ACECH May President’s Message

Aloha, thank you very much for your membership to ACECH and ACEC. It is a great organization to belong to thanks to you. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve.

Hope everyone is doing well, staying busy and having FUN!

What a wonderful event and evening we had at our ACECH City and State Symposium on May 16, 2023 at the Japanese Cultural Center. It was great to share the day with over 200 participants, our presenters and dignitaries. I would like to thank you for your participation, without you and your support, this would not have been such a success. I would also like to thank the speakers from each of the agencies and our neighbor island presenters for delivering a great presentation in addition to all the wonderful information you shared with us. The Pau Hana was well attended, it was great to catch up again with old friends and meet new people. Thank you to all of our sponsors who helped make this happen and our vendors for supporting ACECH and our Members. Thank you Shannon Holman, P.E., Jordan Tottori, P.E. and team for another successful and fun event!

Congratulations on the election of our 2023/2024 President and incoming Board! Looking forward to
another exciting year under their direction.

Congratulations to Katlynn Vicuña on being named the 2023 ACEC Hawaii Local Scholarship winner! Katlynn is a Mechanical Engineering student with an Aerospace Focus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has a strong work ethic and a passion for working with her hands, which has led her to excel in automotive technologies and pursue a career in the aerospace industry. She has participated in a variety of NASA programs, research projects, and engineering associations.

2023 ACEC Annual Convention & Legislative Summit is happing at the Grand Hyatt in Washington D.C. on June 11 to 14, space fills up fast so if you have not already done so, please register. We are proud to announce that through the efforts of our PAC Champion David Bill’s we will have the privilege of hosting our congressional delegates at the coveted ACEC Townhouse in D.C. All of our ACECH members are welcome to attend this intimate evening, just an added perk of membership, please join us.

Congratulations to Sam O. Hirota Inc. for being presented the national ACEC Engineering Excellence Award (EEA) award for their entry of “Cascade, Documenting Hawaii’s Art in Architecture Program”. This project was also the 2022 ACEC Hawaii Grand Conceptor. 

Please join us for our June 7, 2023, General Membership Meeting (the last one of this fiscal year) at the Oahu Country Club at noon. We are honored to have Assistant Dean Dr. Choi from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s College of Engineering. This will be an interactive meeting to learn about the Colleges new and ongoing initiatives as well as and opportunity to share your thoughts on how the College can better prepare their students for the challenges of entering the workforce. Thank you, Kyle Kaneshiro, P.E., for setting this up.

Thank you very much for entrusting us with the opportunity to serve such a great organization. Wishing
you the best for 2023!