Hi all, I'm Sara, a relatively new professional working as an account manager with a background in engineering. Just wondering if there are any local events (SME related or not) that people in Chapter 216 are attending? Hoping to shake some hands and make some new connections.
@Tom Juell
Thanks for the response Tom!
I would be interested in attending a virtual board meeting to see what you guys do and what member involvement could grow towards. I'll be reaching out to you guys via email.
I have been getting SME Engage correspondences, but truthfully haven't been diving into them. I will explore those more thoroughly.
Thanks Tom.
@Sara Gould
Hi Sara. I'm Tom Juell, a long-time member of Westchester 216. Good to hear from you and your interest in Chapter 216. I see you are located in Ronkonkoma, NY. I live in New York City. Twenty percent of our members do not even live in New York State. More than half of our members need to drive more than two hours for an in-person meeting.
The chapter has had few in-person activities since the COVID pandemic. In June we had a video presentation on 3D printing of shells for investment casting. Notice of the meeting was emailed to all members of Chapter 216 via SME Connect. Attendance was not what we had hoped. We have started to have in-person meetings of the chapter 216 board. The next board meeting is in September. Before that, we had Zoom board meetings. Would you be interested in attending a Zoom or Microsoft Teams board meeting?
The 216 board are mainly retired engineers who are long-time active SME 216 members. Our main objective now is to keep the chapter from going inactive. We are looking for younger engineers who want to be active in leading the chapter and who have new ideas for meetings and connecting our widely dispersed chapter members. Our board feels that our chapter and many SME chapters are failing their membership.
SME Headquarters is doing a fantastic job with its new SME Engage program. Are you getting these email notifications from headquarters? But, with the SME Engage, and other web-based programs SME has available it also brings into question “are chapters relevant anymore”.
Your Long Island, NY chapter, and the New Jersey Professional chapters have been shut down for many years. Chapter 216 absorbed many of those members but with the distances involved in-person meetings were difficult for many to attend.
I urge you can contact any of the Chapter 216 board members directly via their email address listed on our website, https://connect.sme.org/communities/home/63, we would like to talk more with you.
Best Regards,
Tom Juell
Webmaster/Bulletin Editor SME Westchester 216