Just watched your minute...

Just watched your minute...  Walt, For years, as a member of the Roanoke Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers, I visited local schools to exhort high school kids to consider a career in engineering; it was almost always difficult to find other engineers to go with me. Further, I proctored local MATHcounts competitions, and I was for years an ASCE-sponsored visitor to ABET, the accreditation service. I never had a boss who didn't hold his nose over these activities. I worked as a consultant in the private sector exclusively, and there engineers are rated on productivity, the percentage of paid hours that are billable - and time away to visit some college, or to talk to high school kids, in the name of some vague, nebulous future, can put a serious dent in the group productivity stats (and this year's bonuses). I imagine it's got even worse now that design shops are seeing work tag-teamed around the globe, 24-hours a day. What we need, desperately, is an all-out Sputnik era-style push for engineers and scientists - and it's not likely to happen. Regards, Bob Felton