President’s Message

    

Thank you very much to the members of the Westchester/Putnam Chapter of the New York State Society of Engineers for the trust you have bestowed upon me with election of President of our Chapter for the next year. I use the word our here to remind all that this organization is about all of us – Professional Engineers of all practices, who come together with shared ideals to promote the licensed practice and profession of engineering. The Westchester/Putnam Chapter has a long history of outstanding leadership. I pledge to continue to uphold the high standards set by my predecessors, and to continue to promote our profession and serve the members of our Chapter to the best of my ability.

I can not do this alone, of course. The members also voted their trust to seven Officers, and nine Directors to complete the team effort for leadership within our Chapter. It is through the combined efforts of this core group of Officers and Directors that our Chapter will continue into the future for all members.

Serving the membership is the primary focus of the Chapter. We, the Chapter, work in conjunction with the State and National Professional Engineering Society to represent you, the Licensed Professional Engineer. We strive to protect your PE licensure from outside influences seeking to limit, modify, or otherwise detract from the primary reason for licensure and the many responsibilities that our predecessors bestowed upon the licensed Engineer. Our Chapter, along with the State and National Society will continue to stand firm on abuses of illegal practice, and legislative efforts contrary to the goals and standards of professional licensure.

The Chapter provides a local point of focus for the engineering community to maintain licensure through the offering of PDH’s with our monthly seminar series. In addition to the education offerings, the Chapter also provides several social events during the year giving us all an opportunity to network outside of the office environment. All members are invited to our events and become involved. Come to a PDH lunch or dinner, try out your golf swing at our Fall Golf Outing (September 5, 2006 –Canyon Country Club in Armonk), come on by to our Post Holiday gathering, or be part of the Engineers’ Week gala in February.

Are you interested in helping the profession, but not sure how? The Chapter has many opportunities for volunteering. We have many committees established to promote the profession. Whether you are interested in legislative matters at the State level, or want to help younger minds with our Mathcounts competition, Future Cities program or our scholarship offerings, or seek to promote the profession through recruiting efforts such as the Expo 2007, or our Membership committee, or are interested in educational outreach efforts with the PDH programs, our Chapter offers you the opportunity to become involved. To that end, may I remind all that we are an organization of over 350 members. We have a great core group of volunteers, but we need more. The members of the board of directors all chair a committee, sit on one, or more committees and carry forward with the bulk of the work of the Chapter. This can’t be done alone! For a committee to function it must have more than one member. You are all invited, encouraged, even pleaded with, to enhance you own membership experience by volunteering for a committee. And to our corporate members – we always have an opportunity for you to sponsor or co-sponsor an event. Please, enhance your experience step forward and volunteer. It is through the outreach programs that the Chapter promotes the image of the Professional Engineer and our role in the community.

Thinking about getting involved? Enjoy Golf? Our Golf Outing is September 5, 2006. We need volunteers for many different aspects of the event. Chairman Ralph Perigrine, P.E. needs volunteers for various tasks during the day. If you are available and want to assist, contact our Chapter office (914) 328-9139 for additional information. This is our single source fundraising event for the year. Funds raised at this event support our scholarship program in which the Chapter awards several scholarships to graduating high school seniors with an interest in pursuing an engineering curriculum in college, leading toward an engineering degree.

I look forward to working with the members of the Board and our Directors in the coming year – working to keep the momentum of our past moving forward for the benefit of our organization and the engineering profession. Through your cooperation, I strive for increased membership, diversification among greater engineering disciplines, and greater participation in chapter goals and objectives by the membership at large.

Thank you very much for the opportunity,
Very truly yours,
Victor G. Carosi, P.E.