President's Report

I was driving along the 15 Freeway this week and past another construction site. This one happened to be for a project I am involved with. I mentioned to my son, who was in the car with me, that it was “my” construction site. His first question was, “Why don’t you drive a truck?”. I told him that not everyone who works on construction projects drives a truck!  I then proceeded to try to explain to my 3-year-old what I do as a structural engineer. I stumbled through it saying: I drew it on paper, I was a designer, I helped them build it. My wife Melissa then interrupted and said, “Liam, do you know when you build your Legos with your dad, and you follow that book of instructions? Your dad makes the instructions for the construction workers to follow for real buildings.” Liam responds, “Oh, thanks mama.”

I was so impressed! Not only because she had actually understood what I did as a career, but that she was also able to explain it to a toddler far better than I could. It got me thinking about teaching and mentorship and how I still have room to grow in how I communicate and teach others about this profession. This applies not only to friends and family, but also to clients, colleagues, contractors and other design professionals.

This month we have the opportunity to honor our Fellows at our monthly meeting to be held next Thursday on April 20^th from 11:30-1:30pm at Stone Brewery Point Loma. Our Fellows are longstanding members of our Association that have been designated by the Board of Directors in recognition of their outstanding service or accomplishments in the field of structural engineering. Many of our Fellows are, or have been, firm or technical leaders in our profession locally and have taught or mentored many of us.

Zubaid Karim is one of our Fellows, who unfortunately won’t be able to join us next week, who has left a profound impact on my career. He was so good at teaching that he could write and draw details upside down as I sat across from him at his desk and he explained the complexities of engineering to me. He often walked around the office, stopping at everyone’s desk just to see what they were working on, providing guidance and coaching.  If I brought him a sheet of details to ask a single question on one detail, I would leave his office hours later with every detail redlined. I quickly learned that if I had a deadline approaching and was under a time crunch, to only bring him the single detail that I wanted his comments on. Zubaid always made time, shared his experiences and lessons learned freely and encouraged me to do the same.

I believe our profession needs to be one of continuous learners and teachers who share knowledge so we can expand our skills and become better engineers together. This month I have a few requests of you:

1. Learn something new! Whether it’s how to better manage projects, or a new technical topic that interests you, or in my case, how to better explain structural engineering to a child, be that continual learner and grow your expertise.
2. Share your experience and teach someone something! Like Zubaid encouraged me, it’s never too late or too early to start teaching or mentoring someone else. Even if you are a student, an intern or a recent hire, you have experience, knowledge and a voice that is different than others. Use it!
3. Lastly, think of someone in our profession who has made an impact on your career, who has taught you something impactful, and reach out and thank them. I am certain they would be happy to hear from you!

I hope to see you next week!

Chad Closs, S.E.
[email protected]
SEAOSD President
2022-2023

Back to top

SEAOSD Call for Board Nominations

Back to top

SEAOSD Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards

Click here to submit

Back to top

Calendar of Events

Back to top

Thank you Sponsors

Back to top

Welcome New Members

Welcome New Members

Thomas Higginbotham - Industry
Angel Melendez - Student
Michael Best - Industry
Alexander Fuller - Associate

Back to top

Committee

WiSE

Golf Lessons in full swing!

Watch out golfers...women are taking over!

The Women in Structural Engineering (WiSE) committee organized a series of 3 golf lessons prior to the SEAOSD golf tournament. The lessons were SOLD OUT within a couple of days!  Today was the first lesson and we took to the driving range. We had a blast learning to swing with the correct grip and posture and sent many a balls flying!

Thank you to our sponsor Simpson Strong Tie for making this possible and to the SEAOSD board for supporting us! 

Back to top

Job Forum

• SEA News charges $100 ($150 for non-members) for “Job Posting” ads for 3 months in SEAOSD Newsletter.

• In addition, the advertisement will be posted at www.seaosd.org under “Job Forum” for 3 months.

• Please limit ads to 100 words.

• Advertisements may be renewed or extended for $50 ($75 for non-members) per each additional month.

CLASSIFIED JOB LISTING

SUBMIT AN AD

Back to top

Small Project Referral List

Did you know you can sign up to be a part of our Small Project listing?
List of Engineers for Small Projects 2022-2023

Engineers desiring to be added to this list click here to Sign up and pay $50 for the year!

Note: We get about 10 calls a week for this list!

Back to top

Ads

Back to top

SEAOC Convention 2022

Back to top

2022-2023 Pathways to the Profession

Hi all,

We are excited to share that the 2023 SEAOC SE Pathways Application has now officially opened for the 2023 SEAOC Convention in Maui, HI, which will be from Wednesday, September 6th to Saturday, September 9th, 2023. 

As mentioned in our previous email, we would appreciate your help in distributing this announcement to your members. The application will be open for approximately 4 weeks, to give our team sufficient time to review and select the 50 participants for this year’s cohort, notify the selected individuals, and give them ample time to decide whether they will accept the opportunity, and plan time off work with their advisors, managers, or employers, and make arrangements for travel and accommodations, etc. 

We will send another email to you closer to the date of the close of application, so you can send another reminder to your members to consider submitting an application for this opportunity. 

If you or your firm are interested in sponsoring the SE Pathways Initiative, please visit the SEAOC SE Pathways Sponsorship Page for more information on the various sponsorship levels. Besides supporting our professional community, there are a myriad of benefits of becoming a Pathways Sponsor.

If you’d be willing to send a dedicated e-blast to your members, we would really appreciate it. 

A template announcement is provided for your use and can be accessed here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hJTuf59Iiv4BOIRKZP7ohBqL6LnR4tEucu2TqqX_IOw/edit#bookmark=id.9e4k4zz4ne7o

Should you desire to post this announcement on social media, feel free to use any images from the following two folders:

Link to folder

Photos (SE Pathways) from 2022 SEAOC Convention 

2022 SE Pathways Cohort

As a follow-up to our last email, we would like to know if you have had an opportunity to reach out to the 2022 SE Pathways participants who are located in your region. If you have not already done, so, please do connect them with younger members and invite and encourage them to attend any upcoming events, including professional development, and/or committee meetings. The list of all the SE Pathways Participants (2022 Cohort) in your region can be accessed in this google sheet.

We look forward to continuing to collaborate with your groups and welcome any feedback and ideas on ways in which we can best engage and retain our talent.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely, 

Megan Vandervort, Pathways MO Outreach Volunteer

Back to top