Articles

President’s Message – August 2012

Howdy and Gig ‘em,

My name is Alison Smith and I am the 2012 Dallas Branch Director for ASCE. Since the August meeting will be hosted by the Younger Members I will be helping with the president’s message this month. First, we would like to thank everyone that came out and supported Dallas ASCE at the joint meeting in July; we had a great turnout. Next month’s speaker will be Kurt Schulte, PE with Kimley-Horn and he will be presenting the Complete Streets Project. The Complete Streets Project emphasizes the need to build streets that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone. This project will approach street design to suit the needs of the area through which they pass, be it business districts, shopping districts, entertainment areas, or residential neighborhoods. We look forward to hearing more about this innovative approach to street design from Mr. Schulte next month. 

Since the Younger Members are hosting the August luncheon, we would like to give everyone an update of what activities/accomplishments we have made so far this year and what other activities or volunteer opportunities we have coming up in the near future. Two other ASCE members that should be highlighted in this message are Kayla Lorentz, Younger Member Chair, and Matt Ludwig, Education Chair. Both of these members play a vital role in organizing all of our younger member activities and volunteer opportunities. Again this year we have had a busy schedule for educational outreach; we like to emphasize to all of our ASCE members, not just younger members, how important it is to get out in the community and discuss civil engineering with aspiring young technical minds. So far this past year we have been able to help with ten different educational events. At every occasion we have had a great turn out and we deeply appreciate the ASCE members that volunteer their time and effort to help out with these events. Below is a list of the events that we have participated in to date:

• Frisco ISD FUSE Program Presentation at Heritage High School
• Coppell High School Engineering Fair
• Julian T. Saldivar Elementary Career Day (DISD)
• Presentation at Brandenburg Middle School (Garland)
• Future Cities Competition 2012
• Mathcounts 2012
• ASCE Central Region Younger Member Leadership Conference
• Engineer’s Week “Ask the Engineer” Chat/Presentation at Dallas Museum of Nature and Science
• Townview TAG Engineering Fair (DISD)
• Sharky Sunday Presentation at Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

Alison Smith, P.E.

Branch Director