The Northern California Section is undergoing another change in leadership. I saw a posting by Mauricio Solario, Section Chair, announcing that he is now a Research Assistant at UNR. I contacted him about the change and he said that his employer, Rivos which was based in San Francisco had abruptly shut down and laid everyone off. This not only affected Mauricio but the other Section officers as well. He said that he would send out an announcement to the Section but since he has not done so yet, I wanted to communicate with you.
We have a healthy (?) section with a solid bank account, a good number of members located around Northern California and support from SME but we lack one thing, LEADERSHIP. Andy Sass is still our treasurer, which is a very good thing. What we need the most to get the Section back on solid footing is a Program Chair and Vice Chair. The two officers work together to put together meetings. Because of the widespread nature of the Section membership, these meetings do not have to always be in the same place but do move around in order to serve the membership. They usually consist of a speaker presenting on a topical subject, which will attract members, but the meeting can also consist of a field trip to a producing quarry, processing plant, operating mine or a historical one and even a historic, operating dredge. Meetings in the past were every month, historically, but have in more recent times been every 2 or 3 months. The more frequent, the better to keep the membership engaged.
For the Section to be successful we must have a succession plan. As an officer, you need to make sure that there is always someone ready to step in for the position of Secretary. Each officer moves up to the next level which means that there is always a Chair. As we have learned, it is bad practice to have too many of the officers from the same company. It is best for the Program Chair to be a person who has knowledge of the area and contacts for generating speakers. SME can help but this is good for only 1 or 2 meetings a year.
This is the time of year when officers traditionally change. We need to have leadership in place by September. If you are interested and willing to help with this Professional Society, please respond with what you would like to do. SME has many things to offer outside of the traditional fields now with the Health & Safety Division and a renewed emphasis on the Environmental Division. That should expand the offering to the members. Programming will be a joint effort until we can get on firmer footing. No one will be expected or required to take on a heavy load in getting the Section up and running. Communications can usually be handled through the SME Community, Andy is still the treasurer, what we need is help in organizing the meetings, location and speakers.
Respond with your thoughts and ideas as well as you interest. Thank you.
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William Warfield
Roseville CA United States
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