November 2017 – President’s Message
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – NOVEMBER 2017 NEWSLETTER
President’s Message
by Don Adams, Section President-Elect
Standing on this soap-box, I wanted to say a note appreciation to my mentor, Scott S. Smith, PhD, PE, M. ASCE, Thank you for the interview, and for hiring me. Thank you for asking me to go that first ASCE meeting. I will never forget the words of encouragement you said to me after dancing around the room and introducing me to everyone you knew: “OK, now the rest is up to you, keep going to meetings and building your network.” Your introduction to ASCE helped shape my career!
I became engaged in the Younger Member Forum (YMF) and found myself the President of the Truckee Meadows chapter (which I am proud to say is doing very well), and eventually worked my up through the ranks to become the President of the Nevada Section, and now the President-Elect of the San Francisco Section. However, my most memorable moments with ASCE is when I was the co-chair for the Western Regional Younger Member Conference (WRYMC) in 2012 (aka SAC-tacular). With a group of 12 volunteers, and the support from ASCE national, we fundraised and spent over $30,000 to host the best WRYMC ever! And those cohorts of mine have risen to influential positions throughout the public, institutional, and private sectors. They are my friends, accomplishes, confidants and muses. And I know them all because I was invited to go to that first ASCE meeting.
Thank you (the reader) for reading this. You are a member of a great organization. We, as professional engineers, protect life and limb; counted on when the earth shakes, and the rain pours, and the fire burns. I hope that you all can think back to that day when you first got involved and say thank you to the person who welcomed you to the organization. And more than that, I hope that you can tap someone on the shoulder, invite them to an ASCE event, and influence their careers as much my mentor did.
Don Adams, PE, M. ASCE,
#ASCEmadeMe