Date:

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Time:

12:00 –1:30 PM

Location:

Carlos O’Bryan’s
357 Victoria Street, Kamloops, BC

Details:

APEGBC OQM Program - A New Tool for Improving Professional Practice Quality Management
Later this year APEGBC will launch its new Organizational Quality Management (OQM) Program.   APEGBC recognizes the significant influence that organizations employing APEGBC professionals have on the practice of the professions.  The OQM Program aims to address that influence and improve professional practice quality management at an organizational level.  This self-funded program is available on a voluntary basis to all organizations providing professional engineering or professional geoscience products or services in BC. 

In creating the OQM Program, APEGBC has NOT created a quality management system (QMS) for organizations.  Instead, the OQM Manual provides guidance to organizations about how to confirm, adapt, adopt or create policies and procedures for their QMS that are consistent with the quality management requirements that their APEGBC professionals must meet under the Act and Bylaws.  As part of the OQM Program, APEGBC will issue an OQM certificate to organizations that have voluntarily implemented policies and procedures consistent with these requirements. 

Cost:

$25, this will include lunch and non-alcoholic beverages.
To register on-line at APEGBC, please see details below. 

If you have questions, please contact Eric Sears at esears@urban-systems.com

Registration:

Register Online
To help us predict our needs, please register ASAP. Thank you!

                                                                                                                                                                                                            
The South Central Branch of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC) and Thompson Rivers University (TRU) are pleased to announce the results of the 9th Annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Contest, held at the Trades and Technology Centre at TRU on Saturday March 3rd 2012. 

The contest features the loading of bridges built using 100 Popsicle sticks and wood glue that span 500 mm. This competition is held each year to have fun, celebrate National Engineering and Geoscience Week in Canada, and to raise awareness of the engineering program offered at TRU.

Seventy (70) bridges were entered by aspiring bridge builders in the elementary school category. Participating schools included A E Perry, Aberdeen, Bert Edwards, Clearwater, Lloyd George, McGowan Park, Pacific Way, Parkview, Skeetchestn Community School and South Sa-Hali.  Ten year old Julia Fabbro-Smith from Lloyd George won the category with a bridge that carried an impressive 107.8 kg (238 lbs).  The Polar Bear, Falcon, Fox and Moose Lodges of Scouts Canada also entered bridges.
Thirteen (13) entries were entered in the secondary school category. Twelve were from the Grade 11 physics class at Sa-Hali Secondary, however, a bridge built in Australia by Sarah Purvis and shipped to Canada specifically for the event won the category with a bridge that supported 168.1 kg (371 lbs).

Of the seven (7) entries in the open category, a bridge built by Ryan Watson and Kieren O’Neil carried the highest load: 316.7 kg (699 lbs). This was the highest load of all the bridges tested this year.
In the corporate category, intended to promote friendly competition and rivalry amongst the local engineering firms, a bridge built by Andrew Watson carried a load of 249.7 kg (551 lbs), enough to retain the silver stein for another year.
The top three bridges in each category were:

The organizers would like to thank the following sponsors of the event:

The 10th annual Popsicle Stick Bridge competition will be held in March 2012, at Thompson Rivers University.  We hope to see you there.  For more information please contact:

Andrew Watson, PEng                                                                             Normand Fortier PEng
APEGBC - South Central Branch                                                             Thompson Rivers University
Office:  374-5252                                                                                     Office:  828-5000          
Email:  watson@direct.ca                                                                       Email:  nfortier@tru.ca

To get you motivated, here is a video of a competition at Prince George….. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wMP1iUv6FtQ

Chair

Matthew Davis, P.Eng

mdavis@urban-systems.com

Secretary

Ashley Phillips, EIT
Maggie Sheu, EIT

Treasurer

Andrew Watson, P.Eng

watson@direct.ca

250-374-2244

Members at Large

Council Rep

Jeff Holm, P.Eng

holmj@mmm.ca

250-828-1511

Kevin Turner, P.Geo

kpturner.westrek@shaw.ca

250-434-6656