Dear Members,

Winter is in full swing. If you are in Southern California reading this message this week, you are probably inside trying to stay out of the cold and rainy weather we are having.

Although one of the main reasons we all live in California (and particularly Southern California) is the sunny weather we have for most of the year, I love the rain. It changes what we might think to do. It gives us a pause from the hustle and bustle of events outside to maybe stay inside... And in my case, provide some time to sit down and reflect on my President's Message!

January was a very busy kickoff to the calendar year for SEAOSC. We had our Symposium on the Northridge earthquake at CalTech on January 17. This was an opportunity to look back at what happened, examine what we have done since then to make our community more resilient, and look forward to what we continue to work on. We brought community leaders, government and building officials, structural engineers, and first responders together in a collective discussion about structural engineering, seismic design, and our preparedness for the next one.

And we can’t forget about our very successful Trivia Night just a week ago with nearly 20 teams. Congrats to all the participants and our winners for a fun night! And our events rolled right into February from there with our annual Structured Connections event in San Luis Obispo on the weekend of the Cal Poly SLO Structural Forum. Thank you to all who attended—and for those of you we missed, we look forward to seeing you there next year.

One of the many organizations we stay connected with at SEAOSC is the Applied Technology Council. SEAOSC has a designated member on the ATC board which has been recently filled by Michael Cochran. He has done a tremendous job as our board representative. Michael terms out this month on the ATC Board and we thank him for his service. David Cocke has taken over as the SEAOSC rep on the board of ATC and we look forward to his support of ATC as our SEAOSC rep in the coming years.

The next balloting discussion for updated provisions for the 2026 NEHRP cycle through the BSSC is upon us. Get involved on the Seismology committee if you want to have a voice through SEAOSC and SEAOC on these measures.

I’d like to highlight a number of exciting things going on and coming up at SEAOSC in the months ahead:

• We have a co-sponsored webinar between ASCE/EERI/SEAOSC coming up in mid-February that expands on some of the topics discussed at the Northridge Symposium.
• In March, our Emerging Engineers Night on March 13 will be a great dinner program that you should not miss. Come and meet this year's Foundation scholarship recipients and then listen to a panel of esteemed SEAOSC members discuss their careers and how they got to where they are today.
• There will be a joint SEAOSC/AIA event in April.
• May is our SEE Awards!
• June is the President's Lunch with technical sessions the morning of.
• August will be our Annual Golf Tournament with a bigger pre-tournament event at Top Golf in July! (If interested in helping out, please join the golf committee as we begin to plan for these events.)

And, last but not least, we are also in the midst of nominations for BOD members for 2024-25. Please speak up and let us know if you have a candidate for consideration.

If you have an interest in any of the above events, please reach out to me directly at craig.m.chamberlain@imegcorp.com or to our association at seaosc@seaosc.org.

Have a great February! Try and stay dry and I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming event soon!

Best,

Craig Chamberlain, S.E.
SEAOSC President 2023-24