Dear OCEESA Members:

This message comes somewhat later than previous years, but I intend to use the opportunity first to wish all OCEESA members and their families a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

As reflected in the year-end report of Dr. Clark Chen-Kun Liu, President of OCEESA of the last year, 2008, was a successful year for OCEESA. Substantial accomplishments have been made under his leadership. I would like to thank Dr. Liu for his excellent leadership and dedication to our Association.

My hearty congratulations to the newly elected officers and board members. Our executive committee and the board this year have diversified expertise. Moreover, several relatively new, enthusiastic members of OCEESA will mingle with the veterans. We believe that this balanced team will lead to fresh ideas that will produce lasting impacts on OCEESA.

Looking ahead, OCEESA will co-sponsor several activities in 2009. OCEESA will co-organize the 2009 Mainland-Taiwan Water Sustainability Conference to be held in Taipei in November 18-22, 2009. Our Permanent Executive Director, Dr. Yung-Tse Hung, has sent you its first announcement. This conference will be held together with the 3rd International Water Association - Asia Pacific Regional Group (IWA-ASPIRE) Conference and Exhibition. We will keep you informed about this rapidly developing story. We will also start planning the 13th Mainland-Taiwan Environmental Protection Conference (MTEPC) will be held in Chongqing University, China, in the Spring of 2010. Consultative committee for these conferences will meet in Tianjin in April, 2009, and in Taipei in October, 2009.

As a Chapter of Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE-USA), OCEESA will actively participate in CIE-USA activities in 2009. The first major event will be the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award (AAEOY) to be held in San Jose, California on February 21, 2009. Some detail can be found at <http://www.cie-usa.org/>http://www.cie-usa.org/. The national council (NC) meeting of the CIE-USA will be held on in conjunction with the AAEOY in San Jose, February 22, 2009. OCEESA plans to have a meeting at 4:00 pm, February 21, 2009, in San Jose. Please let me know if you would like to attend, or to add to agenda items for discussion in these events.

During the NC meeting of the CIE-USA in February, 2009, we will learn more about the following conferences that CIE-USA is sponsoring: 8th Sino-American Technology and Engineering Conference (SATEC), Modern Engineering and Technology Seminar (METS), Hong Kong Technology and Engineering Development (HKTED). OCEESA will continue to participate in the session on environmental issues of these conferences. We will keep you updated about the latest development of these conferences.

OCEESA and its members have been pursuing sustainable environment. In the past two years, Dr. David Shaw and Dr. Wei-Ping Pan have been exploring the possibilities of sponsoring workshops that are of interests to environmental scientists and engineers in mainland China, Taiwan and the US. As the first step, OCEESA plans to co-sponsor an air-pollution workshop in Anhui, China, in September, 2009 that will be led by Dr. Pan, who has established valuable protocols with USAID in his earlier efforts.

OCESSA members are scattered around the world, and we have been using the aforementioned events to build friendship, to promote OCEESA networking, and to pursue sustainable environment in mainland China, Taiwan and US. Please join us and become an active participant. As Dr. Clark Chen-Kun Liu mentioned in his 2008 annual OCEESA President's report, a special board of directors meeting was held in Los Angels on October 8, 2008. As I stated above, we are calling a similar meetings in San Jose in February, 2009, to establish long-range strategy, action plan and difficult issues.

At this moment, we plan to discuss the formation of two committees in OCEESA: the communication committee and the strategic planning committee. In San Jose, we can establish the frame work for their structure. OCEESA members are invited to attend the meeting or submit their opinions in writing prior to the February 21, 2009, meeting.

To enhance the communications among our members, we are currently seeking means to enhance our web site. An ideal web site will contain constantly updated news of our members, such as new assignment, professional development, award, job openings, new members in the family,  ...etc. forum where our members can seek collaborations, open discussion of unresolved issues,...etc., and, special reports and articles that are of interests and need rapid response from OCEESA members.

Our web master has just started carrying out this rewarding task. Please see the OCEESA Forum for his first attempt. We intend to discuss the full usage of web site during the San Jose meeting.

The strategic planning committee will be responsible for the establishment of new activities in OCEESA in the future.

Finally, but not lastly, OCEESA is a non-profit organization; fund raising is always a challenge. Over the years, we have been fortunate to have members who generously donate funds to keep OCEESA a vibrant professional organization. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciations to these donors. We also intend to place their donation on the best places.

Dr. Wei-Yin Chen

2009 OCEESA President