Ken O'Dell, SE
President
Well, I think it is fair to say that my first two-weeks serving as President of SEAOSC were eventful. Day 4 there is an earthquake, Day 5 there is a bigger one, Days 6-9 are a whirlwind, culminating in the first Board meeting for FY 2019-2020. In this board meeting we affirmed that there are great things ahead for the association. The board approved an aggressive budget focused on providing critical content and connections for our members, partners and community stake holders. Your Board also approved a forward looking calendar, that will be published shortly to allow you to plan for these events with as much advanced notice as possible. Our Education Committee is already preparing this year’s program.
To wrap up the whirlwind, I’m on an extended vacation to celebrate my daughter’s promotion from middle school to high school. We are traveling through France for several weeks, and I can tell already that the theme for our trip will be to recognize that with great history comes inevitable change. Paris provides a great reminder that modern mixes with historic quite well. Our next stop in Normandy highlighted how great things can be accomplished when people come together with a common goal. This year is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, a historic day that not only brought nations together but also taught us that to succeed you must be engaged…there can be no sitting on the sidelines waiting for others to get the job done. And with a bit of humor… the Loire Valley teaches us that with a bit of wine, engaged people can be quite vocal and fun to share ideas with.
Enough of the travel log and history lesson. It just struck me how thoughts can be brought full circle no matter the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Last year, Mehran spoke of change to ensure SEAOSC and our profession maintain relevance in service to our members and our communities. This is an ongoing process of asking hard questions of ourselves and making appropriate changes when the answers suggest different approaches may provide better results.
This year, I hope the Board can help instill a desire within each of you to be engaged in your profession…not just your career. The profession of structural engineering is far too important to our communities for us to be content focusing on our daily work tasks… I propose that we each must look for the opportunity to use and share the knowledge gained from our daily tasks; perhaps that is by sharing your knowledge through committee participation, supporting a scholarship for, or mentoring our next generation of emerging leaders, or simply being better prepared to share why and how structural engineering is important with your clients.
A few first steps:
- Our Golf tournament is coming up soon…get registered and bring someone that hasn’t been before.
- Don’t miss out on a great SEAOC convention to be held in Squaw Creek, Tahoe at the end of August.
- And look for our Committee Showcase held during happy hour before our September Dinner meeting. Here, our committees will share their plans for the year. We have a few committees seeking new members and several committees “now forming”.
As we begin a new year under the 2020 banner please look for a way to be engaged…the Association and Profession needs each of you.
