Technical Council on Forensic Engineering Survey of Member Needs

Abstract

In the spring of 2004, the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering ~TCFE! conducted a member needs questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire was to determine the desires of ASCE members with forensic engineering interests and to help form a strategic plan for future council activities. In addition, a byproduct of the survey was to introduce to the council those ASCE members who had failure analysis interests in hopes of attracting additional members to TCFE committees. One specific reason the survey was undertaken at this time was to respond to declining attendance at the forensic engineering congresses held every 3 years since 1997 ~Rens 1997; Rens et al. 2000; Bosela et al. 2003!. The Third Congress, held in San Diego in October 2003, was successful in many ways, with the exception of attendance. The Fourth Forensic Engineering Congress is tentatively scheduled for fall 2006 in Chicago. It is hoped that the results of this questionnaire will help provide a more attractive product to those with an interest in the practice of failure analysis. The two-page survey questionnaire ~Appendix! consisted of 12 questions of which nine were multiple choice and three were open-ended general questions. The questionnaire was sent to each ASCE member that had indicated their level of forensic engineering interest as 1, 2, or 3 in the annual ASCE membership renewal form. The total target audience was approximately 3,000 members of which 312 responded on the Internet, a rate of return of about 10%.