Dear ABCD Member and Friends:
Typically, the Annual Dinner Meeting held in May would celebrate the end of another year for the Association for Bridge Construction and Design - Western New York Chapter (ABCD-WNY). At this meeting, the organization's new Board and Officers are announced, as well as the winners of the Annual Bridge Awards. Last year due to COVID-19 we had to cancel the Annual Dinner Meeting and, unfortunately, the same was true for this year. Below is the “year in review” for the ABCD-WNY Chapter, along with the announcement of the new Officers & Directors and Bridge Award winners.
Due to the pandemic, we had to cancel many of our recurring events in 2020, including the Scholarship Golf Outing, UB Tailgate Party, and monthly dinner meetings. We are happy to announce that our Scholarship Golf Outing will be returning this fall and is scheduled for September 23, 2021 at Terry Hills in Batavia.
During the pandemic shutdowns we were still able to virtually host the Fall Bridge Conference and Spring Seminar. Both events offered up to 6 PDH credits to attendees. We leased and learned how to implement the webinar software BigMarker, and in the future it will allow us the flexibility to host virtual and/or hybrid events (with both virtual and in person components). ABCD-WNY is currently evaluating having this year’s Fall Bridge Conference as a hybrid event on November 12, 2021.
The downtime during the pandemic also afforded us the time to redesign and relaunch the ABCD-WNY website (www.abcdwny.com). If you have not visited the website recently, we recommend that you check it out. The new website allows us to update information, make event announcements and allow membership signup and payment more quickly and easily. We hope to continue to improve the website and add features such as event registrations and payments.
Elections of Board Members took place over the past few weeks utilizing online polling. A total of 76 members voted this year. Elections were closed the evening of May 14th. We are happy to announce the following changes to the ABCD-WNY Board:
ABCD-WNY Bylaws dictate that the current Vice President will ascend to the office of President and the current Secretary will ascend to the office of Vice President for the 2021-2022 Term. Therefore, offices of President and Vice President are filled with the following:
Incoming President: David Jenkinson
Incoming Vice President: Ashley Freeman
The election of a new Secretary occurs yearly for a term of one (1) year after which the Secretary will ascend to Vice President and then President. Our incoming Secretary is one of our previous Board Members: Robert Fleming.
Jason Messenger will continue in his 2nd year of a 5-year term as treasurer.
A total of five qualified candidates ran for two open Director seats on the Board. The two Directors elected for the three-year term (2024) are: Rebecca Stump and Tomas Andino.
The term for the above positions will start on June 1, 2021. On behalf of the entire ABCD Board, we thank all the candidates that ran in this election. We hope the candidates that did not get elected will consider running for office in a future election. ABCD-WNY is always looking for volunteers to help with conferences, seminars, student outreach, monthly programs, etc. We also give a big thank you to our immediate Past President, Bill Rugg who chaired the nominating Committee and oversaw the elections. The organization is forever grateful for Bill’s many years of dedication as a multiterm Director and Officer.
Although the Annual Dinner did not take place, ABCD-WNY still held the Annual Bridge Awards. We received six applications for the Under $2 Million Category, and one for the $2 to $10 Million Category. The winner of the Under $2 Million Category is the Salt Road Bridge over Fourmile Creek, owned by Monroe County, designed by C&S Companies and built by C.P. Ward. Honorable mention in the Under $2 Million Category goes to Wisterman Road Bridge over Mud Creek, owned by Niagara County, designed by Bergmann and built by Edbauer Construction. The winner of the Over $2 Million Category goes to Harrison Street Bridge over Chadakoin River, owned by Chautauqua County, designed by GPI and constructed by Nichols, Long and Moore. The presentation of the Annual Bridge Awards will take place at a future event.
One of our outgoing board members who elected not to run again is Todd Swackhamer. Todd served a three-year term as a Director. Over his three years, Todd has chaired the Scholarship Golf Outing, Model Bridge Contest, Continuing Education and Monthly Program Committees. Todd has agreed to stay on as the chair of this year’s Scholarship Golf Outing to be held on September 23, 2021. Todd’s hard work and dedication to the Board will be missed.
On behalf of the entire ABCD-WNY Board of Directors, we thank you for your continued support and look forward to once again seeing our members in person.
Sincerely,
Mike Davidson
Outgoing President
Western New York Chapter