Welcome from the President

Dear Members and Colleagues,

Welcome to TSPE Dallas Chapter and I look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events! Our Board Members stand ready to help you. Please feel free to contact any of us, if you have any questions or would like to participate on a committee.

As I near the end of my time serving as 2022-2023 TSPE Dallas Chapter President, I am looking back and reflecting on the amazing things this Chapter has done over the past several months:

• After taking a break from our monthly luncheons at Maggiano’s for about a year starting in 2020, we’ve had monthly Chapter meetings at Maggiano’s Little Italy. We’ve had some incredible speakers including Downtown Dallas, Inc., TxDOT PEPS Dallas District, SMU, the City of Sherman and many, many more.
• We’ve been going strong with our monthly Shoreline Spruce-Up event, helping our local community by cleaning up White Rock Lake together.
• We held a volunteer event at the North Texas Food Bank, joining up with other volunteer organizations to help pack 900 boxes for those in need.
• We partnered with Future Cities North Texas and helped judge their competition at TCC Trinity River.
• We hosted MATHCOUNTS in-person at SMU and witnessed so many young, bright kids compete with their minds.
• We held our very first “So You Want to Become a Professional Engineer…” presentation and gave out helpful tips to those trying to obtain their Professional Engineer license.
• We participated in PE Day at the Capitol and talked to our State Senators and Representatives about issues that affect our profession of engineering and promote the health, safety, and welfare of all Texans.
• We had one of our most successful Engineers Week Luncheons ever at the Plano Event Center. It was Co-Chaired by DART and Dallas Love Field, and our speaker was from the NASA HUNCH program. 497 people attended and we raised over $3,400 for scholarships.
• We co-presented with TSPS Chapter 5 at the John Quincy Adams Elementary School Career Day, teaching young kids about engineering and surveying through a total station measuring and penny bridge building exercise.
• We had a Younger Member Happy Hour at Peticolas Brewery where we enjoyed each other’s company and played a lot of Jenga.
• We gave out over $15,000 in scholarships to some incredibly talented SMU Engineering Students.
• We are about to have our 5th annual TopGolf Tournament, where we will have a lot of fun and raise even more money for scholarships!

It has been my honor to serve in this role after joining the Dallas Chapter Board 11 years ago.

You might say this Chapter has been in my blood since I was a kid. My father served in as Chapter President from 1987-1988; some of my earliest memories are from attending TSPE Conferences as a kid. Unfortunately, he passed away 6 months before I started my role as President, so he didn’t see me serve in the same role he modeled before me. But I carry on his legacy and the legacy of so many Chapter Presidents before me by focusing on serving our members and our community. This Chapter is all about legacy, and I’m blessed to be a small part of that.

We couldn’t do any of these amazing things without our phenomenal Board and volunteers. What everyone does every month is incredible, to say the least! Everyone is so busy with our demanding jobs in engineering, but our Board sacrifices so much of their time to make our meetings and events happen. I am truly blessed to be able to lead such a great group of people.

What an absolute joy it has been to serve as your Dallas Chapter President this year. I am SO confident in our President-Elect, James Morris, and Vice President, Katharine LeGrow and know they will continue leading our Chapter with excellence.

With Joy,

Marc Sandhu, PE