Mehran Pourzanjani, SE
President
Culmination of Culture of Change: Relevancy of SEAOSC
June marks the last month of the SEAOSC calendar. The year has sailed by faster than expected. It has been a privilege and honor to serve as SEAOSC‘s 90th President. I am particularly proud to be part of the association’s a rich heritage, history, and traditions. In these dynamic times communities and cultures are changing at an unprecedented increasing rate. To survive associations must remain relevant. This realization has driven our vision and activities over the past year. An association must continually be changing, adapting and modernizing at an ever faster pace to remain relevant. This year our motto has been to question every tradition and way with SEAOSC in favor of a new refreshed approach. I am pleased to report that with the support of the Executive Committee, the board, and you the members, we have managed daring transformations in the Association which will continue to serve future generations of SEAOSC. In the process we have managed to instill a culture of change and adaptability in the Association. It is only through our collective efforts, beliefs, and volunteerism that we can continue to transform and modernize. What follows is a recap of some of the major events and transformations we managed together over the course of last year.
SEAOSC 2018-2019 Transformations:
- Strategic Thinking at Board Meetings; The board meetings are now strategic in nature rather than administrative. This enables us to harness the collective talent of the board towards planning for the future of SEAOSC and accomplishing more relevancy including bigger tasks and missions.
- Investment Plan to Secure the Future of SEAOSC: We implemented an investment plan with the goal of ensuring financial viability of the association during lean years. With time and discipline the investments can grow to finance additional activities including research, scholarships, advocacy causes, public service announcements, outreach programs, and community support programs in the event of catastrophic occurrences.
- Rebranding of SEAOSC: We undertook a widespread rebranding campaign to more effectively reflect the vibrancy of new SEAOSC. We developed new logos for SEAOSC and Safer Cities in honor of our 90th anniversary along with a new color palette for the association. The SEAOSC website was updated with the new color palate and addition of new sections such as “Historical Documents” and “Cities and Communities Assisted”. Our monthly Newsletters were modernized with a new format to better suit mobile devices and computers in this age of digitalization and we adopted the new color palate for them. We also modernized our email announcements with new format and the color palate.
- Developed a “Disaster Response Plan” for SEAOSC: We have substantially completed the development of a disaster Response plan for the Association. In the event of a catastrophic occurrence all eyes will be on SEAOSC for support. The plan will allow us to react swiftly to assist the community back on its feet and to communicate the proper perspective for the devastation to our community and public officials.
- Safer Cities Program and Trademark: Thanks to the efforts of Past President Jeff Ellis, the name “Safer Cities” is now a trademark of SEAOSC and no one in the world is permitted to use it without our consent. SEAOSC will continue to assist cities and communities under the “Safer Cities” brand name as we have done with Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Pasadena, and San Luis Obispo. We also updated the Safer Cities Survey last year. This Survey establishes an inventory of vulnerable building types, whether they have been addressed or require further attention to reduce vulnerabilities. The original Safer Cities survey in 2016 covered counties of Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura, Riverside, Imperial, and Los Angeles. Last year we expanded it with a supplement that added the remaining counties covered by SEAOSC, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Kern.
- Re-Organized Technical Committees: As a result of Treasurer Matt Barnard’s efforts; the committees are re-organized to align with state’s committee organization and consistent with master code arrangement. This provides for efficiency as each committee is able to focus on their respective code sections and readily feed into the state committees. The Standards Committee was created to oversee the technical committees similar to SEAOC’s organization. The Standard Committee’s main mission is to facilitate communication and coordinate amongst various committees, ensure consistency, and consensus for documents published by SEAOSC committees.
- Advocacy for “Functional Recovery” and Resiliency Legislations: We are working at the state level through SEAOC with the other member organizations to promote, sponsor, and assist with several legislations including “Functional Recovery” for performance of buildings and “Seismic strengthening”. We are forming alliance with EERI to jointly develop design criteria for achieving “Functional Recovery” in anticipation of this legislation. This will provide opportunities for our technical committees to be involved in the state-of-the-art with seismic design.
- New Professional Value Ad-Hoc Committee: This committee was formed by President-Elect Ken O’Dell to investigate the value of Structural Engineering Profession and ways to ensure that value is recognized by practicing engineers and our clients. This committee will yield great value for the profession in the future.
- Modernizing SEAOSC Policy: Through the efforts of President-Elect Ken O’ Dell the Policies of the Association were updated and modernized to reflect contemporary societal values.
- Pro-active community outreach; the Woolsey, Thomas Fires: The fires destroyed with unprecedented devastation in 2018. Many lives, structures, homes, memories, dreams and hopes were lost and shattered. SEAOSC reached out to all the regional municipalities involved to offer sympathy and more importantly assistance towards recovery.
- NCSEA Grants: through efforts of Treasurer Mathew Barnard we were granted $4000 from NCSEA for several initiatives for advancing the mission of Structural Engineering. The grant amount constituted approximately 30% of the total funding allocated by NCSEA for this purpose.
- Re-Envisioned SEAOSC Events and Awards: We changed the format of several SEAOSC events over the course of last year. The goal of “Strengthening our Cities Summit” has always been to engage city officials and policy makers to form stronger alliances, and explore collaborative opportunities with them. Accordingly, this year we changed the format of the Summit and invited city managers, and elected officials to have one-on-one conversations at a breakfast summit about how we may be of assistance to them as an Association. Approximately 50 city officials participated. One of the outcomes of this Summit was a request for SEAOSC to have in person presentation to the public and city officials on the importance of disaster response preparedness. This is a program that SEAOSC plans to undertake next year with various municipalities. We had a new holiday party venue; Maggiano’s Little Italy at the Grove . It was a sold out event with approximately 120 guests and a waiting list of others that were eager to attend. The member appreciation event was a walking food tour of Historical Downtown LA for members. The tour emphasized the history and architecture of LA buildings and with food stops along the way. The “Seize your Opportunity” Leadership Symposium was presented by Women in Structural Engineering Committee (WISE). This was a different type of seminar focused on mentoring, leadership and soft skills training; tools for success in any field. The “Safer Cities Gala and President’s Dinner” will be held at the Biltmore. This event will feature “Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards” (EISE) and will include a New “Safer Cities” awards category. The “President’s Luncheon and Achievement Awards” is another new event this year that will be held at the LA Grand Hotel. This event is devoted to recognizing and celebrating SEAOSC’s members that have distinguished themselves in various capacities including the Engineer of the year, and the transition of the Presidential gavel to the incoming President Ken O’ Dell. You may read more about the Gala and the Luncheon the “Upcoming Events” section below.
- Re-envisioned Technical Seminars: Thanks to the efforts of Treasurer Matt Barnard we planned two signature events. The “ 2019 Safer Cities Technical Seminar” was held in January commemorating the 25th anniversary of Northridge Earthquake. The theme of the seminar was Resilient Design as inspired by experiences from the Northridge earthquake that led to current developments in earthquake engineering. The “Yearend Technical Seminar” which will be held on June 19th. The format of these events was different than the educational seminars held by SEAOSC in the past. These were multi track, interactive seminars.
- SEAOSC was in a Documentary film about the Northridge Earthquake: “Quake Heroes” is a documentary about the aftermath of Northridge Earthquake. It is about the heroic actions of the earthquake survivors in rescuing and helping others. President–Elect Ken O’Dell represented SEAOC in this documentary to reflect upon the earthquake and how the structural engineering community is helping to mitigate the types of disasters experienced in that earthquake.
Thank you!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Executive Committee members, President Elect Ken O’ Dell of MHP Structural Engineers, Treasure Matt Bernard of Degenkolb Engineers, and Past President Bob Lyons of Risha Engineering for embracing the vision of change for the Association, owning it and expressing a willingness to continue with it. The current board has been tremendous in brainstorming and supporting changes and in the development of the “Disaster Response Plan”. Thank you Donny Harris SE, John Labib and Associates, Garrett Mill,SE, Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers, Massoud Abolhoda, SE, Santa Barbara County Planning & Development, Patti Harburg-Petrich, SE, BurroHappold Engineering, Annie Koa,PE, Simpson Strong-Tie, Truong Huynh , PE, City of Long Beach, Bryan Seamer, SE, LPA, and Wayne Chang SE, Structural Focus .
I would also like to thank all the committee chairs and members for their service and dedication to SEAOSC and for advancing various missions and causes. The committees are the spine of the Association without which we could not exist.
Welcome New Board Members:
Welcome new board members; Treasurer Kelsey Anne Parolini, PE, SSG Structural Engineers, Henry Burton, PhD., SE, University of California, Los Angeles, Kim Caravalho SE, Brandow & Johnston, Victor Cuevas, PE, Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, Tom Harris, SE, California Code Check. I encourage you all to initiate and support more changes to the association during your tenure.
Up Coming Events:
The “President’s Luncheon and Achievement Awards”, a new event this year, will be held on June 19th at the LA Grand Hotel. This event will be devoted to recognizing and celebrating SEAOSC’s members that have distinguished themselves in various capacities; the Engineer of the year, and will include the transition of the Presidential gavel to incoming president Ken O’ Dell. We hope that you will attend this luncheon to celebrate and recognize our distinguished colleagues and their accomplishments and welcome the new President. The yearend technical summit will also be held in the morning at the same location. The summit will be a multi-track event providing interest based choices for the attendees. You can find out more about these events on the website.
The Safer Cities Gala and President’s Dinner will of course be held on June 5st. at the Biltmore. This event will feature “Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards” (EISE) and will include a New “Safer Cities” awards category. This award will recognize leaders in the industry, or public arena that have made outstanding contributions towards Safer Cities or the advancement of the industry. The gala is emceed by ABC 7 Anchor David Ono. We are anticipating a broad representation from the industry at the event including various city representatives and officials. I hope to see you and your guests there. You are able to register at the door if you have not yet done so.
Congratulations to all the Awardees in advance!
Departing Thoughts:
I envision an Association that is relevant, active, modern and embracing of change. An Association that strongly advocates for our profession, serves the needs of our members, the wants of our communities with the built environment, and advances the science of Earthquake Design. I believe we are collectively achieving this vision; but we need to continue to work and push together. It is important to appreciate the 90 year history of the Association and how it has grown to afford us the dream of bigger goals today. It has been on the backs of the countless active members, board members, and past Presidents who dedicated time and effort to serve the Association for the benefit all that we have succeeded. So, in the spirit of this noble tradition of service I call on you to please get involved and support the Association in future endeavors, give back to your profession and future generations of earthquake engineers. Let’s make a bigger impact together!
Thank you for your support. It has been my honor and privilege to serve as your President for 2018-2019.
