In last month’s newsletter I wrote about the importance of supporting and encouraging young students to join the engineering profession. ACEC in general, and our chapter in particular has been very supportive of the idea of nurturing the new generation of engineers and land surveyors through scholarships, donations, and other financial support systems. Today I want to talk about engaging the future leaders of the profession.
If you are a regular attendee of our meetings, you certainly did notice that the events are mostly frequented by white haired folks (may be some black and some salt and pepper). As an organization we want to see young professional who are going to be the future leaders of our profession get involved. No organization can survive and continue its functions without a plan for succession. It’s important for the future leaders of engineering companies to understand that our profession is affected by public policies and politics, some of which are beyond our control. But we have the power to influence through campaign and bringing awareness to the policy makers about our profession and the issues that affect us. Legislative Visit Day is one such event and I would encourage our members to attend it.
Our future leaders need to develop an understanding of the political issues that face our industry today and the policies that will have influence in the future. They also need to understand the processes that we use to protect the interest of our profession and our ability to provide valuable services in an effective manner. Chapter meetings are a great way to learn about current issues. To encourage involvement of young folks, our April meeting will feature Young Professional Forum. I would encourage all our members to send at least one young professional from your organization to our April meeting. It would be even better if you could accompany them and show them the ACEC way. Please note that our April 18th meeting will be on a Thursday instead of usual Wednesday and it’s a lunch meeting.
Last month’s dinner meeting (Joint with Calmentor) was a very successful one – a well-attended event with valuable information from local and state transportation agencies and great panel discussion on the benefits of SB1 funding. The success of the event was due to the hard work and behind-the-scene planning by several individuals, including our current vice president, Kevin Gustorf, our past vice president, Kathy Wickam, Jenna Matsumoto and Gina Reiland of Calmentor.
Spring is here, and by the time summer rolls in our working year will come to an end. Our last event of the year will be our chapter’s First Agency Excellence Awards Event. We have received several nominations already, but a few more will make the event even better. We need your help to make this event successful.
See you all on April 18th at our next meeting!
