For the past 14 years SAI Engineering has celebrated the holidays and the close of another successful year in business with an employee/spouse dinner at Montclair Country Club. This year's event held on December 11th continued the tradition of starting out with crackers (an English gift "cracked" open with a "bang" unveiling a trove of small gifts designed to make you laugh, such as a game or trinket, crown and joke to share) and ending with a "real" gift (besides Maury's heartfelt speech of gratitude). We wind this year down with projects for Ourisman Toyota, the TSA at Reagan Airport, the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Veterans Hospital, to name a few. We are also very excited to be entering the construction phase of a LEED project for Cutler Hammer in Maryland. We would like to thank our many varied clients, both new and repeaters, who have put their faith in us this year. May this holiday season bring out the best in all of us and lead to a happy and

On November 4th and 5th 2009, SAI Employees attended the World Energy Engineering Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. In conjunction with the Association of Energy Engineers . The Expo was designed to help discover “green” technologies, new product ideas, applications, energy efficiency, and services for project implementation, and operations. We found many interesting products from LED efficient lighting, glow exit signs, heat pipe technology, Daikin’s VRV system, and many other “green” mechanical, electrical, and plumbing products. Hall D at the DC Convention Center was packed with over 200 booths set up, and we were able to come away with new knowledge, and many new manufacturers’ contacts and catalogs.

The Prince William Regional Chamber hosted another Young Professional event at Madigan’s on the waterfront in Occoquan on November 5th, in which some SAI Employees attended. The program was hosted by Emily Guerrero, and many young professionals from Prince William County attended. They gathered large amounts of canned goods and non perishable items there at the event for a good cause. Also there was a program director from Volunteer Prince William who gave a wonderful speech about the opportunities to help kids and adults at Christmas time. Raffle tickets were given out, and nice prizes were awarded. Some networking games were also implemented as well. Here is the Regional Chamber blog posting (including pictures)

The National Gallery of Art received a Halloween treat in the form of the signing by President Obama of the Interior Department appropriations bill. The gallery is receiving long-awaited funds for a major renovation, including of its "vertical transportation facilities" (i.e., elevators) which SAI Engineering will work with Atlantic Consulting out of Millersville, Maryland to complete.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new PWC Credit Union branch took place on October 20th in Woodbridge off Hoadly Road. The credit union currently serves 7,500 members and has two other branches. This new, free-standing branch has been seven years in the making, during which time SAI Engineering has teamed with Loveless Porter Architects to complete design with construction scheduled to begin in early 2010. This is the third area credit union facility that SAI Engineering has worked on, the previous ones being for Fairfax Employees Credit Union and Belvoir Federal Credit Union.

This month the SAI Electrical engineering design team attended a demonstration of the latest LED (light emitting diode) products offered by LSI in order to stay current on the latest in energy efficent lighting fixtures. LED technology is a highly efficient lighting alternative to the more traditional high pressure sodium and metal halide lamp technologies. Last month, Maury Paslick attended an Elliptipar seminar at the company's Connecticut headquarters where he not only earned 3 CEU's but also saw one of SAI's projects, the Loy Harris Pavilion in Manassas, Virginia, featured in the Company's product slide presentation. One day later, Maury and his wife enjoyed a gala event benefitting CASA of Greater Prince William held at the same Pavilion (see SAI's photo gallery). Thanks to Eric Immediato of Chesapeake Lighting and Ritchie Cox of Commercial Lighting Sales for arranging these two "enlightening" workshops.

SAI Engineering has had a vigorous internship program during the course of its 14-year history. The purpose of the internship is to familiarize both high school and college interns with the engineering field in general and MEP engineering in particular. Some find it is not for them which is a valuable learning experience in itself. Others pursue related careers such as project management. Still others go on to further education or with firms in different parts of the country. Brian Myhre and Ben Kidd who worked several summers for SAI Engineering have gone on to work on advanced degrees. Brian, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School and MIT, is currently attending Harvard for his MBA after which he plans to return to Texas working for a consulting firm . Ben, a graduate of Hylton High School and the University of Virginia, recently completed his masters in electrical engineering at UVA and is now designing circuits and panelboards for a Charlottesville firm. Mike Hovanec and Jamie

SAI Engineering is a proud sponsor of the Prince William County Schools Education Foundation. The Education Foundation will be having its 9th annual Superintendent's Business Breakfast at the Kelly Leadership Center on October 15th at 8 a.m., with employees of SAI Engineering in attendance.

This is a test of SAI Engineering's first blog post. Maria Paslick went to a Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce event where they discussed many different ways of communicating online. One was a creating a blog, which we are now implementing.