President’s Message
A Very Happy New Year to all our Members!

Hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season and now its time to get back to work- fully energized!  Hopefully, while the energy lasts, you can steal some time for our Organization.

I would like to highlight some of the activities of our Chapter since our Board took office in July, 2008.

July - Board committed to develop a website for better Communication, Cooperation and Collaboration.

Board committed to focus on Academics and Collaboration with other related Organizations.

August - Northeast Region Conference- hosted by Metro New York & Long Island Chapter. The conference was a great success- Many of our members missed the opportunity to attend a conference, so close to home, which was beautifully orchestrated to provide networking, education and a family get-a way, all in one package! The upcoming Region conference is at Lake George on August 26-30, 2009. Please mark your calendar and make the most of the event which was so thoughtfully planned for all its members.

September - Golf Outing was a success, as usual. We had a mix of old and new faces. This year, our Golf Committee is doing some research to try something new- So please put aside a budget for this outing which is our biggest fund raising event.

October – CSI New Jersey Website rolled out to public. If you haven’t visited the website, please do so at www.csinewjersey.org. It will be a great way to thank our Vice President and Website Chair Chuck Vetter, who single-handedly created the website and did such a marvelous job at that!

November – The Specification Jeopardy Meeting was a super success! We had members from the Tri state Chapter of Design Build of America (DBIA). We had the opportunity to mingle with the lawyer members of DBIA which has allowed us to add another dimension to our chapter- looking at the legal side of things- something that is very important to any business, which we so often ignore.

December – Joint meeting with DBIA was a super success. The meeting was dedicated to the past presidents of our Chapter. We honored 12 past presidents of our Chapter and also 3 past presidents of Metro New York who are very active with our Chapter. The meeting was also attended by Scott Tobias, Region President and Institute Director, who we honored as President of Metro New York.

Each of our past leaders, starting with Stanley Magierowski (President 1970-1971) spoke of their goals, their achievements and their un-accomplished tasks. It was interesting to find how this Chapter went through its high and its lows, built brick by brick with the hard work and dedication of its leaders and members. It was satisfying to find that we have over time accomplished many of the aspirations and un-accomplished tasks of our past leaders.

Yes, we are on track…. As Michael Debiak, Past President of CSI NJ, Past Region President, and Past Institute Director commented- “every unfulfilled task I had, has either been accomplished by the leaders who followed me or is a focus of our current Board”.

“Dear Members, I thank you all, because each one of you has contributed to this achievement”.

Please look out for our upcoming meetings which are joint meetings with the AIA Chapters of New Jersey.

This year, we are taking up a student membership drive. In this changing world it is very important to have an ongoing dialogue between the Academic and Professional Community. Our Board has taken a leap forward in collaborating with New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Please reach out to me or any of our Board Members if you would like to be involved with any of our Chapter activities. I urge you to attend our monthly meetings. Please be aware that if you are unable to be physically present, you may still be an active member via activities through the internet.

This is a voluntary organization- feedback from membership gives our Board members and me the energy and enthusiasm to do more. So please be in touch with us!

Please communicate with us -in whichever form that works best for you.

I wish all our Members a Healthy & Successful 2009!
Together, we can achieve more.

Ruma Som, CSI, CDT, AHC
President CSI NJ Chapter
rsom@assaabloydss.com