Wow! We had a great turnout for the September dinner. There were forty-three members in attendance, representing twenty-nine firms. Thank you to everyone who came out to support our chapter. I hope to see everyone again in October.
As great of a turnout as it was, we only had one third of our total member firms (eighty-six) participating. That means fifty-seven member firms could not make it. I think we should make every effort to have at least half of our member firms represented each month. If there is someone at a member firm that you would like to catch up with, then give them a call and encourage them to come out to the October 19th dinner.
At the September dinner, we handed out a membership feedback form and asked attendees to rate the importance of ACEC-CA’s various areas of focus. Out of the seventeen focus areas on the list, the five rated as the highest importance were:
- Legislative review (responding to bills)
- Legislative action (sponsoring bills)
- Business networking
- Liaison with State and Federal agencies
- Chapters
The feedback form also asked for recommendations for improving ACEC-CA. One of the few recommendations was: “Public relations to tell the story to small and private development engineering firms about why ACEC-CA is important and is not only focused on fighting Caltrans and supporting the large firms.”
This recommendation hit home for me because I’m employed by a small private firm. The Sierra Chapter is fortunate to have several small and private development firms that are very active members. Unfortunately there is a great number of engineering and surveying firms which are not members…yet. We as members of ACEC-CA have the best voice for public relations with these non-member firms. Reach out and explain to them why membership is important to you. Invite them to a dinner meeting so they can engage with other members. The chapter will cover the meal cost for their first meeting.
That’s all for this month’s message. I look forward to seeing you next week.
