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RES History - December 1975 - January 1976
A Sampling from the Archives of the Rochester Engineering Society. 1897 - 1976 by Lee M. Loomis
Continuing with the historical sampling of the earlier writings on behalf of the Rochester Engineering Society, the years following "The Great War", into and through the “Great Depression”, continued to be a time of reaching out for the maturing Society, both locally and nationally. The meeting minutes describe a series of technical discussions and presentations intended to broaden the technical horizons of the membership (especially the CE's, ME's and EE's). The RES affiliated itself with a number of National technical societies, adopted local Affiliated Societies, frequently held joint meetings with them and continued taking action on a growing list of public matters. Certain issues of standardization, some crucial to public safety, became the responsibility of the RES and its affiliates. In the pervasive economic downturn of the “Great Depression”, the magazine offered classified advertising for unemployed engineers, technicians and draftsmen and took other steps to try to deal with the crisis. Still, it continued its effort to shape the function, focus and infrastructure of the City of Rochester, and beyond. World War, again affected the Society, taking away many of its leaders while providing opportunities for others to step forward to fill these vacancies. In an effort to provide even greater perspective on the happenings and concerns of the day, a synopsis, featuring selected items from "The Rochester Engineer" has become an integral part of this series. The Second World War, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War are now history. These experiences have changed the face of and will, no doubt, influence the future of the community. The Rochester municipal leadership and the industrial community have become immersed in the cold-war, growth economy.
“The Rochester Engineer” (December 1975) RES President, John F. (Jack)
Schickler’s October RES Luncheon talk, “The Role of the Rochester Engineering Society in our Community”, was the lead article in this issue. He described the RES as, “A means by which the “Technical Community” can apply its combined talents toward improving the quality of life for its members, and for the non-technical community, as well.” Following a brief review of the skill sets of the RES membership, Jack laid out an ambitious series of activities for the coming year. These activities had been grown from the recent year’s work of the Long-Range Planning Committee. He also called out the Transportation Study that was hoping to result in a CharlotteHenrietta transit system, the Technical Skills Bank that had already grown to 130+ members, Past RES President Dick Kenyon’s effort to identify Federal funding for a Technical Advisor for the City of Rochester, the growing Speakers Bureau, and the consistently-impressive RES Luncheon Series with its list of well-known, local authorities on various timely topics. Jack Schickler also went on to describe the work of the RES Legislative Affairs Committee in keeping members apprised of pending legislation (both good and bad), the Professional Liaison Committee’s quest to define the parameters of RES volunteer activities so as to prevent encroachment on the duties of paid consulting engineers, and the Educational Liaison Committee whose goal is to ensure that engineers and scientists develop and nurture real-world business skills that will help them to grow into the technically-savvy business leaders of tomorrow. Also featured in this issue is the re-printing of the text of New York City Mayor Abraham D. Beame’s recent address to the National Press Club wherein he described the steps he and his administration had been taking to reduce and manage the fiscal crisis that nearly forced NYC into bankruptcy, in the mid-1970’s.
January 21, 1976 (Board Meeting, Chamber
of Commerce) The Board received a report from Michael Triassi, President of the Rochester Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), describing the history and current activities of this, one of the oldest RES Affiliate Societies. The Board approved applications for 13 Regular Members, one Student Member and one Junior Member. RES Engineers Joint Dinner Committee Chair, Lee Loomis, reported that RG&E’s Public Affairs Department was providing assistance with press releases for the upcoming dinner. It was announced that the first step in reinvesting the Kate Gleason Fund had been completed with Lincoln First Bank, and that dividends should begin to accrue, and be paid to the RES, in April of this year. In an important move, the Board decided to propose the conferring of RES Regular Member status on graduates of Engineering Technology (BET) curricula who had practiced in their specialty for at least four years. Jack Schickler announced that Andrew Hirsch would be providing a regular column in “The Rochester Engineer”, as part of the RES’ commitment to reporting to its membership on legislative matters. It was announced that the recently revised RES Constitution and By-Laws would be ready for discussion at the February ’76 RES Board meeting. Ron Salzman, Chair of the Civic Affairs Committee, requested and received Board support for an “Energy Self-Sufficiency” contest. He also described a series of meetings he was designing to inform local engineers and scientists on the workings of the Monroe County Pure Waters Division, toward qualifying them to perform technically objective evaluations of this County Agency. He assured the Board that Pure Waters Director, Gerry McDonald, would be kept aware of the findings stemming from these meetings. Jack Schickler reported that he had written a letter to Dr. William Seymour, Director of the New York State Science and Technology Foundation,
res news - history urging the consideration of Rochester as the site for the proposed US Dept of Energy’s Solar Energy Research Institute.
1976) This issue features a detailed article, “Performance Specifications for Fun and Profit… Happiness is a Good Performance Specification”, by RES member Milton Gross, PE. A design, development & testing engineer with Eastman Kodak Company, Milt has also served on the RES Long-Range Planning, Operation RESOURCE and Civic Affairs Committees, and is currently the RES representative on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Northeast Quadrant Landfill. His article describes the importance of performance specifications as a goal-setting document for the design engineer, a guidance document for supervisors and managers and an educational document for the many agencies associated with the testing, handling and marketing of the product. He urges the writing of performance specs from the “user’s point of view”, and he offers the InputsOutputs-Interfaces-Environments (IOIE) frame of reference for designing a product, all the way to completion and approval.
Subsequent articles in this series will describe the RES' continuing outreach to other technical societies as it considered its role in this and the larger community, along with more of the activities of the RES as it moved to be of greater service to its membership, especially those suffering from current economic crises, and adopted a greater role in shaping the future of the City and its environs. Noted also, will be the contributions made by RES members in the struggle to meet the challenges coming out of World War II and the Korean Conflict, as well as a hoped-for period of post-war growth and prosperity. These articles will also feature an impressive array of RES activities in support of post-war re-emergence of Rochester area industry, and the continuing prosperity of the second-half of the 20th Century. We welcome your questions and comments on this series.
