Paul Monasterio - Spring 2006

During the previous semesters the chapter had been extremely active in incorporating new ideas, improving old projects,and solving internal conflicts. Most of the work done by the previous presidents focused on improving TBP's image and improving our internal workings. At the end of the spring 2005 semester TBP was already a very well oiled-machine with a strong internal infrastructure and a large corps of dedicated officers that were able to successfully perform in their positions.

The fall 2005 semester provided the necessary resources for the expansion of our chapter with the financial flexibility provided by the incredibly successful career fair, as well as the creation of the knowledge management database which provided better continuity for the officers, which proved vital during the spring semester with the retirement of many of our long-time veterans and large number of new officers (19 out of the 35 officers were new members in spring 2006).

Spring 2006 therefore represented the beginning of a new era for the chapter. Using the financial resources obtained in the fall as well as the improved knowledge database to make up for the lack of experience the chapter was ready to expand in a new direction. Early in the semester the chairs, vice-presidents and I prepared a vision in which the main theme was the chapter's need to network with our alumni, the faculty, the industry, and other campus institutions to finally solidify TBP's position as one of the strongest and most recognized organizations in the engineering community.

To accomplish this we laid the foundations for a series of events and mixers with the sole purpose of publicizing our chapter to those different sectors of the academic or professional community. Our first alumni mixer during the semester was a tremendous success bringing together over 40 chapter members and 10 members of the SF bay area alumnus chapter. Main preparations were also done for the faculty and corporate mixers to occur in the fall. We also expanded our publicity campaign by publicizing in engineering news during the semester, expanding our services available to the public, and holding the engineering BBQ and 1 cent lemonade stand during Cal Day, which was another success reinforcing our positive image within the college and student body.

In the mean time we also continued improving our internal infrastructure and projects with the addition of many new events such as mock interviews, TBP team scrabble, study rooms for finals, and smoothie night. We also added new features to our website including an improved a resume database, corporate relations information and registration page, improvement of the knowledge management database, and the revival of the TBP forums as a place to discuss ideas for the improvement of the chapter.

Finally we improved our relationship with the career center to obtain their full support of our corporate events, worked with the CITRIS building cybercafe committee in hopes of obtaining additional office space once the project is finished as well as improving our relations with the faculty and staff, and worked towards a resolution of the 220 Bechtel room conflict with EJC and other student groups.

The dramatic increase and value of the services provided by TBP as well as our new position within the engineering community have already produced tangible results in the increased return rate of our members (which had been one of our worst problems over the past semesters), the outstanding return rate of officers (19 out of the 24 who did not graduate are returning in the fall), and excellent turnout of new members at elections. The enthusiasm of the new officers is palpable and the chapter is ready to continue growing under a new and dedicated leadership. This semester (and academic year) has been one of the best in recent TBP history. Following Diana Nguyen's comment from spring 2005 I feel that we are not in the Golden Era anymore. We have reached the platinum one and we are still growing!