A few words from our President

Everyone,

As we come to the end of our first year, I wanted to take a chance to thank everyone who has taken part in Chester County Engineers. It seems like yesterday when we had our kick off meeting at the Chester County Economical Development Council, but I guess time flies when you are having fun. Yeah, right. While it hasnt been a fun year for our industry, I am confident that 2009 will bring us a turnaround. And for all of you pessimists, just humor me here. We have a lot of things planned for 2009 already including the kick off of our Ethics Committee in January as well as we hope to receive a draft Erosion Control Manual from the Conservation Districts to begin to review and comment on in the Spring. We feel we met our goal of our first year which, in part, included sustaining the organization financially as we built membership while also trying to get some much needed work done like all of the effort put forth by the BMP Committee. I believe through all of our efforts we have built a trusting relationship with DEP, PA DOT as well as our local Conservation District. In 2009 we hope to continue to build our membership as well as expand it into the Universities so that we have an opportunity to educate the graduate engineers as they enter the working world, assuming there IS a working world. We plan a few more Fishing Raffle trips, but this time, they will be well offshore for Tuna and Marlin. Upchucking will be permitted, however, only directly into the Atlantic and only if I get to laugh while its occuring. We are also considering a Spring Golf Outing that will be just a little more laid back than your average golf outing. The last time Adam Brower and I played together we were both a solid 40 handicap and I dont believe either of us has improved.



We also hope next year to host some form of an awards banquet and dinner prior to the Holiday Season in 2009. While its hard to give an award for the best use of Silt Fence and the coolest detention basin design, we feel we have identified some interesting categories for awards as well as some funny ones. Certainly we have all of 2009 to take suggestions.



Through the golf outing, additional marketing on our website as well as a few other ideas, I believe we can grow CCE in 2009 to be the best, most fun and most useful trade organization you belong to. Had we raised more money this year, we would have not charged anything for the Christmas Party, but we didnt want to go into 2009 close to a deficit.



Lastly, I would like to thank John Hubickey from my office who did all the work on the CCE Webpage. He put in many weekends getting it built and refines it every day. And most of all Id like to thank Erin Hamel from my office who does all of the behind the scenes work that keeps CCE running and makes sure everything happens smoothly and adds all of the content to the CCE webpage.



Hopefully we will see a lot of you here tomorrow night for a few hours of fun, we will have PLENTY to drink and eat and no Harrys Hotdogs isnt bringing hotdogs! You arent payin 30 bucks for a hotdog.



Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and see you tomorrow hopefully or in 2009.

Denny L. Howell, PE

President