Christmas Greetings from ASET!

The ASET office will be closed from

Noon on Friday, December 23, 2011, until

8:30 AM on Monday, January 2, 2012.

ASET's hidden assets

I was once asked, "What is ASET's greatest strength?" and, without hesitation, I replied, "Our members."  Every time I go to an ASET chapter meeting or event, I am amazed at the dedication of our volunteers.  Everybody's busy, right?  But our volunteer members - from tradeshow workers to chapter executives, from council members right up to the President (that's right, the President is a volunteer!) - they all make time in their busy schedules to work on behalf of all ASET members.  For the most part, they don't get a lot of glory or recognition, but they're always there when something needs to get done.  They do it because they believe in ASET and the work that we do for the technologist community in Alberta.  I know for certain that if not for those dedicated volunteers, ASET would cease to exist. 

One of our past presidents once told me that he was amazed at how far volunteering had taken him.  He never thought that he could be president of a major provincial association but he did it by working with a great team of volunteers.  If you have some spare time, why not give us a call at the ASET office and sign up to volunteer?  We're always looking for people to staff our booth at tradeshows; the chapters always need good people with good ideas; and we have lots of boards and committees that could use your expertise.  Who knows?  You could even be the president one day!  Even if you only have an hour or two every few months, we can find something for you to do.

Have you hugged an ASET volunteer lately?  Next time you're at a chapter event, tradeshow, or anyplace that ASET volunteers are working, please go up to them and, if you're not a hugger, at least give them a quick 'thank you'.  They don't ask for it, but I'm sure they would really appreciate it. 

Technical tours

Being involved with ASET Chapters allows me to go to some places that I never thought I would.  As an example, I took the photo above on a tour of the Oldman River Dam site in southern Alberta… still the best tour I’ve attended to date.  See the part of the dam that is closest to the sky?  We got to walk across inside there and look down at the spillway through the little windows (sorry, I guess you can’t see the windows)!  It was a very cold, but very good day.  If you ever get a chance to go there for a tour, do it!

How did I, a non-tech person, get such unprecedented access to the Oldman Dam?  Well, this is one of the things ASET Chapters do so well… organize amazing educational events for ASET members.  If you keep reading this blog, you'll see a lot of chapter stuff.  To check out your local chapter, visit www.aset.ab.ca and click About ASET.  You’ll see a Chapters link on the left and if you follow it, you'll find information on each ASET Chapter including contact and event information.  Get involved and you may find yourself staring down at the Oldman Dam spillway - or walking through a soon-to-be sanitation tunnel underneath the streets of Edmonton - in the not too distant future!

Do you have some tech tour stories to share?  We'd love to hear them!

Welcome to ASET Happens...

Greetings!  Thank you for checking out ASET Happens…  We're glad you stopped by.  This, we hope, will be the place to read for all things ASET (which stands for the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta).  We'll be blogging about ASET news, events and important information that you need to know.  We hope you’ll come back often and join the conversation!