A New Year Begins!

​On September 18th, we had our very first meeting of the 2018-2019 year and my last event as Social Co-Chair for the 2017-2018 year. In keeping with tradition, our first event of the new year is a happy hour instead of our regular meeting that features a speaker. We held the event at Soda & Swine in Liberty Station where all 40 of us took over the back patio to chat with friendly, familiar faces.

Our first meeting of the year is always a wonderful way to kick off the new year. Whether it's a member's first meeting or hundredth meeting, the casual setting allows for the happy serendipity of running into old friends and meeting new ones. Regardless of a member's number of years with ASCE, the first meeting's energy always reminds us of our first meeting and the eagerness to make new connections within the industry. 

As we filled the back patio and took our seats to eat, I couldn't help but feel happy that not only was this the last event I'm *officially* in charge of, but also that I was surrounded by both familiar and not so familiar faces. I'm happy to say that we had a great turn out of both returning members and first timers.  

Do you remember you first meeting? Writing this post made me reflect on things I wish I knew on how to make the most out of YMF. So I collected a few tips from fellow board members and consolidated our thoughts into a few main takeaways:

Tips on How to Make the Most of YMF:

1. Go to meetings/events. This may sound like the obvious one, but it really does start here. See what we have to offer! We have a lot of different events that we hope will speak to one of your interests: monthly meetings with unique topics, tech tours, social events, and outreach/volunteer events.  
2. Meet new people. The beginning of every general meeting is dedicated networking time. We give all members the opportunity to jump into a casual environment before we jump to the speaker's topic. We hope every members gets to make a new connection and expand their network. And because we are a professional organization, it's always nice to exchange business cards and/or connect on LinkedIn. Sometimes I'm still surprised at how many times I hear, "I'm on that project too!" 
3. Get involved and participate. After a few meetings and some social events, my personal interest in YMF started to grow. There were events I wanted to suggest, there were ways I wanted to improve the newsletter/website, there were ideas on ideas. Most of these ideas were teeny tiny ("It would be cool if..") and a few were enough to fire me up ("I REALLY think we NEED to do..."). But ideas are ideas and even with a board of over 10 people, we're not going to be able to come up with all the good ones. We want to hear from you. Did you think this event? Did you think there's a topic we should discuss as a chapter? Got a cool social event idea? Is there a committee or position you're interested in? Drop us an email or find any board member (we've got red name tags!) and let us know.  Say yes to investing yourself in this organization, you will make a difference!
4. Give back. We have volunteer events that benefit the community and our student chapters. Let's give back to the communities we live, work, and learned in!

We also had our first board meeting. On Oct 2nd, new and returning board members met at TY Lin to get right to business on the new year. I was not present at this year's board retreat*, so I valued being able to meet the new board members for the first time. Everyone is truly excited to kick off the year and I am excited to see what we bring to the table. But I won't spoil too much... Surprises are always fun :) Do you have anything you hope to see this year? Let us know! We love hearing from you.

See you at our next meeting!
Stephanie Catubig, Website Chair

*Every year, a board retreat is held right before the start of the new ASCE year. Current and incoming officers are invited and we spend a weekend working on the upcoming year, bonding, and reviewing the previous year. We spend a lot of time discussing our successes and shortcomings, analyzing constituent needs and interests, and setting goals to better provide for our members. Our discussion is based largely on our experiences and the results of the End of the Year Survey. We hope that every member knows we love hearing from you! Whether it be the End of the Year Survey or with feedback along the year, we value your opinion.

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