The New Orleans Branch has been busy over the past few months engaged in numerous activities on behalf of the membership. Beginning with the ASCE National Conference held in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania this year at which I had the privilege and honor of representing the branch. This year’s theme was “Engineering: The workforce of the Future”. There were many speakers whose topics ranged from engineering education to engineering leadership.

The membership meetings started with Joe Becker speaking at Ralph’s on the Park in November. Mr. Becker, General Superintendent of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, spoke about the upcoming projects at the Sewerage and Water Board and the progress they have made since Hurricane Katrina. The December membership meeting was held at Barreca's Restaurant and the guest speaker was Carlton Dufrechou of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Carlton stressed the need to save Louisiana’s coast as it has always been our first line of defense against hurricanes for southeast Louisiana. The next New Orleans Branch membership meeting will be held on January 26th at Zea Rotisserie & Grill. The speaker will be Charlie Buckels with Redflex Traffic Systems. Anyone interesting in submitting a speaker, topic or restaurant can send suggestions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The structures committee held a meeting on November 12th at UNO on Local Building Design Codes and IBC 2008 Code. Paul May, Curtis Mann and Subhash Kulkarni, P.E. spoke at the well attended meeting.

The New Orleans Branch younger member committee has been very active as well. The most recent meeting was held at Pat Fannie's which included a white elephant gift swap.

The board attended a web training seminar on December 12th to take more control of the website and provide more information to the members online. Please visit www.asceneworleans.org for upcoming events and news.

As always the board is interested in hearing from our members and encourages your input. You can always contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions, comments or ideas how we can better serve our members.

Nathan J. Junius, P.E., P.L.S.
President
ASCE New Orleans Branch