Dear members,
It’s has been my pleasure volunteering for ASHRAE for over a decade and being on the Golden Gate committees and Board since 2012-2013. This year I’ve added two words to our ASHRAE Society President - Bjarne W. Olesen, Ph.D., Fellow ASHRAE, National Presidential theme and message about “Extending our community” globally. My local chapter desire will be focusing on Golden Gate chapter and collaborating with other ASHRAE Bay Area and Valley Chapters and AEC Industry partners like the ASPE-Society of Plumbing Engineers, AIEE, AIA, USGBC, LBL, etc. You will notice we have already aligned some of our goals with the other society like ASPE, so now we have the meetings on every 3rd Wednesday night to not overlap or be close to their meetings (though there will be exceptions).
By the way there is shortage of plumbing engineers in the Bay area if you haven’t noticed!
Meeting schedule is here:
http://ggashrae.org/meetinginfo.php
Get used to paying $50 for lunch and dinner meetings this year, we increased the price $10 to be able make the famous break-even engineering math. Don’t forget we are all volunteers, it’s the cost of doing business in the Bay Area. Also, most of you get reimbursed by your employer so not a big deal for the $10 delta from last year (we haven’t increased the price for a long long time)-if your employer doesn’t reimburse your National and local membership too, and your regular ASHRAE meetings please allow me and some of the other board members to give compelling reasons why.
In short, in late 2017: a dinner or lunch in SF or Oakland, 3 hr networking event and 1hr or less technical presentation got to be worth $50 for a company that will have their logo on our large 10’x20’ projector screen every meeting! Don’t you agree? I would love you too tell me why you wouldn’t subsidize your employee meal, here is my contact, call me: c:510-561-8816 or nikolakravik@gmail.com.
Notice I gave you my personal cell above and not a bogus office number that you can never reach me. I want my Presidential year at Golden Gate to be about communication, openness, collaboration, learning, teaching, coaching and leading the way as true leaders. Be a leader, don’t be just follower all the times, reach out, expand our “community” – It’s hard to do any kind of business with folks that can even give you their business cell on their reply email!
We have young and energetic board this year, I feel veteran at 39, but still 19 at heart! We have had planning sessions over the summer, our Regional CRC in Sacramento and ready to serve you and our Society. Michelle Dionello (Genentech) is our President Elect-all star keeping me and everyone else on track with biggest task on year round program meetings planning and great speakers and venues; Jason Lesser (IQ Controls) is our Secretary this year to keep me and Michelle aligned, he loves to expand ASHRAE to all building trades especially the reach out to controls industry and students, Jason was our Rockstar Resource Promotion Chair for several years; Alyse Falconer (Point Energy Innovations) is our “CFO” since I don’t like the word treasurer for some reason too outdated, Alyse is more than a CFO she was last year’s one of ASHRAE’s new faces of engineering and GG YEA MVP Chair; Brian Chacon (Trane) will be 2nd year board member replacing Anna Brannon’s (Atelier Ten) who left us for better life in Australia-we miss her a lot! Brian will be helping all of us and still volunteered to keep the Membership Promotion Chair hat at the same time-kudos to Brian, he is our GG ASHRAE rising star; Jeremy Martinez (Cal Hydro) is our 1st year board member and will do our piping loss calcs, equipment selections, business development…no, no just kidding, he is a veteran GGAC Committee Chair (Grass Roots Government Committee, for those who don’t know he works to convey to the Federal government executives our ASHRAE National and local goals that will benefit everyone). If you are still confused and think this is not a lobbyist job, but kind of like it, please read for your own knowledge here, it’s a short read.
https://www.ashrae.org/government-affairs/grassroots-advocacy/committee
Finally, a big thank you to our outgoing Golden Gate President - Tyler Bradshaw (Blue Forest Engineering) who will be still behind the scenes and will participate in all board meetings, reminding us that no matter how great of ideas we have, how young and energetic we are and much we want to do more, there will be always need for seasoned industry veteran who is willing to help us in any way possible, be a mentor and a coach!
Please don’t have excuses for not showing to meetings, calendar is up pencil them now; please read about climate change for yourself-don’t let me or others influence your opinion (pix below curtesy of Caltrans, Squaw Valley, 9/21/2017, thought this pix will be nicer than showing you the 16 vehicle wreck on 80 that unfortunately took the life of one driver)
http://kron4.com/2017/09/21/deadly-16-car-crash-blocks-wb-i-80-in-sierra/
Don’t forget to think about global politics and how indirectly impacts our Society and Globally, it does tremendously especially if it’s credible on not:
I recently volunteered and helped a SFSU MS Civil/Structural engineer get her resume straight and start applying for a job-She is a SF Gator, me too. I also helped a stranger in IKEA Emeryville bring something from a shelf 8’ above since “I was observed to be tall and strong”, I learned today of the word “dotard”.
What have you done lately and how do you plan to Extend our Golden Gate ASHRAE Community?
Lastly, like a mentioned to you above, please be great leaders and follow your passion (although It’s ok to follow someone else sometimes) and do what your heart tells you to do in life! Be zealous and don’t settle for everything, question things, be different, listen, care about each other and love.
Expand our ASHRAE Community locally and globally!
