From ASME San Francisco Section Nov/Dec 1997 Newsletter:
Chair's Greeting
by Brandon Muramatsu
BART and Commuting in the Bay Area
The recent BART strike has focused many in the Bay Area on commuting. We all saw on the nightly news the impact of the strike -- the massive increase in cars commuting over the Bay Bridge to the increase in ridership on the ferry systems around the Bay. Now that the strike is over, many questioned if ferries would retain some of their increased ridership. Also what would happen if an earthquake, once again, damaged one of the Bay Area's bridges?
Attend our November meeting to hear from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District. They will give us a presentation on the new Larkspur Ferry fleet's state-of-the-art due to go into service in 1998. In addition, they will discuss the seismic retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge and related issues.
BART named a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark
On a related note, I was honored to be present at the July 24, 1997 dedication ceremony held at the Lakeside Club in the Kaiser building. ASME recognized some of the technical innovations in the BART system. Joe Van Overveen, History and Heritage chair for the San Francisco section and former head of the Rail Transportation Division lead our efforts to landmark BART. On behalf of the Executive Committee, thanks for all your hard work Joe!
See the related article in this issue for more information on the BART Dedication.
Emerging Theme for the Year - "Soft skills" Development
At the conclusion of our first meeting at Autodesk, Roy Morgan your Vice-chair and programs chair for this year and I, discussed an emerging theme for this year's meetings. Many of the meetings we're planning are revolving around "soft-skills" development. Our September meeting at Autodesk turned into an interesting discussion of a model to describe concurrent engineering as well as what can engineers do to "stay current." In San Francisco's October meeting we will hear a discussion about being a Professional Engineer. In Mt. Diablo's November meeting, a SF-section Small Business Committee regular, Sam Burd, will talk about Starting a Company. Looking a bit further into the future the Bay Area Technical Conference we are planning for February will focus on Project Management skills.
New Newsletter Editor and Webmaster
Please join me in welcoming Eve Andersson, our new newsletter editor and webmaster. Perhaps you've already seen her impact on our redesigned website. Eve replaces Johnny Wu who has moved to Oregon and now works for Intel. Good luck Johnny!
The new [SFASME-Announcements] Mailing List
As part of our efforts to improve section communications through the use of information technologies, the Executive Committee has developed an e-mail mailing list. Through this mailing list, we'll send out announcements concerning local section activities and regional events of interest. The Executive Committee will use this list to supplement our traditional paper newsletter and bring you timely reminders and announcements of important events.
See the related article in this issue for more information on joining the mailing list.
Interested in Getting Involved?
Are you intrigued by all of the interesting events we're planning for the San Francisco section? Do you have any ideas for meeting topics or tours? We're always looking for more volunteers to help plan our activities! Contact me if you're interested at mura@needs.org or (510) 643-1817.