It is with excitement that I commence this new year, and decade, with my inaugural President’s Corner. Thank you everyone who supported the 2019 SEAoT Houston Board as we advanced the brand and image of our chapter. The growing pains were well worth it as seen in our final 2019 meeting, which hosted 30 attendees! Thanks to Daniel Barbuto, our 2019 President, who presided over our many updates and improvements. I am pleased to succeed Daniel as 2020 President and am grateful for everyone’s vote of confidence.
Looking back on 2019, SEAoT Houston Gulf Coast brought you:
• Engaging and user-friendly member communications via our updated newsletters, emails and on-time PDHs.
• Lunch meetings at Maggiano’s instead of dinner meetings at the HESS club.
• Meetings with an emphasis on case studies, which was the favorite topic based on our spring survey.
• Student outreach through a conference scholarship aimed at fostering student/industry interaction.
• The commencement of an annual networking event for members and their guests, held at Top Golf.
• A special “Member Spotlight” series in our newsletter honoring a distinguished SEAoT member.
• A holiday happy hour at Yard House in City Center, co-hosted by Structural Concrete Systems, LLC.
We are so proud of these accomplishments.
Looking forward, my 2020 “vision” is to emphasize the worth of membership and grow participation through expanded networking opportunities, an engaging speaker series and rewarding community outreach.
Being a participating member of SEAoT Houston Gulf Coast is about more than attending occasional seminars, it is meant to be a rewarding experience of association with our best and brightest local engineers. Your diversity of ideas and experience enhance our community and make us collectively better engineers. Whether you talk professionally at a seminar, socially at a happy hour or inspirationally as a volunteer, your involvement is significant and may result in unexpected rewards for yourself and others. SEAoT Houston Gulf Coast offers you these opportunities…to learn, to engage, to collaborate.
Hebert Hoover said, “engineering is a great profession.” It certainly is, and every one of us can personify that greatness within our community. This year, as President, I will strive to keep our association striding toward greatness, and I encourage you to find a vision for 2020 and press toward it however winding the path may be.
Sincerely,
Emily McCarthy, PhD, PE
January 2020
