Structural Engineers Association of Central CA

In this issue

Newsletter Submissions

Want to submit items for the next newsletter? Please email the editor at [email protected] by Friday, May 8th!

2020-2021 Leadership


2019-2020 Board of Directors

President

Benjamin Faircloth, S.E.

Vice President

Roy Lobo, S.E.

Treasurer

Timothy Piland, S.E.

Past President

Ali Sumer, S.E.

Director - Central District

Allison Konwinski, S.E.

Rachel Leung, P.E.

Devon Lumbard, S.E.

Louay Shamroukh, S.E.

Director - East District

Brett McElhaney, S.E.

Director - North District

Jeremy Kellogg, S.E.

Director - South District

Doug Mayer, S.E.

2019-2020 Committee Chairs

Audit/Budget/Finance
Timothy Piland, S.E.

Business Forum
Matthew Melcher, S.E.

Bylaws & Policies
Darron Huntingdale, S.E.

Communications
Kendall Johnson, P.E.
James Langelier, S.E.

Continued Education
Sonia Eliseo, S.E.

Disaster Emergency Services
Steven T. Hiner, S.E.

Drone Club
Jerry Yee, S.E.

Excellence in Structural
 Engineering Awards
Roy Lobo, S.E.

Existing Buildings
Eric Fuller, S.E.

Golf Tournament
Vacant

House
David Hunn, G.E.

Legislative
Ryan Kersting, S.E.

Membership
Laura Rice, S.E.

Newsletter
Rachel Leung, P.E.

Program
John Weninger, Jr., S.E.

Public Relations
Joyce Copelan, P.E.
Samantha Kersting, S.E.

Scholarship
James Carlson, S.E.

S.E. Exam Interview
Edwin Nicholson, S.E.

SE3 Committee
Anna Tekautz, S.E.

SEAOC 2019 Convention
Alban Gjongecaj, P.E.

Seismology & Load Criteria
David Palmer, S.E.

Snow Load Project
John Corless, S.E.

Social Media
Leticia Valenzuela

Structural Standards
Christos Tokas, S.E.

Student Relations
Amy Hopkins, P.E.

Sustainable Design
Ryan Miller, S.E.

Website
Kaylee Efstathiu

Younger Member Forum
Matthew Quan, P.E.

Have any questions or want to get
 involved? Contact any of the
Committee Chairs or Board Members
 above.

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Quick Links

March 2020

President's Message

I hope this finds you healthy.

We have all seen and experienced tremendous change recently. In what seems like a story from another reality, it was only a 6 weeks ago that fifty of us met in person for dinner in a restaurant and socialized for the evening. The only visual indicator of the coming changes were a few elbow bumps in-lieu of handshakes. In the next days and week we found ourselves with no option but to work from home. Our long-planned and pending March concrete design seminar was forced into postponement. The Business Forum had a call-in shortly thereafter to discuss the change to work-from-home, and the common challenges the local companies were adapting to.

Working from home is different. While communication via video conferencing, screen sharing, email, chats, texts, and the old-fashioned phone call have allowed most of our work to continue, I do have some level of concern about our ability to mentor and develop new engineers in this environment in the long term. Contact me with your thoughts on this or if you are interested in discussing this. While I certainly hope that my long-term concerns are allayed by near term developments, I think this could be an area for SEAOCC to develop a leading position. Will the forced work-from-home experiment pave the way for increased voluntary adoption of a work-from-home culture in our profession? If so, the prospect of long-term training of future engineers could become relevant again.

On the plus side, the kids see more of me during the day as I work from home (although its usually as I duck in and out of seclusion to use the restroom). The dog is getting more walks in, and I am spending no time commuting. Lunches are spent on a bicycle. These are the things I could get used to…

The silver lining to all of this is that we as a profession have proved resilient and adaptable. We should take the lessons learned from this experience as something that will make us stronger as a profession in the event of potential future major interruptions such as an Earthquake. In our personal lives, the lessons we have learned from this shelter-in-place could be applied similarly.

With change, we are presented with challenges and stress, but also with opportunities. It hasn’t been easy, but, from what I am seeing, we are adapting.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Ian Faircloth

2019-2020 SEAOCC President

Calendar of Events

UPCOMING EVENTS

April Membership Meeting: CANCELLED

SE3 Committee Meeting - April 20th

See below for volunteering information.


May Membership Meeting: TBD

Golf Tournament - CANCELLED

Click here to see our calendar for the most up-to-date information!

Committee Reports

Nomination committee

By Ben Faircloth, S.E., SEAOCC President

The Nominating Committee is calling for Nominations from the Membership for the following positions.

Director - Central Section
Vice President

Please send any nominations to our Executive Secretary via emial ([email protected]) by May 8th.

Seaocc at the state capitol: SE3 Committee updates

By Anna Tekautz, S.E., SEAOCC SE3 Committee Chair

On February 20th, Committee Chair Anna Tekautz, committee member Leticia Valenzuela, and SEAOCC member Jennifer Shively represented SEAOC at the State Capitol for Assemblywoman Rivas’s introduction of ACR 154. The resolution marked February 20th as “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day”. Assemblywoman Rivas and others discussed the importance of introducing young girls to the STEM field and keeping them interested throughout their schooling and into their professional lives. SEAOCC was joined by other women engineers from other professional organizations including PECG, ASCE, and ACEC.

Having more women in engineering improves our industry by increasing diversity of thought, gender, age, personality, interests, and more. Increased diversity provides additional perspectives to problem solve issues facing our industry. Over time, encouraging women to work in more lucrative careers such as engineering may help reduce the gender pay gap and provide increased financial stability to individuals and families.

For ideas to inspire a new generation of great innovators and problem solvers, check out DiscoverE, an organization geared towards engaging students in engineering. Their December 2019 publication “Despite the Odds: Young Women Who Persist in Engineering” turns the table on current studies looking at why women leave engineering, and instead studies the common factors that motivate girls to pursue and persist with engineering. The publication can be downloaded here: http://www.discovere.org/our-programs/girl-day

If you are interested in joining the committee or have topics you like the committee to discuss, please reach out to Anna Tekautz at [email protected].

SCholarships awarded at student night

This past March, SEAOCC awarded a total of 6 scholarships to outstanding college students studying at local universities in the SEAOCC region. It is thanks to sponsorships and members that we are able to support future engineers.

The winners are:

Undergraduate Student Scholarships:

Jordan Beach - Chico State
Justin Estrada - University of the Pacific
Jeremiah Peek - UC Davis
Mark Kobrya - Sacramento State
Ammar Hanna - Fresno State

Graduate Student Scholarship:

Leah Classen - University of the Pacific

Picture above taken at Student Night, scholarship winners with with SEAOCC President Ben Faircloth, Student Relations Chair Amy Hopkins, and Scholarship Chair Jim Carlson.

SE3 Survey 2020 Open Now!

The NCSEA SE3 Committee is requesting your participation in its third nationwide survey of structural engineering professionals, now through June 12. This is the largest survey of structural engineering professionals in the United States and provides valuable comprehensive information about our profession regarding demographics, compensation, satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

By participating in this anonymous survey, you will be helping us understand which factors influence engagement and retention for structural engineers living in Central California.

Please take the 10-15 minute survey and forward to as many colleagues in your area as you feel comfortable, especially ones that are not part of SEAOCC or those who have left for other careers, as they are the hardest to reach, but equally important! We need to get feedback from as many Sacramento / Central California region structural engineers as possible to ensure our voice is heard at the national level when survey findings and paths forward are discussed.

2020 Survey Link: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5536448/The-2020-SE3-Survey

Welcome New Members

new members approved on february 11, 2020

Emily Jahansouz, Degenkolb Engineers - Associate

Craig Keller, IT Enidine, INC - Industry
Kevin Logsdon, HGA - Member
Daniel Miller, Degenkolb Engineers - Associate
David Miller, Degenkolb Engineers - Member SE
Hayden Sahnow, Redbuilt LLC - Affiliate
Eric Slomenski, Degenkolb Engineers - Member
Hazen Talbott, JCWagner & Associates - Member
Jeremy Mululu, Harley Elliz Devereuax - Associate

new members approved on march 10, 2020

Calvert Keller, CSUS - Student
Dustyn Robinson, Deems Structural Engineering Inc - Associate

new members posted on march 10, 2020

Michael Campbell, Miyamoto International - Member
Jacob Gruber, Miyamoto International - Member
Katharine Worcester, Degenkolb Engineers - Associate

SEAOC News

Reminder: Room reservations for the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa are open. Lock in the special 2020 SEAOC Convention rate by reserving your room now!

Convention registration coming soon.

Photo Gallery

Click here for our photo gallery. New pictures from Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at the Capitol.

Ask SEAOCC Leadership

A strange person has informed you that every fictional world we know of is actually based on a real world in another dimension, and this stranger is offering you the opportunity to travel to any of these universes for a month. you have 24 hours to pack and decide if and Where would you go. Do you take him up on the offer and if so, where do go?

"Darillium. I want to hear the singing towers and eat at that restaurant. Also I could get a lot of side projects done in 24 years." - Laura Rice

"A free trip to any fictional world of my choice? Um. Yeah! Of course I am going! And if the machine fails after I get there, that's just too bad for all of you. I will miss you. Maybe. Now I will just spend the next 24 hours deciding which fictional world I want to go live in." - Amy Hopkins.