding and Cloudbursts webinar from the Committee on Sustainability on October 22.
We hope that you take advantage of these upcoming social and technical events to collaborate with your colleagues and help us build the momentum for more events to come.
There is much I want BSCES to achieve in my time as President. I have a list of my top priorities and some actionable steps that can get us there for FY27 as follows:
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Increase membership
- Membership has been on the decline over the last decade. I task ALL of our members to help increase membership by reaching out colleagues to join BSCES. Managers, business owners, and executive leadership to encourage younger and senior staff to join BSCES. Retired members to reach out to your plethora of contacts to join BSCES. We need your help to achieve a sustainable future! BSCES leadership will put on more membership mixers throughout the year to help encourage new membership participation. Be on the lookout for these!
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Strengthen BSCES senior leadership and student membership connections
- I pledge to visit all 12 of our ASCE student chapters (10 in Massachusetts and 2 in Montreal, Canada). To achieve this, we plan to have various board, executive, or YMG meetings on campuses along with presentations and panels.
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Reactivate our Constitution and Bylaws Committee
- It has been a long time since BSCES reviewed our constitution and bylaws. I plan to start committee meetings in October. If you have any interest in jointing this committee, reach out to me directly: [email protected] or Michelle Monette, BSCES’ membership associate: [email protected].
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Improve and expand our fundraising efforts
- We are in the midst of our annual fundraising campaign and as many of you have seen, BSCES revamped our fundraising drive into four tiers offering more benefits than ever before! As of now, BSCES is at 80% of our fundraising goal. Thank you to all our sponsors for helping us achieve this and for those considering renewing a sponsorship or want to be a new sponsor, I am happy to discuss our various sponsorship levels with you directly. Reach out to me directly: [email protected] or Michelle Monette, BSCES’ membership associate: [email protected].
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Offer more benefits to our members such as the PE refresher courses
- The newly revamped PE Civil – Structural Exam Refresher Training began on September 22. BSCES plans to offer more discipline PE – Civil refresher trainings throughout the fiscal year. Be on the lookout for more offerings!
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Release the Massachusetts Infrastructure Report Card
- Revealed on July 23, 2026! Next release will be planned for 2030 or beyond (typically every 4+ years).
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Host the Order of the Engineer Induction Ceremony
- I am planning to apply for BSCES to be a link of the Order of the Engineer, and plan to host the Order of the Engineer ceremony at our 2027 Annual Awards Dinner to celebrate our 178th year. More information will be released about this event later in the fiscal year.
Last but not least, I want to thank the 30 organizations so far that have committed to sponsorship of BSCES for the 2026 – 2027 year. Their support of our programs is integral to our society and we are very grateful. See a full list of these organizations here. There is still time to sponsor BSCES this year – learn about the new benefits and tiers in our revamped program here.
I am excited to see how this year unfolds with all the programs and offerings BSCES is providing to our members and hope to attract many new members. I wish you all a happy and healthy fall and look forward to serving you as your president!