About the author  ⁄ Marc S. Barter, P.E., S.E., SECB

Marc S. Barter, P.E., S.E., SECB (mbarter@barterse.com), is the president of Barter & Associates, Inc., a structural engineering consulting firm in Mobile, Alabama. He is a past president of NCSEA and chair of the Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.

When a major tornado happens, it is all over the news. And, every year, the average person may recall hearing about a dozen or so tornado events, if that. So it might be startling to know that, on average, the number of tornadoes that touch down each year in the United States, according to www.ustornadoes.com, is more than 1,200.

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Regardless of your familiarity with Quality Based Selection (QBS), there are certain basics of business that all engineers should understand, even if you are not in management. Structural engineering is a professional service business. The overwhelming majority of structural engineers are compensated based on the amount of time spent on a client’s project. If you are a business owner, you know that each and every proposal starts out with the question “How much time will the project take?”

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At its 2015 Annual Meeting in August, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) voted on Motion 1 submitted by the Advisory Committee on Council Activities (ACCA) (see the full text of the committee’s charge and rationale). If passed, Motion 1 would have ultimately modified the Model Law and Model Rules to limit both the use of the structural engineer title and the practice of structural engineering.

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