Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 130,000 civil engineers worldwide, and is the world’s largest and America’s oldest national engineering society. The ASCE Northwest Branch was started in 1974 and contains the largest area geographically in Wisconsin compared to the other three (3) branches within the Wisconsin Section. The Northwest Branch includes approximately 180 ASCE members.
The Northwest Branch is governed by a Past-president, President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and three directors at-large. The board has monthly meetings to coordinate and plan events for the Branch. The Northwest Branch Board understands that it is often difficult to engage in professional networking within a Branch with such a large geographic area and hosts meeting in the 3 central areas of Wausau, Eau Claire and LaCrosse. Our branch focuses on not only the members themselves but also their families and friends by extending invitations to family members or co-workers of the members.
The Northwest Branch actively engages in outreach activities to promote the value of engineering to our society. The Branch also focuses on trying to include joint meetings with other organizations. Our Branch commonly hosts joint events with the area WSPE chapters. The Northwest Branch has been working with UW-Stout to promote the building construction management majors to pursue membership in ASCE and to get the latest advancements and knowledge of the construction industry and demonstrated the value of ASCE.
The Northwest Branch hosts at a minimum of 5 branch meetings for the members to engage in throughout the year and offer Professional Development Hours (PDH’s) for engineering licensure. The Northwest Branch also informs members of events hosted by the Minnesota Section of ASCE, whom we have partnered with in the past, and Society of Women Engineers. The Minnesota Section of ASCE also provides announcements to their members on Northwest Branch hosted events as well.