January 2010 From the Chair

The Hampton Roads Section had several significant accomplishments this past year. The biggest accomplishment was the creation of our Power and Energy Society (PES) Chapter. We had two student paper competitions, which was done so that we could synchronize the timing of the completion with the completion of a semester at our local schools. I attended the Region 3 SouthEastCon in Atlanta (I got the extra special good deal of spending the night in Detroit that Sunday as I missed a connecting flight). We also experienced significant increases in attendance at our monthly meetings during 2009.


None of this could happen without the effort of several of our members. Jennifer Ammentorp was very instrumental in getting the PES Chapter going. Anton Riedl hosted the first student paper competition at Christopher Newport University and coordinated the second student paper competition. Greg Hodges, who served as the section vice-chair, did a marvelous job in setting up the technical programs as was demonstrated by our increase in attendance at the monthly meetings. My efforts were rewarded (and not by spending an extra night in Detroit), but rather by having these individuals make my job seem easier. We have a lot more individuals that help make the section run and for those individuals I am indebted for their efforts and support.

With all of this said, there remains work to be done. Our Bylaws have to be rewritten to be consistent with the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) bylaws. We will be co-hosting Oceans 2012 and there is a need for an individual(s) to attend and work with our partner, the Oceanic Engineering Society. The section will be celebrating our 50th year as a section in 2011 with special events to be planned. In addition there are several other items that have been talked about in the Executive Committee (ExComm) meeting that we generally have before each monthly meeting. There is work to be done, some of which requires effort of short duration, while other volunteer efforts require a longer duration. All effort is crucial and welcomed.
I am looking forward to this upcoming year for the section. Let any officer know if you would like to volunteer or if you have any ideas on how to help the section grow and meet the expectations of our membership.

Thank you.
Regards,
James Bolitho
2009 Chair
Hampton Roads Section