November 2017 President's Report

President's Report

by Malek A. Al-Khatib, PE, Vice President, Louis Berger

It is with great honor that I report that BSCES has won the ASCE 2017 Outstanding Section and Branch Web Award for Very Large Sections and Branches. We appreciate BSCES Website Committee Chair Cara Pirkey of HNTB Corporation for her efforts to maintain such a high quality website. I am proud to report that BSCES won this award for the second consecutive year. Thank you to all our technical group, institute chapter, and committee members and leaders who work hard  and make our Society website very rich in information and win for all the numerous criteria that distinguishes our organization as offering the most value to its members.

Please celebrate our success by attending our Annual Awards Dinner. On December 12 we are celebrating 169 years of BSCES success. BSCES and the engineering profession will recognize BSCES leaders and honor distinguished BSCES award winners and our newest Honorary Members. Our Keynote Speaker is Matthew A. Beaton, Secretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the event will be hosted by our 169th President Brian Morgan of CDM Smith. I look forward to seeing you at the 169th Annual Awards Dinner on December 12 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge and celebrating both our longevity and stature within the industry as the premier membership organization in the engineering industry.

Winning such recognition year after year is a highly prestigious and nationally recognized distinction. We are most proud of our welcoming culture that promotes participation, mentoring and supporting our members. Your success has led to our success, which leads to successive successes. To amplify our message of inclusiveness, we are offering a new opportunity for our members and nonmembers, to meet for lunch to learn more about the many benefits and opportunities offered by membership in ASCE and BSCES. With the enthusiastic and skillful leadership of BSCES Senior Vice President and Membership Committee Chair Bruce Jacobs of EarthSoft we are hosting the pizza luncheons at your engineering offices to:

1. Present ASCE and BSCES organization, activities, and members benefits;
2. Discuss BSCES programs and exchange ideas with engineers to tailor our programs to meet your needs;
3. Connect members with the technical group or institute chapter of interest to them;
4. Share with nonmembers the opportunities in ASCE and BSCES and facilitate their participation.

Let us know if you would be interested in hosting an on-site lunch-time meeting at your office for your staff or colleagues. Pizzas on us!

In addition, we are holding BSCES events in member engineering offices to the extent practical. Such events reduce BSCES costs and allow us to partner with our members. We know that having events and seminars at engineering offices will allow for more networking between our members, expose our members to the various offices in the area, improve relationships between engineers, especially employees of the firm, and create a healthier dialogue at the events.

I am inviting the engineering firms to participate in our programs and arrange for a BSCES activity in their office. Please contact me at President@bsces.org  and we will be happy to schedule a mutually convenient visit to your office.                                                   

The Structural Engineering Institute Boston Chapter, chaired by Shahvir Vimadalal, is the featured group for this month. To learn more about this group, please read the article written by Shahvir in this issue of BSCESNews.

Finally, I wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. We have a lot to grateful for. I thank you, our members for your continued support and contribution to successfully complete the 169th year of our BSCES. Also, I thank our Society and Program Sponsors for their support.