Board Member Ray Depa, with Crawford & Co., handled the June 50/50 Raffle ticket sales.

EBCA President Karen Cowan thanked guest speakers Melanie and Richard Robertson for their presentation on soil-related property damage.

EBCA VP Kelly Sullivan, with Koning & Associates, gets a chuckle, as Dave Dunkle, of AIMS, looks on.

Richard and Melanie Robertson worked a very informative tag-team presentation, illustrating their expertise by way of a case study house with extreme foundation issues.

Suana Spencer, with Cunningham Lindsey, at the June luncheon.

Damon Conn, of DMA Housing Assistants, won the spectacular center-piece, presented by Blue Sky Cleaners for the June meeting. Damon's was the closest birthday, June 18.

Also the Promotions Chair for the CCNC, Damon announced the Sept 13-14th event at the Sacramento Hyatt Regency Downtown.

EBCA Immediate Past President, Bob Tucknott, of Tucknott Electric Co., previewed one of his many whacky hats, as Jennifer Block, of Block Environmental, looks on.


Keven Crabb, of Blue Sky Cleaners (center piece sponsors for June) announced a Hawaiian Luau theme for the Mid-Valley Claims' Golf Tournament, to be held June 29th at Dry Creek in Galt. There may still be time to get in on it.

Melanie Robertson is the Architectural Engineer to her husband's Civil Engineer status.

EBCA Secretary and Golf Tournament Chair Carol Valenzuela announced that as of June 15 all golf sponsorships not taken up by last year's sponsors become open game. Register now to play and/or sponsor the August 17, 2007 event.

Congrats to 50/50 Raffle winner from Restoration Clean-Up Company, shown with EBCA Board Member Ray Depa, of Crawford & Company.

EBCA Board member Stevan Muir, of CSAA, with the door prize drawing.

The real Eller Torres, of CSAA... or is he... Stevan Muir???

Lon Anderson, with Anderson Claims Services, with Kelly Sullivan.

Earth Movement: property damage from flood or pre-existing?
By Bryan Harrison

Tag-team partners in business and in life, Melanie and Richard Robertson brought their dual engineering expertise to the June 8, 2007 luncheon meeting of the East Bay Claims Association. Partners in the firm Odell Robertson Consulting, Mr. and Mrs. Robertson have a long track record of thorough civil and architectural investigative engineering work.

Utilizing data and photos from a "sample report", the duo shared duties in describing the process of determining whether rather extreme foundation damage to an old home was a result of a flood in the home from a broken pipe or pre-existing. The damage was extreme, as doorways were as much as six inches off level. Examination of all dimensions, including a trip under the house for an examination of the foundation directly, proved that most all of the damage had nothing to do with the flooding. There was history of foundation problems for the home, as well, which had to be taken into account.

"Earth movement is the largest single cause of damage to houses," Mr. Robertson stated. "There's no easy manner in which to keep the soil around a house from the shrink-swell factor."

The Robertsons (Melanie was the "Odell" prior to their being married) were the first featured guest speakers for the East Bay Claims Association at the new meeting venue, Zio Fraedo's Restaurant in Pleasant Hill. A very strong crowd turned out for this event, lending to the notion that the move was a good decision.

The remainder of regular luncheon meetings for 2007 will be held at Zio's: July 11th, then October 10th and November 14th. There is no luncheon meeting scheduled in August, due to the August 17th annual EBCA Golf Tournament, which is being held back at Boundary Oak in Walnut Creek.

September 13-14th bring us the 14th annual Claims Conference of Northern California, an organization of which EBCA is a founding member and a Gold Sponsor. EBCA members and their coworkers are encouraged to attend the two-day conference in lieu of the association's regular schedule. Registration is open and accessible online. Hotel accommodations at the Sacramento Downtown Hyatt Regency are also encouraged at this time. Details for all may be found at: www.ClaimsConference.org.

Come December, the EBCA will be holding a black-tie Holiday event at Scott's Seafood Resturant at Jack London Square in Oakland. The gathering will commence at 6:00pm and promises to be every bit as lively as the 2006 Holiday party. Details on that to follow, but mark the date of Friday, December 7th on your calendar now.

Larry from Walnut Creek Carpet one.	Kim Tamayo, of Coast Construction, gets Karen to dawn the hat.	EBCA held its second "Members Only" event at Past President, Bob Tucknott's lovely domain June 14. It was a "mad-hatter" event!