Dear Colleagues,

On November 15th, our chapter in Tri-State held its second annual conference in Secaucus NJ.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members who made this event a successful event.  Several members and guests including Bilal Masri, the founder of AAAEA from Chicago, who attended the event expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the successful event.  

Although a few members were recognized for their outstanding contributions, many other dedicated members were not mentioned.  We would like to take this opportunity to recognize all the members who contributed in the last two years and we appreciate all the members who took the time to attend our seminars and annual event.  It has been pleasure working with all.

In addition, we  are thankful to our keynote  speakers who graciously agreed to address the audience.  Many thanks to Ms. Fatma M. Amer, PE  First Deputy Commissioner, NYDOB who shared with us her success story; and Mr. Eli Khoury, PE Vice President, HNTB, who enlightened the audience with his leadership speech and Mr. Moustafa Gouda, PE Principle, CMX Group who shared with us how to advance our career.   We were also honored to have Mr. Hany Mawla, Esq., the chairperson  of the newly formed Arab American Heritage Commission, present with two other members from the commission.

The term of the first elected executive officers is almost over but our work has just started.  Our membership is increasing, thanks to you;  the national network is expanding rabidly from California to Boston.  We are also working hard to initiate and open the national career advancement center which will provide employment services and training to our members nationally and much more.  There is a lot of work to be done and we need your help. 

If you did not have the chance to become a member, we encourage you to join before the election event that will be held in January 2009.  If you are an existing member, please take a minute and renew your membership before the end of the year.

We look forward to seeing all of our members, and  to welcoming our next elected Executive Board for 2009 in January.

Truly yours,

Fuad Issa, PE

President

(201) 341-9652

Dear All,

I was lucky to get a chance to attend both Illinois 12th annual conference and Tri-State second annual conference. I have to say that I enjoyed both events tremendously and both events made me proud of our association, its accomplishments and made be hopeful of the great potential of our associations.

In the Illinois conference you can clearly see the associations 12 years of experience, from the MC that introduced every speaker to the registration tables. While Tri-state could not boast their years of experience, they also were also able to pull of a great event that exceeded expectations in many counts. Both the Tri-State and the Chicago conferences were sold out and about 300 attended the Chicago event and 121 attended the Tri-State event. Tri-State received many letters and calls from members about the success of the event and many are excited for the next year. 

During the Illinois conference, the key note speakers presented technical presentations about Chicago; an insightful presentation on the transportation situation and an inspiring presentation of Chicago plans to and achievement in environmental issues. On the other hand, Tri-state conference presented three very successful Arab professionals Fatma Amer (First Deputy Commissioner), Eli Khoury (VP of HNTB) and Moustafa Gouda (Principal at CMX) who gave us very inspirational stories on how they were able to succeed and tips and advice for the young generation of Arab American professionals. Afterwards Chicago presented awards and scholarships, while Tri-state presented awards with the hope of presenting a scholarship next year.

In the end I have to say both events were very successful and made me excited about my career opportunities and hopeful that 2009 will be a great year.

Sincerely,

Salah Issa