Mission The mission of the Engineering Alumni Association is to champion, support and unite the Cullen College of Engineering, its students and its alumni. Meet your representatives!   Pictured: A few of the past presidents of the Engineering Alumni Association were at the Homecoming 2004 tailgate party in front of the newly constructed pavillion, which was a project of the past presidents.

2003-2004 Activities:
Section I. Alumni Programs

1. E-Block (Tailgating and Block Seating) - EAA coordinated with the UH Athletics Department on season ticket sales to EAA members and tailgating activities. Specifically, the E-Block Committee promoted and sold season tickets to engineering alumni for the UH home football games. The price of the ticket included entrance into the game as well as participation in EAA's tailgating activities. Tailgating activities started two hours prior to kickoff allowing alumni, spouses, family and friends to enjoy fellowship and fun. Food was provided by the committee and included home cooked burgers and hot dogs. Attendance varied from 20 to 25 for most games, but many new faces were present this year and HAO staff dropped by several of the tailgating functions. This activity supports the University by participating in the sale of tickets for the athletics program and bringing alumni back to the campus, which affords them the opportunity to witness the growth of the campus and renew alumni spirit.
    
2. Homecoming Tailgate - Approximately 200 engineering alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends came out to EAA's annual Homecoming tailgate party on November 8 to eat barbecue and reunite with fellow classmates. Even the children were entertained for hours in the Moonwalk. During the live auction, Bill Fendley (1971 BSCE) and his wife Pam once again won the Four Seasons Suite, perhaps unofficially renaming it the "Fendley Suite." Sponsors that contributed to the raffle and auction included Four Seasons Hotel, Radoil, Inc., Klotz Associates Inc., Lockwood, Andrews, Newnam, Inc., ABB Vetco Gray and Cobb, Fendley & Associates, Inc. Specially made UH Cullen College of Engineering shirts were also sold at the tailgate. Proceeds from the shirts will be used for additional support to student scholarships. HAO provided support to this event by handling reservations of attendees. Tailgates help revitalize alumni support for UH Athletics, which is important for spirit and growth of the University. Information and photos were posted to the website.
    
3. Engineering Golf Tournament - Approximately 100 golfers helped raise money to support the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering at the 15th Annual Engineering Golf Tournament on April 5 at Hearthstone Country Club. Corporate Sponsor of the golf tournament included Beyer Construction, Cannon Services, Civiltech Engineering, COADE, Inc, Cobb, Fendley and Associates, DynaFAB/NRG, Flour Enterprises, Halliburton, Landtech Consultants, Paradigm Consultants, Pate Engineers, Pipeline Measurement & Control, PMI Engineering, Reddico Construction Co, Sanders Morris Harris, Spawglass Construction Group, Traffic Engineers, TSC Engineering, US Filter and WW Industries. Hole Sponsors were Boll Filter Corporation, Charles Roxburgh, ECO Resources, Epic Software Group, Kalsi Engineering, Klotz Associates, Stanley Engineering Co, S&V Surveying, Turner Designs Hydrocarbon and Instruments. Low Net winners were Brad Eaves, Bryan Muery, Pete Zenzen and Alex Lopez with Traffic Engineers; Low gross winners were Mike Alton, Gary Craig, John Mendel (1972 BSME) and Mike Wallace from W.W. Industries, Inc; the Longest Drive was Dustin Qualls; and closest to the pin was David Beyer. Information about the tournament, including photos were posted on website. This events helps support the college's programs and activities. HAO supported this event by participating with one of the corporate sponsored teams. This event also helps support the college's programs and activities.
    
4. ASME/UH Cajun Crawfish Boil - A coordinating committee largely composed of engineering alumni helped coordinate the 16th annual ASME/UH Cajun Crawfish Boil, held on May 2, 2004. This popular kick-off event to the Offshore Technology Conference draws over 5,000 people to the campus each year to the UH campus to eat crawfish, barbecue, cotton candy, ice cream, snow cones, popcorn and cookies. There was also Zydeco music, face painters, children's games, a moonwalk and the ball crawler. Scholarships were given out to mechanical engineering students and ASME presented a $25,000 check to the UH Cullen College of Engineering. To top it off, there were raffle prizes totaling almost $10,000.
    
5. Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards Dinner - This annual gala is the major fundraiser for EAA and was held on June 4, 2004 at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston. EAA honored William C. Miller (1955 BSPE), president of WC Miller Operating Company, and John W. Rouse (1973 BSCE), an independent consultant, as Distinguished Alumni at the 2004 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards Dinner. Tanya Dugat-Wickliff (1989 BSME) received the Distinguished Young Engineering Alumna Award; Elizabeth Rockwell received the Roger Eichhorn Leadership Service Award; and chemical engineering professor Dan Luss received the Abraham E. Dukler Engineering Faculty Award. About 200 alumni, friends, faculty and staff attended this year's event and Judge Robert Eckels gave the keynote address. Corporate Sponsors included Cobb, Fendley & Associated, PBS&J, Reliant, Klotz Associates, Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, Cynthia Oliver Colemen, P.E., Piping Technology & Products, Inc, Dow Chemical, Reddico Construction and SpawGlass Construction Corporation.
   
   This event gives the college and EAA great exposure to the Houston engineering community and provides an opportunity for UH alumni to celebrate the leadership and involvement their fellow alumni provide Houston and beyond. A copy of this year's program highlighted the honorees is attached. To increase the number of previous award recipients present that night, the Banquet Committee personally called past recipients of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award to invite them to the event complements of the Committee. There were numerous faculty and staff members from the college, including Dean Ray Flumerfelt, in attendance. Information about the nominating recipients, announcement of the honorees and other information was posted on the website. HAO provided an important support role for this event by managing the registration process and making sure payments were processed in a timely manner. The University benefited from this event by the attention it focused on the successful careers of the College's graduates.
    
6. EAA Annual Meeting - Approximately 60 alumni, faculty, HAO Staff, students and friends attended the annual meeting, which was held on August 12, 2004 in the Athletics/Alumni Center. All those who attended had a great time enjoying food, drinks and fellowship during the reception. During the meeting, the incoming Board Members and Officers were introduced and the 2003-2004 activities were reviewed. UH President Jay Gogue discussed issues affecting the University of Houston and how alumni can make differences. Engineering Dean Ray Flumerfelt gave a college update and Incoming EAA President Pam Maniscalco outlined some of the upcoming activities for EAA. Photos from the event were posted on the website. The university benefited from this event by bringing alumni, family and friends back to the campus.

Section II: Membership
Because membership is the lifeblood of the organization, EAA has been committed to strengthening its membership base through the following:

1. Membership Reminders - EAA includes a statement on mailings about the association and reasons to get involved. It also includes contact information and benefits of membership.
    
2. Displaying materials/banners/poster at events - The HAO Outstanding Constituent Association Banner from the past five year and the EAA banner are always tied to the pop-up tent at tailgates, Homecoming, the College's BOS (Beginning of Semester) party and the IEEE Chili Cook Off. In addition, the EAA banner was displayed at both New Grad Welcome Dinners that were attended by an EAA board member.
    
3. Promoting HAO and UH with your constituents - EAA members are active participants in the academic life of the college. They serve as volunteers on the Dean's Leadership Board, five departmental Industrial Advisory Boards and departmental Alumni Advisory Boards. They serve as advocates for the college and the university within their industries and their companies and are often responsible for donations to support student engineering society activities as well as departmental or college projects. When interacting with students (i.e., at the BOS Party or Chili Cook-off), EAA members emphasize their role as EAA members and tell the benefits of being an active alumni member. They frequently wear EAA board member shirts or HAO Life Member shirts when participating in University related events.
   
   The EAA Past President Billy Cooke gave the commencement address at the Fall Cullen College of Engineering graduation ceremony. During the address, he focused on why it is important to become a member of EAA and HAO. The main points were the opportunity to network with fellow alumni, serve as mentors, raise funds for student scholarships and help future students find jobs in the work place .
    
4. Keeping HAO staff informed - The HAO liaison is invited to each month's Board meetings and activities. A liaison from HAO is on the EAA Board's email list and receives copies of all communication such as meeting notices and invitations. HAO has been most helpful in keeping EAA abreast of opportunities to participate in HAO activities. For instance, a member of the EAA board will serve as a representative on the Alumni Council, while another member will serve as the constituent representative to the Alumni Council for EAA. The HAO liaison also receives extra copies of each invitation to keep on file.

Section III: Communication
Without communication, EAA would not be able to increase its exposure to members (alumni), prospective members (students), friends, sponsors and college faculty and staff. Some of the communication vehicles include:

1. Website - Besides updating the homepage regularly and including a photo from the most recent event, the EAA website includes an events calendar, listing of all Distinguished Alumni and board of directors, current news, helpful links to HAO and UH, minutes from some of the meetings and features to alumni profiles/news makers. The website is managed by the college's Office of Communications.
    
2. Monthly E-News - WWith the help of the college, EAA also has a monthly e-mail listserv to alumni about current events and news about their alma mater. After each message is sent, it is then archived on the website to entice non-members to get involved. This listserv, which now has close to 1,000 voluntary subscribers, has been produced since May 2001. Messages are also archived online.
    
3. Advertising - This is the third year that EAA has purchased an ad in the Daily Cougar to congratulate the new graduates of the college for both the fall and spring semesters. Graduating seniors look for the ad in the special Graduation issue of the student newspaper. This generates positive feedback from graduates and gives these prospective members a brand awareness of EAA.
    
4. Invitation Mailings - Mailing are to members-only for all EAA event announcements.
    
5. Houston Alumline magazine - EAA always contributes content and photos to every issue of HAO's quarterly Houston Alumline magazine and newsletter. Quality photos are always submitted so that members have the opportunity to be showcased in every issue, space permitting.
    
6. College's Parameters magazine - The main communication vehicle to non-members is through the college's magazine, Parameters. An entire section is dedicated to EAA news in each issue, which is mailed twice a year to 14,000+ engineering alumni, donors, corporate partners, and industry-related leaders. Another 2,000 copies are made available to all engineering students (that will help with EAA awareness to future alumni), faculty, staff, and for recruitment purposes.
    
7. Promotional Materials - EAA purchased stress balls to use as a means to promote itself. These items were passed out as "freebies" at the Spring New Grad Welcome Dinner on April 30, 2004. These items will also be used for other events.

Section IV: Student Involvement/Programs
EAA strives to develop a strong presence with the engineering students through several activities such as:

1. Funding of Student Organization Activities - This year, EAA budgeted $5,000 to support engineering student society activities, particularly to help sponsor travel to regional or national meetings for discipline related contests (paper contests, concrete canoe race, steel bridge contest). At least one representative of the student organization would attend an EAA board meeting to give a brief presentation to the board explaining their request, provide a one-page description and one-page budget, and give a follow-up report after the event.
   
   The student organizations in the College are divided into three major categories: discipline, niche and honors. EAA provides limited funds to the five discipline student organizations and three niche student organizations as well as on a discretionary basis for the remaining eleven organizations, which includes the honor societies. EAA provides funding for the organizations with $1,000 per year for the discipline organizations, $500 per year for the niche organizations, and $1,000 per year for discretionary funds for the remainder of the engineering organizations. The discipline-based organizations include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Institute of Industrial Engineers. The niche organizations include the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists, National Society of Black Engineers, and Society of Women Engineers.
    
2. BOS Party - The EAA contributed $500 towards the sponsorship of the college's Beginning of Semester (BOS) party last Fall 2003. The BOS party provides a forum for engineering student societies to recruit new members and encourages the development of a community among the students, faculty, alumni and staff of the college. Generally an EAA board member attends this event and represents the organization at the EAA table, which includes information about the organization.
    
3. Constituency representatives - Six of the board members are designated constituency representatives. They maintain regular contact with the engineering student societies for their particular disciplines and with the departments; reports are made at the board meetings. Each constituency representative has $250 in discretionary funds to use for the organization(s) in which they are involved. These funds have been expended in a variety of uses, including but not limited to, pizza/food, attending a Houston-area sporting event, and computer equipment for the student group's office space.
     
4. Tailgating - Students are always invited and encouraged to participate in tailgating at no cost.
   

Section V: Admissions & Scholarship Support

1. Scholarships - The Engineering Alumni Association awarded scholarships to engineering students Jane Powell with the Todd B. Colvin Scholarship Endowment, Dorota Bernatek with the Rodney Ellis Scholarship, and Beverly Brooks with the EAA Scholarship.
   
   Students have 30 or more hours at the University of Houston and they must be active participants in campus and/or community activities to qualify for selection. The following is a list of the scholarships supported by EAA:
1. EAA Scholarship: $500 ($250 per semester) to a junior,
Todd Colvin Scholarship: $500 ($250 per semester) to a junior, and
3. Rodney Ellis Scholarship: $1,500 ($750 per semester) to a senior.
    
2. Student Recruiting - Many EAA board members have volunteered to participate with new college recruiting efforts throughout the fall and spring semester. This would include visits to high schools and contacting prospects by phone.

VI: University/College Support
The EAA is strongly supportive and committed to college activities that include prospective and current students. Members participate in various events associated with the University of Houston, as well as other alumni and local engineering industries and business communities. The EAA board has an active role at the university and strives to define their role by active participation in alumni affairs.

1. Advisory Committees - EAA board members offer their professional experience and influence to the college by their ongoing service to college advisory boards. A number of engineering alumni are actively involved with HAO in leadership positions. The EAA president serves on the Dean's Leadership Board and many EAA board members have been asked to serve on departmental advisory boards. Endeavors such as these will enhance and raise the visibility of the University of Houston in both our communities and the engineering industry.
    
2. Faculty Endowment Fund - On December 11, 2003 the Engineering Alumni Association was the first constituent association or area club within HAO to establish a Faculty Endowment. With a gift of $20,000, this fund was established by the Engineering Alumni Association to provide discretionary funds for the Dean to aid the Cullen College of Engineering in attracting and/or retaining exceptional teaching and research talent that will help to further enhance the reputation of the College and the University. This initiative, which has been years in the making, was lead by past president Dale Rudick (1991 BSCE).
    
3. Attendance at College Events - EAA board members are regularly invited to Cullen College of Engineering functions and also support "spreading the word" to other alumni members. This also includes university-related events, like the groundbreaking event of the new Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex on December 5, 2003.
    
4. Personal Financial Commitments - EAA members provide financial resources to the college and the University, through fundraisers, personal gifts and by their presence in the engineering industry.
    
5. Athletics Support - Besides hosting tailgating at all home football games and supporting season ticket sales through E-Block, EAA also raised money for a pavilion to be built in the tailgate area outside of Robertson Stadium. A story was written about this activity (posted at online) and generated enough interest to cover the cost and labor to build the permanent structure. The pavilion will be completed before tailgating starts this year.
   

Section VII: Community Outreach

1. Science & Engineering Fair - EAA recruited and coordinated a team of judges for the Houston Science & Engineering Fair on March 26, 2004. The team of Judges consists of UH alumni, graduate students, and friends to judge high school science projects developed by students in grades 7-12. The team awarded first, second and third place prizes and gift certificates to winners in the senior high, ninth grade and junior high categories. EAA sent out congratulation letters to the winners and encouraged them to join the University of Houston for their higher education. The EAA judging team included organizer Huy Phan (1998 BSCE), Michael Chastant (1998 BSChE), Justin Ceterski, Lora Dudley Lechago (1998 BSME) and May Shek (2002 BSChE).
    
2. Operation School Supplies - Engineering alumni have served as volunteers of Operation School Supplies for many years. To help facilitate this year's back to school effort, the EAA board donated $1,000 in 2003.