Hello SEAOI Members!

As we inch closer to Thanksgiving, the winter holidays, and general hibernation, I want to highlight this month's focus on our November SEAOI Engagement Challenge: Social Media Engagement! This is your chance to showcase your involvement with SEAOI by posting on LinkedIn and your other social media accounts. Share your experiences, tag SEAOI, and help us spread the word about the great work and initiatives within our community. Every post strengthens our network and brings new visibility to the structural engineering profession in Illinois and beyond. The best part of this challenge? You don’t even have to get up from your cozy late fall seat.

Did you help build a home with WiSE and WomenBuild last month? Did you attend the NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit in Las Vegas earlier this month? What about the Structural Engineering Foundation Lecture? Did you see me there? Post about it!

In other news, I’d like to share an important step we took regarding the Structural Engineering computer-based test. SEAOI distributed a letter to the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), and other NCSEA and member organization leadership, addressing several key issues of concern with the new exam format. The letter outlines our members’ experiences with the new exam, to foster an ongoing dialogue around improvements that could benefit both emerging and established professionals. You can view the letter here.  

A huge thank you to all of the SEAOI members and exam candidates who shared their experiences with us. We know that the letter is in the right hands at NCEES and we have requested the topic be added to the next IDFPR meeting. Other states have also responded favorably to our letter, now interested in conducting their own experience survey to confirm our assertions and ultimately push their own states’ licensing boards to advocate for changes to the format.

Thank you for your continued engagement and dedication to our profession. Let’s make this month’s challenge an impactful one, and keep up the great work as we approach the end of the year.

Warm regards,

Jennie Traut-Todaro SE, LEED AP

President, Structural Engineers Association of Illinois