GBA Audio Education Series – Personal Diplomacy

Tiffany Vorhies and Ryan White recently uncovered a treasure trove of valuable content, GBA's outstanding audio-education series. In order to make this more accessible, they turned these into a podcast series. This series was originally available as downloadable audio files, designed for one-on-one listening by field representatives, or as material to spur discussion during brownbag seminars or other informal training sessions. Like other GBA audio education programs, Fundamentals of Field Representation uses dramatization to make its points. The roles are played by professional actors, supplemented by sound effects. In each episode, Tiffany and Ryan play the original audio and follow up with a discussion, including their own personal lessons learned from many years of experience in the industry as both field reps and technical leaders.

The Member Firm performed the geotech study with recommendations for foundation design and CoMET services for a major school project. CoMET services included earthwork observation and testing during filling operations of the grading constructor. The Member Firm assigned a newly employed field representative to perform construction observation and testing. Five years after construction was complete, investigation of settlement revealed the firm’s field representative had accepted a bribe from the constructor to falsify compaction results.

As "Avoiding Allegations of Corruption" points out, "It's not enough to maintain what you believe is your own and your firm's professional integrity.

The Ethics and Professional Conduct Training materials have been developed for GBA member firms to perform ethics training within their firms. The Powerpoint presentation consists of 63 total slides

This 20-page guide provides innovative model daily field report (MDFR) forms that firms can tailor to meet their own individual needs, along with suggestions for developing your own materials.

This booklet provides sample reporting forms for geoenvironmental field observation and suggestions for preparing similar forms for your own firm. Includes a model daily field report (DFR) form.