NEWSROOM

DeLapp installed as SAME Nashville Post president

Story by Lee Roberts
Nashville District Public Affairs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 14, 2011) – The Nashville Post of the Society of American Military Engineers installed its new president today during an installation ceremony in the Tennessee Engineering Center at the Adventure Science Center.

Lt. Col. James A. DeLapp, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District commander, accepted the position and replaces outgoing President Jim Andrew, who is the senior project engineer with Stantec Consulting in Nashville, Tenn.

“I hope to live up to the expectations and the challenges he (Andrew) said we have in front of us,” DeLapp said.  “I really hope to work and increase the membership even more this year.  So I’m going to do the best I can to work with the team and help make that happen.”

DeLapp said he plans to partner with the Ft. Campbell SAME Post to work on eventually bringing the SAME regional conference to Nashville.

“I really appreciate it.  Thank you very much,” DeLapp said about his installation as president of the Nashville Post.  “I look forward to the next year… appreciate everyone’s volunteering and support.”

Andrew said in relinquishing the presidency of the post that it has been a very good year for SAME in Nashville.

“I’m grateful I got to be a part of it in some small way,” Andrew said.  “We balanced the budget, we revised the bylaws, we gave between $5,000 and $10,000 in scholarships, we had great ‘Engineering Day’ participation, we had a great golf scramble, we helped set up a student chapter at MTSU, we sent four people through the FEMA earthquake readiness (training), contributed math accounts, sent a great young man to the Air Force summer camp, had a great professional development workshop, we developed the challenge coins this year and the banners.”

Andrew finished by saying that next year is going to be even better.  “Get involved everybody,” he encouraged the members.  “It’s going to be exciting in the next few years so get onboard now.”

Also during the meeting, the SAME Nashville Post made a donation of $1,000 to “The Center for American Military Music Opportunities,” which is an organization that is building centers where artists, writers and technicians live and work with their professional music industry counterparts in major music cities, beginning here in Nashville, Tenn.  The first CAMMO facility will be near Music Row and will have an education component in partnership with a local university, a residence hall, a rehearsal space, studios and an office.

The Nashville SAME Post wanted to support this organization because the program supports the military and wounded warrior rehabilitation at no cost to them. For more information about CAMMO, go to http://www.cammomusic.org.

SAME is headquartered in Alexandria, Va., and is the premier professional military engineering association in the United States.  It unites architecture, engineering, construction, facility management, and environmental entities and individuals in the public and private sectors. Together, they prepare for and overcome natural and manmade disasters, and improve security at home and abroad.

The organization provides its 27,000-plus members opportunities for training, education, and professional development through offerings of conferences, workshops, networking events, and publications.

Members include recent service academy graduates and retired flag officers, project managers and corporate executives, DOD civilians, private-sector experts and many others.

(For more news and information about the Nashville District, follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube pages.)