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Platform Chats
Platform Chats
Environmental Impact in the Rail Industry
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On this episode, Bleser sits down with Kari Harris, Manager, Environmental Impact, CN and Leo Thorbecke, Vice President, TRC Companies, leaders of Committee 13 - Environmental. They discuss Committee 13's role at AREMA, the challenges and opportunities found in a small committee, and how they're looking to help expand the rail industry. Environmental is more than just permits. Find out why on this episode.
I would attend the annual conference. You know, I think the last one that we had that Arima had was the um well, the live one in person was the one in Minneapolis. And for me, I went, and you didn't see where Environmental Committee 13 fit in all of those, you know, that huge agenda of all of these presentations and you know, people presenting and talking and workshops. And I would look at it and look and think, where do I belong in this agenda? I don't see us represented in this agenda. And I think that was one of our biggest first steps was okay, if we want to be a bigger part of the annual conference, then we have to start with understanding what our relevance is.
SPEAKER_01You may know the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, or AREMA, as the quote, keepers of the manuals. You may know them as the quote people behind the largest annual railroad conference in North America. Heck, you may not know about AREMA at all. This podcast is designed, no pun intended, to change your view of who AREMA is and how AREMA has changed the trajectory of many railway careers over its 100-plus year history. Welcome to Platform Chats with your host, Walt Blesser, where he takes a moment to discuss the impacts AREMA has had on the very people who are proud to be called members. Are you ready to roll with AREMA?
SPEAKER_03This episode is brought to you by Unabridged Structures. Unabridged Structures provides mentorship and advisement to emerging technologies and early stage companies focused on infrastructure. They have a proven track record of bringing technology solutions to the railway industry. For more on Unabridged Structures, go to unabridged structures.com.
SPEAKER_04Hey everybody, and welcome back to AREMA's Platform Chats. I cannot believe we are on to episode four. And I will tell you today, I say this every time. I say it every time that I'm excited. This time I really am excited because I don't have one guest for you. I have two. I have two guests on the Arima Platform Chats. That'll be the first time in history to have two guests. And uh the fact that we're gonna do that shows you just how technologically advanced Arima has come in its over 100-plus year history. Uh on today's show, again, stretching that Arima podcast dollar for you, I have Carrie Harris, currently works for Canadian National. I also have Leo Thorbeck, who works for TRC. I'm gonna let them do their own introductions. I'm not gonna go too much beyond that. But the big focus today is Arima's Committee 13. And if you're like me and you're in the structures group and you're listening to this podcast, you immediately took your right hand and you scratched your head and said, huh, what's 13? Because that's what I did. And I had to think about it. And I'll tell you right now, it is environmental. And I'll tell you also, if you are in the structures group, you just scratched your head, you recognized it was environmental, and then you said, oh, the permit people, the people that are keeping me from building my bridges. Well, that's what we're going to talk about today, and I think it's going to change the way you view C13. And I'm hoping that there are some folks out there listening to us today that actually reach out to Leo and Carrie and join their committee. So with that, Carrie, I would love it if you could give a brief introduction to who you are, what you do for CN. Um heck, I think you might even like the Cubs, is what I've heard. So anything, any little, any little bit of uh color is is appreciated here on the ARIMA podcast.
SPEAKER_00You bet. So uh thanks for having me, Walt. Um, as a brief introduction that he did make, uh, my name is Carrie Harris. I am with CN Railroad. I'm out of the Homewood office, which is the U.S. headquarters here just outside of Chicago. Um I am currently the environmental manager uh for what I like to refer to as the wetland and waterway permitting here in the US. So I cover all of the um 13 plus or minus states um within our eastern region of the US. And basically I do just that. I manage and oversee to get um any kind of wetland or waterway permits. So your Clean Water Act permitting for bridges and structures, for new track, for facilities, for maintenance, um, pretty much anything that may require some kind of wetland or waterway permit for construction. Um I help out with. And yeah, that is our goal is to help everybody realize we are not here to get in the way, but we are we're here to help out where we can. So, and yeah, diehard Cubs fan, pretty good weekend. Yesterday there were a little bit of a letdown, but the rest of the week was a good week. Lots of W's flying.
SPEAKER_04So lots of W flags flying. I will say, uh, for our listeners that are not familiar with the Canadian National Territory, I heard states, I heard Homewood, Illinois, Chicago area. So how is Canadian National broken up? Uh how do they service their clients? My understanding is they actually go from west coast to east coast and all the way to the southern border, which is one of the only railroads that does that. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00That's correct. So we are currently broken out into now a western and eastern region. Um, when I first started with CN back in full-time 2014, we're actually three regions. We're western, eastern, and southern region. So I was the southern region be all of the US. Western region is Western Canada to Saskatchewan, I want to say. Um, and then east of there is the eastern region. Um so I have two counterparts, one in the western region and one in the original eastern region. But um in the last year or two, and I forget actually when we actually did it, but we combined the eastern and southern into one eastern region. And so now I am the south territory, I guess we could say, of the eastern region. So that's how we're broken up. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so it used to be west, east, south, where you were the in the south. Now the eastern and the southern are together. Okay. And you are in the homewood office now, yep.
SPEAKER_00That's correct.
SPEAKER_04All right. Well, if you get a chance to leave that conference room, give old Sandra a give him a high five. And this is a test to see if Sandra listens to these people. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00Now the pressure's really on.
SPEAKER_04The pressure's on now. We'll see how well you guys can uh publicize this and turn inside that office. And Leo, I gotta say, you've been extremely patient. Um and and and I'd love to just jump right in here.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say, Walt, you you open the door, I'll walk right in. Uh Leo Thorbeck, I'm vice president uh of the transportation sector for TRC. We we work with the uh all the class ones throughout North America, provide and and short lines, uh uh providing environmental and engineering solutions. I've been in the rail industry for 30 years with TRC in the past five. And uh, a lot of times we keep the case in point here. Uh Carrie's a friend as well as a client, and uh I'm sure we'll get into more of that as we you know talk amongst ourselves about committee 13, uh the membership and and some of the challenges and great things that uh that have been happening.
SPEAKER_04And it's my understanding you're the chairman, yes, and Carrie is vice chair. Vice chair person. Okay. Well, I will to be politically correct. I just learned last night that people don't call the master bedroom that anymore. It's the primary bedroom on a you know classic HG TV show my wife made me watch. So if you didn't know that, you know it now. Uh and so does the rest of the world listening to this. Uh, but to stay on track, committee 13 rolls into which functional group? Is it track? Is this I know it was like engineering?
SPEAKER_02Engineering. Engineering.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah. And Leo, you've been chairperson. It sounds like you've been uh uh part of committee 13 for quite some time. I think it would be helpful to our listeners if you could just give some quick back of the napkin facts about membership numbers, uh where you guys came from, when you started, anything you want to do on a history uh is very helpful. Some of these uh committees uh date back to the beginning of AREA. If you listen to my podcast with uh my friend Steve Hill, uh he talked about AREA, he talked about the B and B Association, he talked about the signals and communications. So where where does C-13 come into the picture? When, how? I'd love I think the listeners would love to hear that.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'll give you I I didn't go back in time uh uh uh during some of those changes, but you know, functionally the group started off uh I think it had the the the great title of being sanitation services uh back in the uh you know the 50s, 60s, and I think it was really with the uh uh the advent of the the or the passing of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act that uh went from the water oil sanitation services and actually became codified as environmental committee thirteen. So that's some of the historical facts about the the actual committee itself. Uh I started getting involved with uh Environmental Committee 13 during the uh what would be the annual meeting that was held or the annual breakfast AREMA Committee 13 breakfast at the Railroad Environmental Uh Conference in Champaign, Urbana. And that's a a conference that has been 23rd year right now, so that was an annual uh uh opportunity for AREMA Committee 30 uh 13 to meet. And as I said, it was it was a breakfast meeting that was strategically held at seven o'clock in the morning, which always meant that people were rather chipper and you ensured large attendance. But uh so that that was that was it. So you know, the kind of the mission of getting together was to to kind of uh you know have have a little camaraderie, uh the discussion of the manual, the manual update. Uh you know, I did not get involved from from being uh being asked to to be part of the you know the ascension to chair till about uh probably about six years ago, five years ago, when a position opened up. It was the secretary position. Um I assumed the role of secretary. Uh the vice chair uh had to quit. And I went from secretary after two years, two to three years to to to uh chair when uh the the current chair uh stuck around for another year and then assumed the chair. So I think during that process is when Kerry got conned. I mean uh asked to to volunteer.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00We like to say that I was volunteer. Yeah. So that would that was actually my first involvement. That was your first involvement too.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. Yeah, Kerry was uh would got involved through the participation of the Railroad Environmental Conference. So there's actually, you know, a core group of us that I would say uh there's several different organizations, rail organizations that that we uh that we belong to. Some of us are a little bit newer or older to them. So it's kind of like a core group of people that have been participating in the uh in the environmental field, uh, you know, be it you know from the railroad perspective to the consultant perspective. So I think that really it's it's in the past couple years it's been a real good involvement of a core group of people kind of helping reset the button of you know, why are we here? What do we, you know, what do we need to do different? Uh how do we make this fun? You know, how how how do we become a little bit more relevant? So uh I think some of the conversations uh really started to to take uh take seed in the past couple years. And uh and I think I dare say the pandemic helped things, but it really provided a little bit more focus as we're all used to being virtual and uh uh and it really kind of spawned our ability to to form some of the subcommittees that we'll talk about, I'm sure, in in a little bit more detail and and become come together, use part of that bond that we've established, you know, from knowing each other to uh starting these subcommittees to to getting a lot of traction and getting making some uh some great headway in the past, I would say, six to twelve months.
SPEAKER_04So speaking of relevance, uh how many members does C13 have?
SPEAKER_02Currently our membership wealth is uh 34, 34 active members. And that's a broad base from consultant, contractor to railroad.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Is that I would say is that on the smaller side?
SPEAKER_02I would say that's you know, from the other uh functional uh committees within uh uh what are there, 29 uh other technical committees? I'd say that REMA Committee 13 is probably uh is in the bucket of the smaller committees.
SPEAKER_04Okay, okay. And and Carrie, you joined 13 when?
SPEAKER_00Um, I was trying to think of that. I guess it's been right about three years now, three, three or four years. Um, again, I was very loosely involved in a REMI. I maybe went to a conference here or there. Um, and then I think it was at one of the re-reck conferences that Leo mentioned down in Champaign, and you know, everybody's having a social hour, and I think the subject came up, and one of my coworkers said, Carrie, you should be the vice chair. And I was like, sure, whatever. And next thing you know, I'm I was uh elected the position of vice chair, and it's it has been great. I'm I'm really glad I did it for sure. Um, to Leo's point, uh we the 30 some members within our committee 13, we do, I think most of us will consider each other friends because there are so many other conferences or um groups that we all belong to, um, and we have that common environmental uh regulatory background, even though it may be different types of environmental background, um, it's it's a really well-rounded group with lots of different experience. And you know, we like to keep it really casual and have fun at our meetings. And I think with the pandemic, even though we weren't able to meet in person, it did kind of push us to meet, you know, virtually more often, just like I think with everyone else and in everything that's going on work-wise. I mean, I don't remember having so many meetings before, and now it's so easy, you know, everybody's like, oh, let's get on a Teams call or let's do this, and everybody just connects, and and it's great because it's we've really found a way to collaborate even better than we used to. Um, so I think it was right before the pandemic we had we had talked and we decided to um kind of what did we call it, Leo, a renaissance. We decided to have a renaissance of committee 13, and we started with the former ARIMA president Ed Sparks. And we approached him, and this was before the pandemic, and we reached out to him and said, we have a spring meeting planned. It was supposed to be May 2020, and we reached out to him, we said, Ed, we would love to have you as a guest speaker and kind of you know, field, maybe field some questions. Just tell us what you think in your eyes, what do you believe is the value and the purpose of committee 13? What is the rest of the AREMA membership looking for from us? And we we had that meeting, we started with him, we got some really great feedback, lots of questions, you know, good answers. And from there we said, okay, what's our mission statement? You know, we looked at it from that aspect, and we formed subcommittees, and one was to be in charge with uh basically preparing and defining a mission statement and goals and values, and then from there we created a membership subcommittee, and we also have a and we just changed some of the names. So um one is like a uh technical and communications right, um, another one is uh webinars. So we and we just started out each subcommittee only has like maybe four or five members, so it's not even the entire committee 13, but it's it's a really good just way to focus in on getting things accomplished because I think we felt like we were meeting once, maybe twice a year. We were talking the talk, but I don't think we were walking the walk. Um, and I think this last year just really everybody got motivated, and um, you know, kudos to to Leo to keep us on track. And we had more than just one or two meetings throughout the year that having the virtual meetings was helpful, and um just the subcommittees we've we've found has proven to be really successful, and and now we're looking to expand on those subcommittees because now the mission statement is done, and we've uh identified our goals and objectives um and how to help the rest of their Remo membership, and so now we're looking to open that up even more. So um I think that's where we're we're headed for next is what more can we do?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and what's next because we really use the the mission statement almost like the first step for us to to kind of lay the foundation for the other working groups or subcommittees, and we still have an open debate on whether it's subcommittee or working groups, what we're gonna call them. Yeah. But it's like our our mission statement or our vision was was really who are we? And we really wanted to codify in a very short, pithy statement who we were, the value we offered, and what our vision was, because we also uh recognized that uh relevancy was an issue, you know, and and we did see, you know, we wanted we wanted the the involvement uh and in committee thirteen. We wanted people to participate, and we wanted to give them reasons to participate, and we wanted to show the railroads uh the value of committee 13.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I heard you guys use the term relevance. I almost feel like the the term reboot uh sounded uh somewhat like that's what's going on here. So do you feel that at some point prior to 2020 or 2019 uh C13 just needed a a quick refresh? Uh I mean when you sit down and you start talking about mission and vision and all that stuff, I mean that's you know, big companies do that. Um small companies do that. What drove that? I guess would be my question. What what made you feel irrelevant? And I guess the the follow-on question of that is what what mission and vision, what is your mission and vision now that if if someone that's listening is interested in potentially joining, what what would get them excited to come to your meeting?
SPEAKER_02Well, I tell you what, I mean it's I mean it's to support the broader railroad community community for all environmental engineering and maintenance uh of weight concerns. It's comprised of a committee 13 is comprised of a diverse range of subject matter experts. We provide value through best practices, guidance, and education of the railroad community on existing and emerging regulatory trends. So, I mean, real pithy. Again, Carrie, Carrie helped lead that part of that process too. We us we decided we would uh have a team of four or five people and came up with that statement, uh, collaborated. It was about three or four or five calls before we really condensed it down.
SPEAKER_00We did, and and and what was nice about it is so it was myself being you know with the railroad, it was Leo with a consulting company, one of Leo's co-workers, another consulting company, um, another woman who is a consultant, and we had a gentleman from Amtrak. So we felt that we had it all of our bases covered to you know really kind of focus in on how did we want to define it? And to go back real quick to answer your first question, I think was um something about why did we feel a reboot was necessary? And personally, for me, one being uh the vice chair and seeing uh Leo's you know um reign eventually coming to an end, I kind of wanted to take the opportunity personally to say, you know, let's let's get this kind of rebooted now and let's see where we're going so that by the time I did step in, you know, maybe things would be a little more organized and you know, focused, not organized, we're always organized, but just get that focus in place. And I think one of the biggest things for me was that I I would attend the annual conference. You know, I think the last one that we had that Arima had was the um, well, the live one. In person was the one in Minneapolis. And for me, I went, and you didn't see where Environmental Committee 13 fit in all of those, you know, that huge agenda of all of these presentations and you know, people presenting and talking and workshops. And I would look at it and look and think, where do I belong in this agenda? I don't see us represented in this agenda. And I think that was one of our biggest first steps was okay, if we want to be a bigger part of the annual conference, then we have to start with understanding what our relevance is. And that's when we reached out to Ed Sparks. I mean, Leo, do you I don't know if you have a difference of opinion, but that was that's what it was for me.
SPEAKER_02Yes, very much a part of that. And and I had seen, Walt, it was also kind of a numerical uh component, and that was the the percentage of railroads being participating in environmental committee 13 and just even the membership. So I mean we had, you know, I I had going back to the what AREMA Committee 13 meeting used to look like, where it was an annual breakfast and get together, you know, something we've introduced just several years back was uh during our spring meeting, and it was a best practice we copied off of another AREMA committee, and that was we're gonna host our environmental committee 13 meetings at a railroad in the spring. So we we rolled that out, and uh we had uh what three years, three years doing that uh at a rail location before the pandemic hit. So uh, you know, just little things to say. We want to be real relevant to railroads, so we're going to we're gonna host a meeting at a railroad. And I think part of it was just, you know, how do we refresh ourselves? How do we listen to the voice of the railroad to, you know, what what do we what are you looking for? You know, how can we better serve you? And you know, and speaking to Carrie, you look how broad uh AREMA is and how much, you know, how many, you know, you know, again, 29 technical committees, you know, the manual for railroad engineering and uh the communication and signals manual. It touches so many components of rail operations, so does environmental, but we are such a uh really an unheard voice, and you know, we we want to be more relevant, we want to to prove our relevancy and and and really have that cross-pollinate pro cross-pollination. So I think that that that was part of the requirement.
SPEAKER_00And and we want to be open, yeah. We want to be an open book. We want people to write us and ask us questions. You know, we're we're here. I I feel like the rest of the room of membership is our they're our customers, you know, kind of like our internal customers, where we're here to answer questions and to help out. Um, we know environmental permitting changes constantly, right? It's with every administration, it's changing right now. So it's it's a lot of information to keep up with. And it's as difficult as it can be for us, the actual environmental professionals, to try to keep up with it. It's even more difficult for someone who's going to build a new bridge or replace a bridge on culverts or uh build a new track siding or build a new facility somewhere in the yard, whether it be um new construction or existing operating, um, you know, operational activity going on for stormwater or wastewater, it's environmental regulations are constantly evolving and changing. And it's a lot to keep up with. So that's where we we want to be that committee that anyone can feel that they can come to us and ask those questions. And if if I don't have the answer, then I'm gonna know within our committee where to go to get those answers because I know I don't know everything about the environmental regulations myself. I don't, you know, I have my niche, and that's where you know, my comfort zone. A lot of people ask me, what about um, you know, noise pollution? I have no idea. You know, I I have no problem saying that I have no idea, but I can find someone who does have the answer. And that's where it's that well-rounded, very dynamic uh group of people that we have within our community 13. So we are small, we're on the smaller side, but we're very dynamic. We know how to have a good time. We like to keep things casual and fun too.
SPEAKER_04So you know, I think uh to hear you say that you're not relevant or or it's difficult to find your relevancy is funny in the sense that uh I think in any project that you take on in the railway industry, especially in the infrastructure maintenance of way, you're gonna be dealing with permits. And as time goes on, the environmental piece uh is gonna be more front and center than it well, it probably ever has been in my lifetime. And and I think you're gonna have uh, or we probably already have, a strong interest from the youth coming out of school, uh joining the industry in in the environment, frankly. I think a lot more people really care about the environment, period. Whether that's helping get the right permit for a bridge job might not be the first thing on their uh radar, but it it's something that has to be done. So let's just jump right in there and I'm gonna go right to Carrie. Um, how is C13 attracting this members? And if you were looking to speak with a recent graduate from whatever college, why would you encourage them to join uh committee 13 and AREMA in general?
SPEAKER_00So with our membership subcommittee or working group, whatever we have decided to call it, which we may have a subcommittee to determine how to call ourselves. But um we do have a membership working group subcommittee. And within that, um, some of the things we just started out with the basics, right? We took the the mission statement and those values and we updated our um uh committee page on the AREMA website. So we started with that because we looked at it, we're like, wow, there's not a lot of information here. So we started with updating that. We um uh we have an upcoming webinar next week, May 19th. Um, myself will be presenting uh with one of our senior managers from Bridges and Structures, uh, Mr. Ray Baker, a legend within the CN and uh EJE Rail Railroad, I would say. Um and so with that webinar, we created just some a standard template, again, of the beginning and the end of the webinar to show who committee 13 is, our mission statement, our values, and how to join so that you're you know, anyone um watching the the webinar and that are there to learn more about environmental permitting um in general can see that you know they could be a part of our group. And you know, we're always open to anyone, you don't have to have an environmental background, right? We are looking for anyone who is willing to help us out to actually better understand, you know, back to that relevance is how are we, how can we be more relevant to bridges and structures or to maintenance of way or to signals. And so if if you're looking to join a new committee, um, we are you know, we're here and open to hear your input on maybe we're missing something. Maybe, you know, it'd be great to have someone from structures to say, hey, you know what we're always talking about? What we're missing is that connection to how do we know how to get ahead in our in our permitting, um, especially for something like bridges, you know, um historic shippo can be a huge delay in having to replace a bridge that may have some kind of historic status. And uh that's been a hot topic now here for the last few years. So if there's someone in Burgess Instructures who wants to join our uh our committee and be a member, an active member that can help us determine how to communicate, how to move forward with some of those permitting issues, then you know we we'd love to, you know, welcome you aboard.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and speaking to that, Walt, also, uh, one thing I'd like to uh to kind of bring up is that uh, you know, pre-pandemic during our meetings at the Railroad Environmental Conference, which is uh typically held about a month and a half after the annual arena, uh typically re-reck happens end of October, first week of November. Uh one event that we did host at the University of Illinois was the uh uh student chapter uh trivia night, which was uh you know kind of the role of the you know the the current chair to put together a Pepsian or you know soda and pizza event and it was uh railroad trivia that that we would play in you know competition amongst the the groups, but and then uh we also during the we'd host the arena dinner and then uh you know Carrie was was was part of the uh the the team. This I the onset of really developing one of the subcommittees on on membership and local, you know, how do we drive the the newcomers, the the the student b population. So decided to include the student body into the arena dinner and then populate them one per table or two per table. So they got an opportunity to actually sit with a consultant, sit with a contractor, sit with somebody from a railroad, uh, you know, and and have a nice casual conversation throughout dinner in the evening. And uh so there was a lot of opportunity to to mingle with with professionals in in that field. You know, and I would also say to the the student population, why Arima, why Arima? Uh just the broad base of the technical committee. You know, you may not know what what you're wanting to focus on in your career, you're fresh out of college or graduate school. Maybe you have an idea, but uh ARIMA at least affords you an opportunity. It's kind of like an a la carte menu. You know, you can sit there and participate in a couple different committees and uh you know kind of get a taste for that and uh you know maybe influence and and even network with individuals that might provide uh provide uh a career path for you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a great way to network. Great way to network and meet people. I mean, it's like I said, it's it's such a dynamic uh group of people.
SPEAKER_04Um fair enough. So let's talk. Uh I'd like to cover a couple more things before we we break. I I heard webinar. So uh is this your first webinar? Is this uh have you have you done multiple? Uh it sounds like if if people are listening to this, they may still have a chance to uh quickly attend the webinar since it's coming up. You said May 19th, is that right? That's correct.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00May 19th. I think either one or two o'clock in the afternoon, I forget now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's not the 22nd, it's the 19th.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it is May 19th. Don't listen, Leo. But um, but yeah, it's uh is it officially our first webinar, right, Leo? I think.
SPEAKER_02It is it is our first webinar. In fact, it it's great to have you kick it off. It is our first webinar. Uh, but the only thing that we came close to this was to host a uh a workshop at the annual meeting, uh, but with declining membership over the years, that was stopped about a decade ago. And I think part of it was uh it was a Sunday morning at eight o'clock, is when that uh that uh that meeting get together usually happened. But this is our first webinar. And I and I think, well, you know, speaking to a lot of the changes, uh a lot of the refocus that that Arima uh has has has put behind uh you know webinars, uh their website, you know, having it be more user-friendly, kind of expanding some of those tools uh is great. So uh yeah, this is our our first first one, and as Carrie mentioned, uh great topic. So I'm I'm looking forward to having you know a lot a lot of people attend and get something out of it.
SPEAKER_04Fantastic. Well, I hope you guys have a fantastic uh well, turnout, for lack of a better term. I guess that would be a virtual turnout on uh on May 19th. A couple other topics I did want to discuss since I had you both here. Um Leah, we talked in a previous conversation about some of the challenges that Arima's facing that we think other professional organizations are facing, and perhaps even some of the ones that other professional organizations aren't facing. So as we uh move forward and and C13 uh reboots into the next uh decade or so, uh what and what challenges do you think we have? And I say we as the royal we, all of us that are members of Arima, uh when it comes to uh engagement with membership and and getting new members on board and retaining them. And and what advantages do you think we have, given that that could be our hundred-plus-year history, uh, a solid industry, anything. I'd uh either one of you want to go. I'd I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll I'll go ahead and just kind of kick it off. I mean, it's it's you know, we're barraged. Uh you don't open your email up in the morning without some announcement of some webinar or sign up for this or sign up for that, especially in the past year. But you know, it's a competition for you know, time and money, right? Uh, you know, that that you know uh return on investment. Like, hey, everybody's wanting you to to kind of pull in for this or that. But uh and I think that's why we we're only as good as our membership, you know, we're only as good as the people that that are working with us and who we're serving. And you know, it's a real organization, so you know we need to be relevant, and we've already talked about that, hen hence the mission statement and and and walking the walk now. But uh, you know, why AREMA Committee 13? Uh I I think uh I'm a history buff and I think history means a lot, you know. ARIMA is about a convergence of four legacy associations. If you look at uh you know the oldest one, uh ARIA is uh over a hundred years old. So, you know, there's that that that that steeped history, but more important to that is is the broad base of of the organization. Really, it's it's all encompassing. You know, there's not an aspect of of rail operations that's not covered under Arima. I think from a technology standpoint, things are becoming uh ARIMA is is is trying to play catch up and become more more virtual, more accessible, a lot more uh uh things available via via the web, via AREMA's website. So I think we're looking to to capitalize on that. You know, I I I think it would be exciting to you know to have be able to access our subject matter experts from AREMA Committee 13, the environmental committee, that you know, somebody could maybe go to the AREMA site, pop in a question, you know, access, uh have it kind of be a a a live type page. So I think really the diversity of talent that that and the ability to to to serve and work with that talent talent is is important. So uh I think you know those are a couple things that that pop to my mind. I don't know, Carrie, if you want to expand upon that or have a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean I think that's you know, you pretty much said it. I feel like we're you know a broken record. I mean, we we we're looking to expand our membership to, you know, again, you I think the in the title, Environmental Committee 13, can be quite um, I don't want to say intimidating, but I think people think that they have to be an environmental professional to join. And that's not the case. That's not what we're looking to do. And so I think that is can be our staying power, is we're looking to grow and expand on what we already have. We have our core group of environmental professionals. We're not looking to turn those, you know, new people away if you're an environmental professional, but we're also looking to grow bigger, to accept um you know, new members that can help us continue to grow and expand on how best to communicate and correspond with the rest of the arema membership. I think that's that's one of our core goals next. That's like the next step, right? Is so we've kind of rebooted, we we've we're trying to introduce or reintroduce ourselves to the rest of the arena membership. And now I think our next step will look will be to look to see how we can expand on just the core group of environmental professionals that we are. How do how do we open that up to the other um technical backgrounds that people have?
SPEAKER_04I actually don't know if there is a much better way to close this out than what you just said, because you're you guys are open to more than just environmental professionals. You're looking to cross boundaries with any anyone in the the bridge world, the track world, the CNS role uh that has thoughts on the subject. It sounds like there is a um pretty wide bar of entry, if you will. I don't know if that makes any sense. But uh yeah, and it and it sounds like you got the right leadership at the helm, and you're kicking it off with a webinar here. When is your next in-person meeting? Uh, assuming people can get a hold of you through the arema.org website. Uh are they are you gonna be meeting at the annual conference? I guess that's gonna be virtual.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's virtual, but I think we were talking about the REREC uh conference that we've referred to. That's at uh University of Illinois champagne every year. I think this year the plan is as of now, my understanding is it's going to be a hybrid. So there will be probably, I assume, like a limited capacity of in-person attendees, and then the rest will be virtual. So we are looking to have our own limited capacity um in-person meeting at that. But other than that, it probably won't be until next spring, like for a full in-person, you know, hopefully knock on wood. Yeah, though.
SPEAKER_04So and you're gonna have to define REREC for me, and you're gonna have to define what what date will that be?
SPEAKER_02Railroad Environmental Conference, uh, which is uh you know supported uh and and helped backed by the Association of American Railroads, but just from a little historical aspect, it that it was really the idea was was spawned about 24 years ago. The Environmental Affairs Committee for the Railroads would meet once a year at the Contaminated Soils Conference. And about 24 years ago, they they the comment was gosh, we're more than just dirty dirt. We're more than railroads are more than just contaminated soils. Why why do we meet at that conference? And uh that was also held every year at uh Amherst in Massachusetts. So you had the Western Roads traveling there. So long story short, is there was a gentleman, Dr. Chris Barkin, who was gonna be starting up a rail program at the University of Illinois and was working to the Association of American Railroads volunteered to host it at that new new new university that he's teaching. So in Illinois. So uh that's that's the that is the Railroad Environmental Conference. That is the the main event for us in in the environmental field to get together annually and you know present uh kind of like the the larger arena except on a much smaller perspective. So it's usually two days of nothing but environmental presentations. And uh so yes, we're gonna we're gonna use that. We you know, I think you picked up one thing is that we like to have fun. So uh we discussed that on uh during our virtual meeting just uh about a week and a half ago is the you know we need to get together. Uh we're used to that. So uh the plan still is to to to do a hybrid approach. So they're gonna have a limited number, and uh we'll have our limited number of uh of our REMA committee 13 together. So let's be figures together that that uh the spring meeting will be at a rail facility uh in full attendance.
SPEAKER_00And we'll be looking to form a social subcommittee to our list of subcommittees. There you go.
SPEAKER_04Okay, and so uh I'm and I the one thing I missed there was the date for that re-reck conference.
SPEAKER_00Uh it's the first week of November. Yeah, I just did just get changed, so I don't know if I have that. It it okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it is now the end of October. So uh it moved from the first week of November to the end of October because of a uh a facility uh issue as far as booking. So it is uh I could tell you in a second, it's over my left shoulder. It is the 26th and 27th of October.
SPEAKER_04Okay, perfect. So, well, as the con country starts to open up and reopen up, uh uh prospective members can find Carrie and Leo at the Rerec conference uh at the end of October this fall. And if not, and in the interim, let's uh hope that they hit you up on that webinar, May 19th, and reach out via the arema.org website. I would love to thank both of you. Uh I feel like this was a success. Having two guests on was fun. Um, I think the talking over each other was minimal. It's probably from a year of Teams and Zoom meetings. We've had more than our fair share of practice. So thank you both for being a part of the AREMA platform chats, and I look forward to uh seeing both of you in person sometime soon. Sounds great.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Thank you all. Thank you, Carrie. And thank you all that took the time to listen.
SPEAKER_04Thanks, guys.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for rolling with Arima on today's episode of Platform Chats. For further information about Arima, please visit arema.org or contact us at info at arema.org.
