Phase I ESAs

It has been a busy past month. After Jacky and I returned from our vacation, Russell and I had several meetings with people regarding SampleServe and everyone we met with was impressed with what the web based reporting system could do and were very impressed with the fact that it is included with the sampling and with our prices. I hope that we will shortly have a good client base for our Charlotte, NC office. The following week Jacky's parents came up for Thanskgiving. I then put a bid together on a large Phase I portfolio, but unfortunately it did not work out. I then got another Phase I in Eugene, OR. The Phase I went well although it was hard to get a motel room as Oregon and Oregon State were playing for a bid to the Rose Bowl that night, it made for an interesting atmosphere in Eugene. The Phase I itself went well and I am writing it up and hope to have several more shortly.

Getting SampleServe Started

I am back from our vacation in Rome and am getting SampleServe.coms's office in Charlotte up and running with Russell Schindler from the main office in Michigan. The main office has set me up with a printer and marketting materials and we are ready to go. I am scheduling demonstrations of what our data mangement and reporting system can do. It is a must see for any one in the environmental consulting field even if they do not use our services as it is likely the future of groundwater monitoring and reporting.

Carolina Environmental Professionals Network

When I started the Carolina Environmental Consulting Profesisonals Network on LinkedIn in May I hoped we could get a decent sized group of Carolina Environmental professionals by the end of the year. I was pleasantly surprised when we reached the 100 member mark last week.

The group has built a solid foundation of members throughout the Carolinas (and beyond) in a short time. We have members from the consulting and contracting industry and regulators, and others in related industries, so our network is well represented to answer questions of our members.

Going forward I would like to see the network expand. I hope our members will invite their connections and coworkers to join for this group so it can become the best resource it can be for environmental professionals in the Carolinas. I hope more people will contribute discussions and news items in the future. I plan to try to keep members posted of organizations of interest and upcoming meetings. I hope to organize an informal meeting sometime next year for the group.

Environmental meetings

I recently attended several meetings of environmental groups in the Carolinas. I found this to be a good opportunity to meet with other environmental professionals in the area. I particuarly found the AEG Carolina Section meeting to be beneficial and thought the discussion topic was very helpful. I encourage others to check out this organization. There are several more meetings from various groups coming up. This time of year is poplular for meetings for environmental and geology groups, but it would be better if they were spread out a bit better. Also better and earlier notification of upcoming meetings on the websites would be helpful especially when so many organizations have meetings within a few weeks of each other a it is unfortunately not usually possible to attend them all.

Done with the ASBOG

I took the ASBOG test on Friday up in Raleigh. It was difficult but not to bad, there was a lot on earthquakes & faults and lots of mining that are not areas I am that familiar with. It did not have as much Hydro or mapping as I thought and there were not as many problems needing math formulas as I thought their would be. I thought the fundamentals part was the easier of the 2 and am sure I passed, I will have to wait on the practical part to know for sure if I passed that but overall I think it went well.

After that I went to the Raleigh International Festival and had a good time and some very interesting food. I also went down to Wilmington, NC on the way to Raleigh (not exactly on the way from Charlotte but better than a separate trip) to get my TWIC Card application, photo, and fingerprinting done. They tried to do enter me for over 2 hours but kept having computer problems. It would get part way through and they would have to start over (They have no way to save it until they process the entire application) this happened 5 times. In the end I wasted about 5 hours and will have to go back and start over when they fix their computer which is ridiculous since they have so few facilities and it is about a 4 hour drive each way. Maybe the Federal government needs to get some computers that are not antiques and actually hire programmers to design a program that works and doesn't require a restart anytime they don't finish entering it. The mess in Wilmington cost me a couple of hours I could have used for some last minute studying for the ASBOG.

On a side note, I found an interesting site of blogs all focused on geology:

http://geoblogs.stratigraphy.net/?action=list

Outsourcing well Sampling-Career objectives

After getting let go due to downsizing during the economic downturn I stumbled upon SampleServe. I was intrigued by the concept. Having been in the environmental consulting field for a number of years I saw the value of their business model too aid environmental professionals. I often spent more time that was practical generating tables and figures to go along with a short monitoring report with a limited budget. I instantly saw the value of outsourcing the well sampling and the automated reporting that SampleServe.com included with the sampling. I thought it was a very good concept and there were many times as a consultant that a service such as SampleServe would have saved time and preserved the project budget for other more important tasks. After doing a little research I decided to join SampleServe while continuing to pursue other career options.

Now I am trying to grow a new office for SampleServe here in Charlotte, NC while I continue my job search. If it works out it could be a good opportunity for me going forward. If not it will provide me with good management and marketing experience which will benefit me in the future. It is also a good opportunity to develop contacts, gain experience, and continue working in the environmental field while I continue to search for a permanent position in the environmental consulting industry.

About Brian

Mr. Olin lives in the Charlotte, NC area and has approximately 15 years experience in the environmental field as a Geologist and Project Manager. During this time he has been responsible for a diverse range of projects in numerous states. He has extensive experience generating technical reports, and diverse experience in environmental site assessment and remediation. He has saved clients significant time and money by developing innovative remedial strategies. He just started up an office for SampleServe.com which is a monitoring well sampling company that provides per well sampling costs at reduced rates by focusing only on monitoring well sampling. SampleServe can work with existing consultants or is a great way for consultants to save money by outsourcing their well sampling. Their proprietary web based reporting system will automatically generate a report. I am also looking for a permanent position in the environmental field where I can use my diverse experience to help develop effective environmental strategies for my company and their clients.