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President's Message - December 2020

Happy December Dallas Branch Members!

As we wrap up 2020, I want to thank all our members for their support of the Dallas Branch through the pandemic thus far. The Dallas Branch has had to make a lot of quick decisions on the fly since the pandemic first descended upon us. I think that because of all the great leaders within our Branch, we were able to be nimble and agile as we adjusted to the new world situation. We were one of the first Branches in Texas to offer a virtual meeting so that we could continue provide value to our members. We continued our fantastic education outreach programs at Woodrow Wilson and Hillcrest High Schools by giving virtual presentations, mentoring project teams via Zoom meetings, and serving as judges during final project video presentations. We also have new and exciting programs in the works as we enter 2021, including a college student/Younger Member mentoring program called “The Bridge”. We hope that this series of mentoring sessions will help college students and young graduates bridge the gap between school and the “real world” of civil engineering!

I also want to thank all our members who watched our November virtual meeting and donated $10 for their PDH certificates. From these PDH certificate proceeds, we were able to donate $592.50 each to the G.B. Mann Scholarship Fund and Christmas is Caring Charity Drive organized by ASCE Dallas Past President Quinn Spann. This month we will be splitting the proceeds from our PDH certificates evenly between the ASCE Dallas G.B. Mann Scholarship and the North Texas Food Bank.

The Dallas Branch Board is also extremely proud to be conferring the first ever Anthony Luce Award of Honor this month. Anthony Luce, P.E. was a tremendous leader for our Dallas Branch who passed away in 2019 in the middle of his Dallas Branch Presidency after a long battle with cancer. I am proud of our Board of Directors for choosing to honor Anthony’s legacy with an award that recognizes a member of the Dallas Branch that has exhibited the traits that we all saw in Anthony as a leader, engineer, friend, and family member. Please be sure to tune in to our virtual Branch meeting this month as we recognize Bob Patton, P.E. as the recipient of the 2020 ASCE Dallas Anthony Luce Award of Honor.

Finally, I want to encourage each of you to take some time this month to look back on 2020 and see the positives in this year. This was not the 2020 any of us wanted - there is no getting around that. However, I believe that we all had the opportunity to gain something from this year. We all had to learn patience. We all had to learn empathy and understanding. We all had to learn to be flexible. We all were pushed out of our comfort zones. We can look back and be bitter about the time, opportunity, and experiences that were lost in this year, or we can choose to look back and see the things that were exposed and laid bare - not only in our society but in our own personal lives and how we grew out of those experiences. I hope that we do not take this year for granted, but rather that we carry forward the lessons learned from 2020 into our personal and professional lives for the betterment of our families, society, and the civil engineering profession.

Happy Holidays and have a safe and happy New Year! Here’s to 2021!

-Jonathan Brower, P.E.

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