The terms "engineering," "architecture," and "surveying," as well as the professions themselves, have been thought to be interchangeable. In fact, it has come as a surprise to a number of our clients that there is a difference. When seeking guidance on the future of camp development, it's critical to thoroughly understand what these disciplines provide, in what ways they overlap, and how they are distinct from each other.

Before we begin, some clarifications are in order. First, we have a bias because we are engineers. Generally speaking, we see camps as small towns with all of the requisite infrastructure of a small town--roads, water supply, sewage disposal, and recreational areas. As we'll see later, this is why municipalities have "Town Engineers." Next, bear in mind that all design professionals should be consultants, but that the reverse is not necessarily so. The company that sells equipment, supplies, and chemicals for the pool will gladly assist you with certain issues for your pool--selecting a disinfectant or even a filtration system (from their list of suppliers). So in that regard, they can be considered consultants. The design professional, however, is licensed by your state to provide your organization with specific, timely, and complete assistance to manage your facility, present or projected. You should receive advice, guidance, or designs that represent the professional's very best efforts to accommodate your needs and desires while complying with the regulations and codes governing their discipline.

On the whole, 2005 was good to the tie market, with demand high in spite of a lagging supply. Both Class 1 and shortline railroads increased maintenance and tie manufacturers stepped up efforts to meet the railroads' requirements.

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RTA

Jim Gauntt, executive director of the Railway Tie Association, notes that 2005 was a good year overall, but provided its share of head-scratching moments.

"This year was somewhat of an enigma for the crosstie industry. On the one hand, demand was strong from all sectors, as we have been forecasting. Class 1 railroads continued to grow their traffic and their maintenance needs in the ways that the RTA models predicted and the shortlines are increasing their demand due to the tax credit legislation now in place.

"On the other hand, weather and then softness in some areas of the country for low-grade hardwood lumber (a by-product of cutting ties) have worked together to limit production of ties. In other words, even though demand is heavy, factors not in anyone's control have limited tie producers' ability to completely satisfy the market," said Gauntt.

"Another thing that had some producers perplexed is the strong demand that paper companies placed on the market for pulp in 2005. We saw some situations where large hardwood tie logs have been chipped for paper mill use, rather than go to a log deck to await sawing into ties.

"One thing is for certain from our vantage point--the U.S. economy is in very good shape," said Gauntt.

Gauntt noted that the key issue tie producers face is how to balance the situations mentioned above with customer needs.

"I predicted early in 2005 that we would likely face the same kind of ramp-up problems that have been experienced in past healthy markets. In the past, when markets have given us similar conditions, it has taken several months for equilibrium to be reached between supply and demand. We have quantified this to some degree to the extent that we see the situation being with us through mid-year 2006, at the very least," said Gauntt.

RTA's econometric modeling predicted that the 2005 demand for all the markets its members serve would be 18.5 to 19 million wood ties. Gauntt says that prediction appears to be right on the money.

"Interestingly, even though we experienced some lag in supply on a calendar year basis, production was also about five percent above the five-year average. This means that tie producers over the long term are meeting the needs of their customers and that the impacts on supply, what we are experiencing now, are only short-term issues," said Gauntt.

Wood continues to dominate the market. According to the RTA, Class 1 railroads' wood tie overall market share for maintenance ties grew from 94.9 percent in 2003 to 95.5 percent in 2004 and new construction wood's market share grew by 4.5 percent in 2004.

Research and new products

Much of the long-term research the RTA has reported on over the past few years has come to a conclusion, with the exception of the FRA research project into optimizing tie maintenance methodologies. In conjunction with the RTA's research contractor, ZETA-TECH Associates, Inc., and CSX Transportation, RTA has been working for the FRA on trying to quantify the economics of various tie replacement practices for high-speed passenger rail applications. The project remains in the data-collection phase and the RTA hopes to complete all the analytical data by Fall 2006.

"Also, through our research and development committee, we hope to embark on new long-term tests for comparing not only various preservative technologies, but also species performance in high-decay and Formosan termite areas. With what we now know about how the use of borate compounds dual treated with creosote can allow wood to perform for decades in even the worst-case decay and insect areas, it is time to begin to fine tune preservative and species application," said Gauntt.

"At least two Class 1 railroads, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National, are investing in dual-treated ties for wet locations. The research proved that borate technology combined with creosote dual treatments can go a long way to eliminate decay as a primary failure mechanism in high-decay/insect areas. Now, literally, thousands of dual ties are being installed in track, with more to come in the ensuing years," said Gauntt.

Earlier in 2005, American Wood Preservers' Association added copper naphthenate (CuN8) to the approved preservative list for hardwood ties.

"This change in the standards is new and adds one more option for railroads. The other thing that it does is allow those wood treaters that already manufacture CuN8 wood products, such as utility poles, to find a niche in the railroad markets, as well," said Gauntt.

Former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick, who engineered big changes, reflects on his years in the business

When your once-strong company has lost almost $1 billion in the last year, and respected analysts predict its demise, whom do you call?

When Safeco Insurance faced this daunting challenge five years ago this month, it dialed the number of Mike McGavick, who brought to the beleaguered insurer a fresh perspective and leadership savvy. Under his guidance, Safeco rebounded from a loss of nearly $1 billion in 2001 to profits of more than $300 million in 2002. For the third quarter of 2005 the company reported net income of $101.1 million compared with a loss of the same amount in the comparable period of 2004.

McGavick joined Safeco in January 2001 as president and chief executive officer and was named chairman of the board of directors two years later. "Safeco took a chance on a relative newcomer to the business," McGavick says, noting that he was hired at Safeco with only six years of insurance company experience (executive positions in strategic planning and financial management at CNA) and nine years of total industry experience.

He announced his resignation from the CEO post at Safeco at the end of August 2005, continuing as chairman of the board through the end of 2005. As he prepared to leave Safeco to pursue a career in politics, McGavick reflected on the challenges he faced when he came on board, explained how he addressed them, and described the results. He also presented his assessment of the changes that have swept the property/casualty industry during his career.

When he joined Safeco, "There was a broad set of challenges," McGavick says. "If you go back and read the analysts' reports from that time, most of the speculation was that Safeco would fail, or be broken up and sold. The problems were that profound, and property/casualty companies are notoriously difficult to turn around. In that first year, as our team was being assembled, we lost a billion dollars, including a write-down of a problematic transaction. That was on revenue of $7 billion," he observes. "That's a tough situation to be in."

A number of things were causing the insurer's problems, McGavick remarks, "but principally, the company, which had been known as a great underwriting company for many decades, had missed several changes in underwriting approach that had revolutionized the rest of the industry. They had watched that revolution go by and not participated," he says.

"Another problem was that Safeco had made a significant acquisition in the mid-1990s (American States Financial Corporation), and that acquisition in a sense had never been completed," McGavick continues. "They had never put together all of the offices and come up with a way of operating the merged companies that was effective. So we were completing a several-year-old transaction, and at the same time we were revolutionizing the company. In corporate life, that's about as big a challenge as you can get."

A team and a plan

In launching the effort to salvage Safeco, McGavick says, "Our first step was to build a team of people who had the energy and vision to take on a task like this." Safeco drew on its own talents-promoting people from within the organization-and also recruited executives from other leading companies. "Our second step was to develop a game plan, which we then communicated to all of the people who cared about Safeco, from our colleagues in the company to our agents and shareholders and to the regulators and Wall Street. For each of those audiences, we laid out a fairly simple plan for restoring the company," he explains.

"First, based on what we were demonstrably good at, we focused the company only on those lines in which we believed we had the distinction to compete well," McGavick continues. Those lines are personal auto and homeowners, small to mid-sized commercial accounts, and surety bonds. "Our second task was to bring the company up to date in our chosen lines of business, and be very selective about whom we would and would not insure and at what price. Third, we needed to make sure that the infrastructure of our company was affordable, given our revenue. Finally, we took actions to restore our financial strength through sound capital management.

"We announced that game plan within several weeks of my arrival at Safeco, and within 11 months we had executed on nearly every point that we had laid out," McGavick declares. "Happily, it turned out that those were the right things to do."

Key elements of the plan to restore Safeco were automating and restoring to profitability the company's auto, home, and small business insurance lines; selling noncore businesses like the life and investment operations (in 2004); strengthening the balance sheet; and reducing expenses while investing in employee training and new technologies. In 2003 the company rolled out Safeco Now(TM), a unified, Web-based sales and service platform that allows agents to quickly obtain bindable quotes for 12 commercial and personal lines products and to process other transactions. Late in 2005, the platform was expanded to permit online rating and quoting of commercial package policies in addition to businessowners and personal lines coverages.

This study evaluates the relationships between states of the four channel flow model and adventure seeking traits among whitewater kayakers using a modified Experience Sampling Method. Four study hypotheses were concerned with determining whether the interaction between adventure seeking and the four channel flow model predicts differences in dimensions of subjective experience (flow indicators): (H^sub 1^) Among flow indicators, a three-dimensional structure to include Affect and Activation, Cognitive Control, and Intrinsic Freedom will be confirmed; (H^sub 2^) Adventure seeking will have a significant interaction with the flow channel when predicting a dimension of Affect and Activation; (H^sub 3^) Adventure seeking will have a significant interaction with the anxiety channel when predicting a dimension of Cognitive Control; and, (H^sub 4^) Adventure seeking will have a significant interaction with flow and apathy channels when predicting a dimension of Intrinsic Freedom.

Questionnaires were administered on-site to 52 whitewater kayakers on the Cheat River in West Virginia at eight sites varying in river difficulty (Class I-V). Data were analyzed at the level of experience (n = 409 experience observations) rather than per respondent. Statistical analyses (principal axis factoring and hierarchical linear modeling or HLM) confirmed a three-dimensional structure of flow indicators, and that the interactions of adventure seeking and the channels of the flow model were significant predictors of an Intrinsic Freedom dimension. Although the adventure-seeking trait was a significant predictor of the Affect and Activation dimension, this dimension and the Cognitive Control dimension were not significantly predicted by interactions with channels of the flow model.

The study results suggest several conclusions that fully support two of four hypotheses. The three-dimensional structure of flow indicators was validated by factor loadings, and latent measures were well supported by reliability coefficients. Jackson and Marsh (1996) and others have generally confirmed a high number of dimensions rather than combining indicators to form only several dimensions. The application of a ninedimensional structure would be incompatible or impractical to use with many analytical (i.e., HLM, Lisrel) and methodological strategies (i.e., experience sampling 27 flow indicators on a river]. Furthermore, the confirmation of the three-dimensional structure implied that the use of a higher number of dimensions (i.e., nine) of subjective experience may be redundant in representing subdimensions of the overall structure.

Although results did not fully support the second hypothesis, when controlling for the four channel model, adventure-seeking significantly contributed to the prediction outcome of the Affect and Activation dimension. The finding that kayakers had a positive affect and were more mentally excited while in states of flow and anxiety as opposed to states of boredom is consistent with prior conceptualizations and empirical findings of Csikszentmihalyi (1982), Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi (1988), and others. Furthermore, this interpretation is theoretically consistent with Zuckerman's (1994) notion of Thrill and Adventure seeking, which proposes that individuals who are high in adventure seeking seek out those experiences that arouse and excite the self. It should be noted, however, that the small to medium effect sizes for these pairwise comparisons suggest a need for improvements in explanatory power.

With a moderate level of explanatory power, results also demonstrated that, when controlling for the four channel model, the interaction of positive levels of adventure seeking coupled with entering the flow state generated significantly more intrinsic freedom than during a state of apathy. This finding is consistent with the theoretical and empirical expectations of Csikszentmihalyi (1982), Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi (1988), and Jackson and Marsh (1996), and suggested that when interacting with adventure-seeking, optimal experiences were indicated by the freedom to choose involvement in kayaking the Cheat Canyon and the desire to repeat this intrinsically motivating experience. Likewise, this finding is consistent with Moneta's (2004) HLM results, which indicated that higher intrinsic motivation is associated with the flow state.

Two interpretations can be made for the finding that the Cognitive Control dimension had no significant fixed effects. One is that this dimension is less characteristic of optimal experience in adventure settings than previously theorized (Csikszentmihalyi, 1982). The second interpretation is that Cognitive Control is not being empirically tapped because there continue to be methodological and operational issues within the four channel model that contribute to measurement error.

The findings that adventure-seeking is either interactive with channels of the flow model or able to predict flow indicators while controlling for the model, suggests several implications for researchers and practitioners concerned with the link between the flow state and personality traits. Researchers should attempt to further unveil the salience of the interaction between adventure seeking and the flow model in predicting intrinsic freedom. To accomplish this task, it is recommended that investigators employ research designs that follow the experience from the river to environments with increased exposure to extrinsic activities and where experiences are at their least adventurous points in time and recover once again. Critical to practitioners, this design would allow for a realization of the long-term benefits and outcomes of optimal experience. Agencies (i.e., Outward Bound, NOLS) should also understand that these findings stress the psychological importance of providing elements of adventure in wildland settings by demonstrating that optimal experience in wildland environments is an interactive process with client personalities. Thus, future researchers examining experiential education settings should attempt to determine whether facilitating experiences in the adventure, without simultaneously facilitating for client personality, limits levels of perceived intrinsic freedom necessary to achieve the most optimal of experiences.

ABSTRACT In 1999, the Long Island Sound lobster fishery suffered a significant mortality event, following 2 years of smaller, more localized, die-offs. A national research initiative investigating the potential cause(s) of the mortalities was undertaken under the auspices of the Steering Committee for Lobster Disease Research, a subcommittee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Lobster Management Board. More than 20 research efforts investigated the effects of anthropogenic and environmental stressors and disease on lobsters over a 3-year period. The findings of the collective projects were synthesized and presented publicly in October 2004. Lobsters, at an all-time high abundance, and possibly already infected with parasitic amoebae, Neoparamoeba pemaquidensis, were subjected to sustained, stressful environmental conditions, driven by above average water temperature. Physiologically weakened and unable to fend off disease (paramoebiasis), many lobsters died.

KEY WORDS: lobster, mortality, Long Island Sound, disease, pesticides, paramoeba, temperature, Homarus americanus

INTRODUCTION

During the fall of 1999, the American lobster (Homarus americanus H. Milne Edwards, 1837) population in Long Island Sound (LIS) suffered a significant mortality event, particularly in the western and central Sound. Bistate (Connecticut and New York) commercial lobster landings from western LIS (west of Norwalk, Connecticut) declined by as much as 99% from the previous year, and reductions of landings for ports east of Norwalk ranged from 64% to 91% (CTDEP 2000). At the same time, lobstermen in eastern LIS (as well as Rhode Island and Massachusetts) continued to see a rise in the incidence and extent of shell disease in lobsters, which, while apparently unrelated to the mortality event, raised additional concerns about the status and health of the lobster resource and the Long Island Sound commercial fishery.

In late September, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) collected water samples for analysis and contracted with the University of Connecticut to test the samples for a range of materials including pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, semivolatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals and cyanide. The test results were negative. If pesticides or any other of these materials were present, their concentration levels were less than the parts-per-billion detection limits of the analytical equipment used (CTDEP 2000, DeFur 2000). Samples were also provided to the National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory in Milford, Connecticut to screen for toxic phytoplankton and bacteria. None were found.

Lobster specimens were sent to the University of Connecticut for gross and histopathologic examination in mid October. By November, the pathology reports indicated that most lobsters examined were infected with what is now known as a strain(s) of the parasitic amoeba, Neoparamoeba pemaquidensis, a facultative pathogen of salmon and sea urchins (French 2000a, 2000b, CTDEP 2000, Mullen et al. 2005). Similar amoebae have caused fatal diseases in crustaceans at other times (e.g., grey crab disease). The parasitic amoebae infecting much of the nervous tissue of lobsters were considered to be the proximate cause of death of the lobsters, but it was unclear whether other factors played a role, setting the lobsters up for infection or suppressing any possible immune response to the infection (French 2000a, 2000b).

During the summer and fall of 1999, the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus (WNV) appeared for the first time in New York and Connecticut. By early September, seven human deaths had been attributed to complications due to WNV. Control programs were undertaken in both states to curb adult and larval mosquito populations. Application methods and pesticides used varied geographically as well as temporally, spanning an interval from early August to mid October, with maximum applications occurring during the last 2 weeks of September (Miller et al. 2005, Wilson et al. 2005, K. Chytalo, NYSDEC, pers. comm.). Malathion was applied in New York only, while pyrethroids (resmethrin and sumithrin) and methoprene were used in both states.

Early on, some lobstermen expressed concern about the apparent coincidental timing of the lobster mortalities, rain events and the application of these pesticides. Local associations of lobstermen retained biologists from the Lobster Institute in Maine to help in the initial investigation of the mortalities during the fall 1999.

By late 1999, the Governors of Connecticut and New York had requested disaster assistance from (then) United States Secretary of Commerce, William M. Daley (CTDEP 2000). On January 26, 2000, Secretary Daley declared the lobster fishery in LIS a "commercial fishery failure due to a resource disaster" under section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (US Department of Commerce 2000, CTDEP 2000). Within 6 months, $13.9 million of federal disaster relief funds were authorized to provide economic relief for lobstermen and to support research to investigate the potential cause(s) of the mortality event; $6.6 million was designated for research and $7.3 million for economic relief. (These funds were appropriated in 2001.) The State of Connecticut also authorized bonding to provide $1 million for economic relief and about $1 million for research.

Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005. Opened 1917; home of Army Research, Development and Engineering Cmd.; Army Ordnance Museum and Ordnance Center and Schools; Army Developmental Test Command; Army Environmental Center; Army Research Laboratory (Aberdeen site); Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense; Aberdeen Test Center; Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity; Northeast Civilian Personnel Operations Center; Army Evaluation Center; Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine; 389th Army Band; 5,504 mil., 11,599 civ.; 72,229 acres, 35 miles northeast of Baltimore. DSN: 298-5201 ; (410) 278-5201.

Anniston Army Depot, AL 36201-4199. Opened 1941; repairs and retrofits combat tracked vehicles, artillery and small arms; receives and stores general supplies, ammunition, missiles, small arms and strategic materiel; 45 mil., 6,500 civ. (including tenants and contractors); 15,000 acres adjacent to Pelham Range, 10 miles west of Anniston. DSN: 571 -1110; (256) 235-7501.

Fort Belvoir, VA 22060. An Army property since 1912; named for the manor house of CoI. William Fairfax, 1736-41, the ruins of which remain on the installation; provides logistical and administrative support to more than 100 tenant and satellite organizations; major tenants are Defense Logistics Agency; Defense Contract Audit Agency; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; Defense Acquisition University; U.S. Army Materiel Cmd.; U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Cmd.; U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Cmd.; U.S. Army Security and Assistance Cmd.; DeWitt Army Community Hospital; Night-Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate; CECOM IEWSD Projects Division; CECOM Software Center-Belvoir; National Geospatial Intelligence School; Army Management Staff College; 9th Theater Support Cmd. (Army Reserve); 29th Inf. Div. (Lt.), (ARNG); 5,183 mil., 17,885 civ. (including tenants and DoD contractors); 8,656 acres, 11 miles southwest of Alexandria and 17 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. DSN: 685-2052; (703) 805-2052.

Fort Benning, GA 31905. Established 1918; named after Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning, CSA; home of Army Infantry Center and School; Army Marksmanship Unit; 3rd Bde., 3rd Inf. Div. (Mech.); Western Hemisphere Institute for security Cooperation; 75th Ranger Rgt.; 36th Engr. Grp.; 11th Infantry Rgt; 29th Infantry Rgt.; Basic Combat Training Bde.; Infantry Training Bde.; Medical Department Activity, Ranger Training Bde.; 29,138 mil., 7,646 civ.; 184,090 acres, 9 miles south of Columbus. DSN: 835-2211 ; (706) 545-2211.

Fort Bliss, TX 79916. Established as the post opposite El Paso, Texas, and New Mexico in 1848; named for Bvt. Lt. CoI. William Wallace Smith Bliss, Mexican War hero; home of Army Air Defense Artillery Center and School; Army Air and Missile Defense Cmd.; William Beaumont Army Medical Center; 6th, 11th, 31st, 35th and 108th ADA Bdes.; 204th Ml Bn.; Army Sergeants Major Academy; Joint Task Force 6; German Air Force Air Defense Center; 17,000 mil., 7,000 civ.; 1.2 million acres. DSN: 978-0831; (915) 568-2121.

Blue Grass Army Depot, KY 40475-5001. Opened 1942; performs conventional ammunition receipt, storage, maintenance and shipment; provides logistical support for special operations forces; stores and monitors portion of nation's chemical stockpile and chemical defense equipment; 3 mil., 919 civ.; 14,500 acres six miles south of Richmond. DSN: 745-6221 ; (859) 625-6221.

Fort Bragg, NC 28310. Established as a Field Artillery site in 1918; named for Gen. Braxton Bragg, CSA, decorated Mexican War Artillery officer; as "Home of the Airborne," houses the XVIII Abn. Corps; 82nd Abn. Div.; 1st Corps Support Cmd.; XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery; 44th Medical Cmd.; 16th Military Police Bde.; 18th Aviation Bde.; 20th Engineer Bde.; 35th Sig. Bde.; and 525th Military Intelligence Bde.; U.S. Army Spc. Ops. Cmd.; SF Cmd.; JFK Special Warfare Center & School; Civil Affairs and Psychological Ops. Cmd.; Spc. Ops. Support Cmd.; 52,280 mil., 8,757 civ.; 160,770 acres, 10 miles northwest of Fayetteville, 50 miles south of Raleigh. DSN: 236-0011 ; (910) 396-0011.

Fort Campbell, KY 42223. Opened 1942; named for Brig. Gen. William B. Campbell, a Tennessee hero of the Mexican War and governor of Tennessee; home of 101st Abn. Div. (Air Assault); 5th Spc. Forces Grp. (Abn.); 160th Spc. Ops. Aviation Rgt. (Abn.); 32,400 mil., 4,111 civ.; 105,068 acres, 15 miles south of Hopkinsville, Ky., 10 miles northwest of downtown Clarksville, Tenn., and 50 miles northwest of Nashville. DSN: 635-1110; (270) 798-2151.

Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013. Established 1757; site of U.S. Army War College; Army Heritage and Education Center; Strategic Studies Institute; Army Physical Fitness Research Institute; Center for Strategic Leadership; 550 mil., 850 civ.; 459 acres, 18 miles southwest of Harrisburg. DSN: 242-4141; (717)245-3131.

Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation, Orlando, Fla.: Supports the development and use of the Realistic Global Battlespace for training, analysis, acquisition, test and evaluation and operations. Implements Air Force. joint and Department of Defense modeling and simulation policies, architectures and standards: supports corporate Air Force M&S planning, requirements and investment, facilitates the establishment, transition and integration of major Air Force M&S initiatives and programs. and shapes decision making, mission rehearsal and execution. Supports cross-cutting initiatives such as Distributed Mission Operations and the Center for Domain Integration and promotes and supports technology improvements. Oversees the M&S professional development program and sponsors the annual Air Force M&S conference. Manages M&S Information Service, which includes the Air Force M&S Resource Repository, Event Planning System, M&S calendar, and the M&S help desk. The C4ISR Visualization Center is the AFAMS Pentagon Operating Location. The CVC provides senior leadership with a portal into Air Force and joint training events, experiments, wargames, real-world events and facilitates demonstrations of new and emerging technologies.

Suzanne Kay Wingfield admits she likes the money she has made modeling part time for the past 2 years. But for Wingfield, there are other benefits to being a model. "I get to travel to places I never would've gone and meet more people than I ever would've met otherwise," she says. Although the city in which her agency is based, Chicago, is primarily a catalog market, she has done other modeling in New York and spent last summer modeling in Europe.

Kelly Causey, who has modeled in Europe and Asia, also enjoys traveling. She has done different kinds of modeling, from runway to print to commercials. But no matter what the medium, she says, models, especially beginning models, like the star treatment they receive. "You have professionals who are making up your face and hair, and you might get to wear a $5,000 outfit," says Causey, of Georgia. "Sometimes, it's almost like it's not real; it's as if you're playing."

Not a day goes by that we don't see models, like Wingfield and Causey, somewhere--on billboards, at local department stores, on our favorite TV game shows. Only a handful of them are supermodels who earn millions and hold celebrity status. The vast majority of working models earn a comfortable living at best and are treated as celebrities only within the modeling industry, if at all.

Although thousands of people work as models, even more compete to become models. Almost anyone who expects to become the next famous face is headed for disappointment. But those who enjoy modeling for its exciting opportunities are generally satisfied. "If you look at it in the right way, modeling is one of the most amazing businesses there is," says male model Beau Bourquin. "What we do for work is what 9-to-5 people take vacations to do: Travel all over the world, have fun, meet a lot of interesting people. It can get crazy and hectic. But as wild and crazy as this business is, you can have a realistic life."

There are many ways to get into modeling. Some models stumble into it without much forethought; others plan their lives around it from an early age. Although there are no guarantees that anyone can become a model, there are ways you can get things moving in the right direction. Keep reading to find out about the different media that use models, the standard requirements most modeling agencies look for, the process for finding and contacting the agencies, and what to expect if you become a model. The accompanying boxes discuss some related career options and how to avoid modeling scams.

Models and Their Media

The largest and highest grossing segment of this multimillion-dollar per year industry uses young, tall girls for fashion modeling. Less lucrative markets exist for males, infants and children, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, petites, plus-size models, and even specific body parts such as mouths or feet.

Some models' faces grace the covers of magazines. Others are part of the haute couture, or high fashion, elite of international runways. Still others appear in television commercials. But the majority of models are not as well known. Whether working in print, live, or on television, there are numerous possibilities for models in each medium.

Print modeling. Models who are photographed for printed matter make up the largest portion of the modeling industry. Still photographs of models appear in magazines, catalogs, newspapers, and corporate brochures, and on billboards. Generally, magazines provide models with the greatest variety of assignments in terms of coverage, diversity, and exposure. But catalogs, considered the least prestigious of the print modeling media, use the greatest number of models on a regular basis.

Magazines feature models in advertising, "advertorial," and editorial layouts. Advertisements vary in their use of models to display a company's product or create an image; an ad for foot powder might prominently feature its product with a parts model's feet, while an image-conscious ad for men's cologne might focus more on the model than on the product. Advertorials are product advertisements presented to look like photo essays. Editorial modeling includes content not paid for by outside advertisers, such as magazine covers and illustrations that accompany articles.

Although editorial modeling is the most prestigious of the three, it pays little compared to advertising and advertorial jobs. But advertising and advertorial work account for a small number of all modeling assignments--only about 10 percent, according to one agent's estimate. Meanwhile, publicity generated from appearing on the covers of major magazines often leads to more modeling assignments.

Live modeling. From the glamour of European runways to the obscurity of fitting rooms, live modeling is done in a variety of locations. According to Brandon Lewis, director of the Click Atlanta modeling agency, live modeling is especially popular in New York, Atlanta, and California. "The market for live modeling is growing a lot," he says. "Live ads have increased over the last 10 years." Live modeling is essential for fashion shows and showrooms; other models pose for sketching artists or model merchandise in retail stores or the fitting rooms of clothing designers. A small number do limited modeling for tea rooms, floor shows, trade shows, and conventions.