Join Us For Our Next Meeting!

Our next meeting is coming up on April 21st, 2021, featuring USACE JAX's "Herbert Hoover Dike Cutoff Wall - Overview and Lessons Learned."

To learn more and to register, please click the image below.

NAVFAC SE Indsutry Virtual Industry Engagement Day Attracts Business From All Over

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast hosted its Industry Engagement Day event virtually from the Adam W. Herbert University Center located at the University of North Florida (UNF) on March 31, following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines regarding COVID-19.
The command’s first virtual industry engagement event was streamed live providing an effective venue for NAVFAC Southeast to discuss its mission, goals, and contracting opportunities with industry professionals around the country.
“It is very important for us as a command to remain engaged with our industry partners, especially during the pandemic,” said NAVFAC Southeast Commanding Officer Capt. Jorge Cuadros. “Building strong relationships with industry helps us overcome any challenge, and more importantly, allows us to continue to provide outstanding infrastructure support to our nation’s Warfighter.”

The event allowed contractors to gain a better understanding of NAVFAC Southeast as an organization, and the products and services they provide to the Navy. It also provided attendees the opportunity to ask questions directly through the virtual chat function to command leadership and subject matter experts.
“Industry day events help breakdown communication barriers between industry and the government,” said NAVFAC Southeast Assistant Deputy Director for Small Business John Bazylewicz. “It assists the command in being more innovative and helps contractors get information they may need outside of the normal procurement process.”
Three hundred participants registered for the event, which was the maximum number allowed utilizing the chosen virtual environment. This year’s attendance was nearly double when compared to attendance levels for in-person events held in the past.
The schedule consisted of morning presentations from command business and support line leaders and the afternoon panel sessions allowed attendees to engage directly with command representatives regarding various types of contracting opportunities available within NAVFAC Southeast. Areas included were, Facility Support Contracting (FSC), Base Operations Support (BOS), Environmental, Architecture and Engineering (A&E), Asset Management, and Construction.

“The bottom line is, it’s about engagement,” said NAVFAC Southeast Executive Officer Capt. Tom Bestafka. “Especially with the pandemic, this is an opportunity for the command, in a virtual environment, to engage with our industry base, and allow them the ability to communicate their questions and concerns to us.”

Joseph Angell, Federal Program Manager for Wiley Wilson Architecture and Engineering, found out about the event through the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME).

Angell applauded the command’s efforts to communicate with industry during the pandemic and plans on participating in future events, whether virtual or in-person. “I miss the face-to-face conversations that lead to follow on discussions,” said Angell. “I always prefer in-person events, but virtual events, such as this one, are getting better at communicating with industry professionals.”

Despite not having the ability to interact directly with contractors and build a rapport typical at in-person events, Bazylewicz explained that the command is looking into hosting more virtual events in the future that would be tailored to industry specific topics of interest.

“Judging by the overwhelming response and participation by industry to attend this event, I consider it a success,” said Bazylewicz. “It was a challenge to plan the event, but we will continue to conduct virtual events until we can safely return to in-person events so that we can remain engaged with our industry partners.”

NAVFAC SE Virtual Industry Day Materials and Video

Industry representatives who were not able to attend are encouraged to visit the NAVFAC Southeast website to watch a video replay of the entire event, view the presentation in PDF format, and find a current contractor directory: https://www.navfac.navy.mil/navfac_worldwide/atlantic/fecs/southeast/about_us/cntr_partner/virtual_industry_engagement_day.html

SAME JAX Sustaining Member Spotlight

Each month, SAME JAX randomly picks a Sustaining Member from our list of Sustaining Members.

RS&H is an employee-owned, architectural, engineering and consulting firm was founded to support war efforts in 1941. In addition to supporting the DoD worldwide, RS&H has designed launch platforms for NASA, created global airports, shaped progressive highway systems across the country, and provided facilities for Fortune 1000 companies.

Number of Employees:1500

Number of Offices in the U.S.:38

For more information on RS&H’s capabilities, check out their website: https://www.rsandh.com/markets/defense

RS&H's Office Locations: 

SAME JAX Student Member Spotlight

Born and raised in Edina, Minnesota, CPT Carter Kelly was a Geospatial Information Science (GIS) major out of West Point, NY with the Class to 2013 where he commissioned as an 2LT officer in the armor branch. Since then, he has been stationed at Fort Benning, GA, Fort Carson, CO (with a deployment to Kuwait and Jordan), and Fort Polk, LA. Carter is currently attending the University of Florida in pursuit of his Masters in Science, majoring in Geomatics, where he is researching lidar accuracy assessments under his advisor, Dr Benjamin Wilkinson. After earning his masters, CPT Kelly will be assigned as a GIS Instructor at his alma mater, West Point. Carter currently lives in Gainesville, FL, with his girlfriend, Camille, and his two corgis.

From the SAME Job Board...

There are currently 22 positions open on the SAME Job Board, with 1 located in Jacksonville and 2 showing Nationwide.

Additionally, Sustaining Member, Hull Environmetnal Services, is hiring for an Outside Sales Associate 

To view the current listing of career opportunities, please visit https://www.same.org/jobcenter#sjl

Membership Drive Polo Shirts!

If you recruited any members in the last 2 years per the 2019 and 2020 Membership Drive criteria and have not yet received your polo shirt please contact Elizabeth May, Membership Chair, at [email protected].

Also, if you know of anyone interested in joining SAME, please have them visit https://www.same.org/Discover-SAME/BE-a-Member to learn more.

Summer Is Coming! Post Your Internships On SAME.org!

Help support our Student Chapters by posting your Internship opportunities for this summer. Sustaining Member organizations can post internship opportunities for free. Internships will be promoted to SAME Student Members. Internship positions should provide authentic learning experiences. Descriptions must include: mentor name; key skills or learning objectives; description of roles and responsibilities; duration; and stipend.

Internship positions will be reviewed before posting. If you have questions about internship opportunities, contact Eddie Gonzalez. Not an SAME Sustaining Member? If you are not currently a Sustaining Member join SAME today!

To Post an internship opportunity, please click here

This Newsletter is provided courtesy of 3002 Surveying

NAVFAC Industry Day: March 31st

Click Here to Learn More

Next Meeting - Registration Is Open

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Engineering Day Photos

Engineering day was help Feb 

View the Powerpoint here: https://samejax.org/images/downloads/engineering_career_day_febr_2021_same_storyboard_.pptx

Previous Meeting Slides

Last month we had a great meeting, featuring RS&H's Victoria Mechtly discussing personal branding. To view the slides, please visit the following link:

https://samejax.org/images/downloads/same_jax___feb_24_meeting_rs_h__personal_branding.pdf

SAME's San Juan Chapter Feb Meeting: 

Puerto Rico's Waning Window to the Universe: Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope History and Future 

The San Juan Chapter of SAME conducted a very well-attended seminar on Feb 25th with over 100 attendees from across the country. The subject was regarding the Puerto Rican icon, the National Astronomy, and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), also known as The Arecibo Observatory. In 1960 the town of Arecibo in Puerto Rico was chosen by Professor William Gordon of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University to build an observatory primarily intended for radar studies of the Earth's ionosphere. Built in 1963 by the U.S. Air Force, they realized that the telescope would be a very significant new instrument for the then relatively new radio and radar astronomy fields. During the early 1970s, the Arecibo Observatory becomes one of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Astronomy and Ionosphere Centers. For five decades, it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China.

On November 19, 2020, the NSF decommissioned the telescope due to safety concerns; controlled demolition was in plans. Regrettably, on December 1, 2020, before getting any opportunity of performing an honorable goodbye after so many years of service to the astronomy studies, the main telescope collapsed. The seminar offered a virtual tour through the past, present & speculation about the Arecibo Observatory future. The presenters were professionals that worked hand on hand on this past astronomical marvel.

Pilarin Ferrer CAAPPR, AIA -Moderator 

Ferrer is Associate Architect & Sustainable Technologies Academic Unit Coordinator at the PCUPR, School of Architecture. She has played a designer role on Federal Government projects for agencies such as ICE, U. S. Marshalls, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, GSA, SSODAR, DEA, VA, and IRS, many of the jobs of a highly sensitive nature. Also, worked on the design of the Arecibo Observatory's educational area.

Daniel Roberto Altschuler Stern, Ph.D. First Speaker

He was a former Senior Research Associate at Cornell University and for twelve years as director of the Arecibo Observatory. He has written several books. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Physics of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

Luis V. Badillo, CAAPPR, AIA,  Second Speaker 

Badillo is a practicing architect & dean of the PCUPR School of Architecture. He has been responsible for designing and producing a wide range of projects in both the private and public sectors, amounting to more than $100 million in construction cost, including the Arecibo Observatory's educational area.

To view the video of this presentation, please click here

Summer Is Coming! Post Your Internships On SAME.org!

Help support our Student Chapters by posting your Internship opportunities for this summer. Sustaining Member organizations can post internship opportunities for free. Internships will be promoted to SAME Student Members. Internship positions should provide authentic learning experiences. Descriptions must include: mentor name; key skills or learning objectives; description of roles and responsibilities; duration; and stipend.

Internship positions will be reviewed before posting. If you have questions about internship opportunities, contact Eddie Gonzalez. Not an SAME Sustaining Member? If you are not currently a Sustaining Member join SAME today!

To Post an internship opportunity, please click here

SAME JAX Sustaining Member Spotlight

Each month, the SAME JAX Post aims to spotlight Members, Sustaining Members and Student Members. This month we randomly chose Zapata for our Sustaining Member Spotlight, as a "Thank You" for their support of SAME. 

ZAPATA Group Inc. (ZAPATA) was founded in 1991 and received its first U.S. military contract in 1994—and joined the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) that same year. ZAPATA is a full-service architecture, engineering, and construction management firm with a track record of exceptional service and performance on complex projects for the U.S. Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, and Utility/Industrial clients worldwide. ZAPATA provides comprehensive A-E design, design-build RFP development, and construction management services for both new construction and renovations/repairs of existing facilities and infrastructure. Other specialties include general facility designs, studies, and assessments; cost engineering and estimating; facility commissioning; AT/FP, engineering forensics, security consulting and design services; and cybersecurity for complex heavy industrial and high-security facilities. At ZAPATA, we earn our clients’ Trust by conducting our business with Integrity and providing Quality services every day.

Thank you to all of our Members, Sustaining Members and Student Members for helping support SAME JAX!

The San Juan Chapter is very excited to invite all the SAME Jax Post to a free webinar we are hosting on February 25, 2021, at 10:00 a.m., (eastern time) named: Puerto Rico's Waning Window to the Universe: Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope History and Future. 

The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), was an observatory in Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The Observatory's primary instrument was the Arecibo Telescope; it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. On November 19, 2020, the NSF decommissioned the telescope due to safety concerns, a couple of months before two cables that supported the receiver platform broke. The astronomy studies' big sad day was December 1, 2020, when the main telescope collapsed before controlled demolition could be conducted. Besides the radio-telescope, there is a LIDAR facility (commonly used to make high-resolution maps) and an educational visitor center. All of these areas are expected to remain operational after the damage to the main telescope. Our invited speakers participated in the Observatory's construction & administration. They will introduce us to the past, present & future of the Arecibo Observatory.

This is going to be the link to our webinar: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pucpr.zoom.us/j/91086507676?pwd%3DR2FBdmJKY20wdCthdWUrcUFMMEVEZz09&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1613327791785000&usg=AOvVaw3UnVHIp2mdUWxxdDz6Ngq-

We hope to see you all there in this virtual presentation! 

Save the Date: Wednesday Feb 24th 12:00pm

Speaker: Victoria Mechtly, RS&H Business Development

Topic: Why you need a personal brand and how to develop it

Description: In 2021, brand development is no longer an exclusive activity for companies. Studies have shown that individuals with a focused personal brand are actually seen as more personal and more memorable. To achieve this you have to create your brand, which is not about changing who you are, it’s about highlighting the aspects that make you who you are.

Join us for this presentation, which is given each year to SAME’s National Leadership Development Program class, as well as at the SAME Career Transition Workshop.  You will learn how to take what you already have, create a brand and utilizes it in your development to be a leader in the A/E/C industry.

Speaker bio:  Victoria Mechtly is an architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C) business and marketing professional who specializes in client development, strategic messaging and imagery for business-critical marketing and communications efforts. For the past seven years, she has worked with her technical staff to create business development approaches and materials, and with principals to secure new clients and projects. Ms. Mechtly holds a degree in business management, marketing and sales, and brings a passion for helping others develop interpersonal skills. She works with technical professionals and marketing staff to improve communication, team collaboration and other soft skills that lead to successful careers. Ms. Mechtly serves as RS&H’s Aerospace Business Development Lead and SAME’s Chairwomen for the National Young Professionals Community of Interest.

REGISTER NOW

Jan 2021 Defense Groups Meeting Summary

Thank you to Vice Adm. Mary Jackson (USN Ret) for being our guest speaker for this year's Defense Groups Leadership Event. Also a big congratulations to Elizabeth May, in addition to UNF and everyone involved in making our January meeting a great success. Our first hybrid event with over 50 in-person registrations and over 60 virtual registrations. 

Thank you again, to Siemens, for sponsoring this event and showcasing your Gas Insulated Switch technology. 

Please view the Picture Gallery by clicking below

https://samejax.org/gallery.php?id=46

You can download the slides by clicking below:

https://samejax.starchapter.com/images/downloads/samejax_202101mtg_asof_20210116.xlsx

Young Member Opportunity! 

Join us online Wednesday, January 27th for a virtual lunch with Young Professionals (YPs) from SAME's South Central Region! Led by Panama City Post, leaders from SAME National, Regional, and local Posts will discuss what SAME can do for you as a YP (member under age 40). You'll get to hear from rising YPs about how SAME has influenced their careers.

You do not need to be a Panama City Post member to attend. This will be an informative session for all SAME members, potential members, and students interested in the A/E/C industry! Feel free to forward this invite to others who may be interested.

Registration is encouraged but not mandatory.

LOGIN INFORMATION

https://drexel.zoom.us/j/7596977387?pwd=MTNHRmhTblRHRG9rWlhzN3FRL0tpZz09

Meeting ID: 759 697 7387
Passcode: SAME_SC_YM

There is no cost for this event.