I am honored to be sworn in as president of the Rochester Engineering Society. For me it holds a special significance. We have had past presidents serve two terms, including the most recent, Jon Kriegel; however, I don’t believe we’ve ever had a father and son both serve as president. And while it goes back thirty years, I certainly recall my dad’s selection as Engineer of the Year. This tradition of celebrating the profession in this way continues as one of the hallmarks of the Society.
On the board since 2010 and treasurer for the last 5 years, I can share that our balance sheet remains healthy. Our major programs have all done well in the recent year. The symposium had record attendance and continues to overflow its venue. Our scholarship program awarded four students with RES engineering scholarships, including a new award started by the Amish family through their generous $50,000 donation to keep it going for years to come. The Gala was well attended and entertaining with its tribute to the latest Engineer of the Year, Diane Trentini, who notably ushered in the Young Engineer of the Year award in her term as president through a gift from the Kate Gleason Foundation of $50,000. Our new tutoring program has reached 20 tutors at the Dr. Walter Cooper Academy School #10. Special recognition goes to Lee Loomis in ushering this program and Bergman Associates who have taken it as a corporate program.
The technology side of me is pleased with our work with Wild Apricot, our online registration system, membership management, and hosting service. It managed two very large events for us in the Gala and the ABCD conference. We are well positioned and welcome the opportunity to help other affiliates manage their large events with this tool. In the last year, we greatly enhanced this ability by transitioning to QuickBooks Online and its integration with PayPal. With the explosion of online transactions to almost 1,000 payments we are now able to streamline our financial reporting for these activities.
Our migration to being connected carries over to the magazine. Over the recent year we changed the format of our Rochester Engineer to a hybrid of print and online delivery. This is the first step in moving to a more connected experience with this publication. It is clear that we must continue to stay up to date to attract new and younger membership and to that end we have formed a strategic planning team to help identify areas we can better serve the engineering community. It is my hope we will strengthen our affiliate alignments and grow our membership through this effort. I look forward to working with our new board in this effort.