Ken O'Dell, SE

President

If, like me, you are caught in the end of the year holiday rush, you may appreciate a brief President’s message. For those of you able to join our Holiday Dinner at Morton’s last week, I expect is was a great evening for you. Those of you who took home a few of the giveaways from CSI, I imagine it was even better. It sure appeared that fun was had by all. As prefaced in my introduction, the evening was about YOU, the members of SEAOSC, and the chance to share with friends and colleagues. I hope that you are creating life long friendships with your fellow Structural Engineers.

As we move toward the end of 2019 and into the New Year of 2020, I’d like the encourage you to resolve to remain actively engaged. There are exciting things happening. One important item on the SEAOC State agenda is to review and update the long-range plan for the organization. I encourage you to share with the Board any ideas you have regarding how the Association can better serve you, your practice, and the profession. Within Southern California, your Board continues to work toward an operational framework which ensures our ability to serve our committees and through them, our members. Just as your ideas will help craft how the State responds over the course of the next few years, I encourage you to let us know how we can better serve our Southern California region.

January will start off the New Year with 10-year Anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake. Our January Dinner and mid-year Safer Cities Education Events will bring together lessons learned from both the Haiti and Chile (February 2010) earthquakes. Be on the look out for notices and registration invites to get the details. February will follow tradition and focus on our Student Scholarship Night and Career Fair, please consider a donation to the SEAOSC Foundation to help fund a scholarship for a deserving student.

As we wrap up 2019, regardless of the Holiday you celebrate, my hope is that your close of the year is blessed with the richness of time spent with family and friends. Cheers!