We have identified many areas for improving how our Chapter operates, and we have embraced the many good methods and practices that contributed to our successes this year and in the past years. Our ability to improve and our successes are each driven by our dedicated team of member volunteers who serve on the BoD or simply step up to help.

The Year 2008 has been quite a ride and a great year for our Chapter – I coin it as the “Celebration.” Michael Maar, our Chapter Recognition Chairperson, worked hard to organize and track our accomplishments. We will be submitting our record to INCOSE International as a part of the annual Chapter Awards submittal. We expect to achieve the Gold Circle Award. With this said, I’d like to summarize our 2008 accomplishments.

The year began with our first newsletter that was produced by a new team under the guidance of now-President, Eric Belle. A strong lineup of tutorials and monthly speaker meetings was delivered to you. During the first quarter, the highly regarded Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER) took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Redondo Beach. It is noteworthy that CSER was well-attended by academics and professionals from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Australia. Leading into the last part of the year, INCOSELA did its very first community service event at the Los Angeles Food Bank. Our final speaker meeting of the year was a potpourri of presentations on INCOSE Technical Working Groups that are sponsored by well-respected INCOSE-LA members. Our final tutorial of the year was the popular two-day tutorial on SysmML and the Object-Oriented Systems Engineering Method. Sandy Friedenthal presented and it was attended by 70 engineers. The year concluded with a “White Elephant Gift Exchange” during the catered Holiday Party at the home of Susan and Ed Ruth.

So we had a great year! And my favorite part is recognizing the many people who made this possible. I hope that I did not leave anyone out!

Tutorials and Speaker Meetings: The efforts of Shirley Tseng. Jack Elson, Chris Delp, Jim Manson, Ed Conrow, Denise Nelson, Scott Jackson, Susan Ruth, Paul Cudney, Jorg Largent, Dick Emerson and Beth O’Donnell helped the Chapter to identify and deliver the following monthly speaker meetings and tutorials which are summarized on our website at: http://www.incose-la.org/events/speaker-meetings/speakerchronicles.html

Venues and Webcast Remote Sites: It goes without saying that our speaker meetings, now webcast-enabled, and tutorials could not have been made possible without the leadership of Denise Nelson and the help of many folks including Bob Gorby, Mary Glaser, Susan Ruth, Paul Su, Ron Williamson, Jack Elson, Ben Luong, Chris Delp, Beth O’Donnell, Anna Warner, Jeanne.Kohlmeyer, Mike Wallace, Jorg Largent, Jennifer Maxwell, Chelsea Dutenhoffer, Michelle Medina and Peggy Burns. Special thanks goes to The Boeing Company, The Aerospace Corporation, JPL, SAIC, Raytheon, Southern California Edison, USC, Caltech and National University, each of which provided support of its employees, provided refreshments, or hosted the event venues.

CSER 2008: Under the leadership of Conference Management Chair Malina Hills, she and George Friedman, Azad Madni, Scott Jackson, Susan Ruth, Beth O’Donnell, Shirley Tseng, Chris Delp, Joel Harris, Michael Maar, Paul Su, Denise Nelson, Shah Selbe, and Eric Belle delivered a successful CSER 2008.

Newsletter: Behind the newsletter are the creative minds of Edie Ung, Jorg and Betty Largent, and the many reviewers. And how does the newsletter find its way to your mailbox? No other way than through the publishing team of Tom and Lee-Ann Seeling, their children, and Uncle Eric Belle. Warm thoughts to Sallie Piccorillo who took ownership as Editor for the first two issues of the year. Special thanks to Scott Jackson, Chris Delp, Jose Garcia and Sherry Pietras for the articles they submitted.

INCOSE-LA Website: A very special note of recognition to Ben Luong. He architected, maintained, and populated our INCOSE-LA website. He still found time to represent INCOSELA at National Engineer’s Week at Boeing.

E-mail Reflector and Membership: A thank-you to Paul Cudney and Susan Ruth, who coordinated and managed an unspoken effort of maintaining membership lists and publicity lists and of following up with members and non-members. In addition, Beth O’Donnell and Sandy Chang worked with Susan to deliver those event reflectors.

Finances: Without the diligence and dedication of Marsha Weiskopf and Dana Pugh, we would not be able to deliver the quantity of events that the Chapter delivers from a financial standpoint. The value of your membership with the INCOSELA chapter is beyond words: at least four useful tutorials each year, a quality monthly newsletter, a variety of speaker meetings, and the ability to network and collaborate with your fellow colleagues.

Mini-Conference 2009: A thank-you goes to Shah Selbe, Richard Emerson, and their team of volunteers who will deliver the 2009 Mini-Conference to you on February 7, 2009. It’s going to be a great year again.
Professional Society Outreach: Ed Conrow, John Hsu, George Friedman, Shirley Tseng, Dana Pugh, and Paul Cudney all help to network and identify opportunities of inter-society collaboration. Examples of this are the joint meetings with AIAA and PMI that took place this year. Stephen Guine is molding a partnership between the San Fernando Valley’s Engineering Council and INCOSE-LA.

Community Service: And finally, thank you to Eric Belle and Elizabeth Deems for organizing an INCOSE-LA team that contributed to a great community cause at the Los Angeles Food Bank. This event has set the stage for more community involvement by our Chapter members. It showed the true dedication of our members as volunteers.