President’s Message

ASCE, which was founded in 1852, is America’s oldest national engineering society and represents more than 144,000 members worldwide. Our mission is to provide essential value to our members and partners, advance civil engineering, and serve the public good.

The board and committee chairs of the ASCE Austin Branch are geared up for the new year. Officers were installed at our September membership luncheon and our committee chairs have an excellent slate of activities that are already underway!

In keeping with ASCE’s mission, this year we are working toward the following goals:

• Increase ASCE membership and attendance at ASCE events, such as the monthly luncheon, special activities, and our seminars.
• Bolster our communication with the Texas Section, as we now have Austin Branch member Amy Smith sitting as President of the Texas Section.
• Continue ASCE’s community service support for Austin Children’s Museum Engineer’s Day, Centex EWeek, Habitat for Humanity, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl-a-thon.
• Increase the Younger Members group activities by increasing participation in the monthly social, the quarterly technical meeting, increasing participation in the West Point Bridge competition, and hosting the annual golf tournament.
• Continue to foster our relationship with the UT Student Chapter with joint activities and financial support for specific Student Chapter activities.
• Honor local engineers and projects by continuing to submit applications for various ASCE section and national awards.

As ASCE members, we are in a wonderful position of supporting the advancement of our profession by recognizing civil engineering accomplishments and encouraging the ethical practice of engineering while enjoying the benefits of camaraderie and lifelong learning.

I encourage you to find a way over the coming year to become or continue to be an active participant with the Austin Branch in whatever aspect of ASCE you feel passionate about. Please contact me or other board and/or committee members in finding a way to participate in our many activities this year. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Austin Branch President!

Roman Grijalva

President Austin Branch

2010-2011