Tucker, Young, Jackson, Tull, Inc

July 2006

President's Corner

George Y. Karmo, P.E.	City of Detroit - A Call For Help Initiative As all of us are aware, the City of Detroit is experiencing budget difficulties which have resulted in reduction of staff and cuts in essential program budgets, thus impacting the level of services and quality of life in Detroit. As a Detroit business, TYJT has proposed a “City of Detroit – call for help” initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to create a group of local engineering and construction firms who would lead manageable efforts to provide the City with engineering and construction assistance needed to continue implementation of selected Capital Improvement
Programs such as rehabilitation of City parks and recreation facilities; call it “adopt a park” project or any other suitable planning and construction activity. TYJT has met with representatives of the City's Park and Recreation Department and the Mayor's office and received positive response and encouragement to proceed with the initiative. TYJT invited representatives of a core team of ten (10) local engineering and construction businesses to a meeting to discuss this important initiative. Representatives of the ten core member firms attended an evening dinner meeting on June 5, 1006 at Opus One Restaurant to discuss the initiative concept and develop a basic agreement to move forward with the initiative. Representatives of the core team were in full agreement with the initiative goals and asked a few of their representatives to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to delineate the basic elements of the core team agreement. A draft of the MOU was prepared, reviewed and finalized. On July 20, 2006, representatives of the core team met at the office of NTH Consultants, Inc. to discuss the "next steps" for this important initiative. During this meeting, officers of the association were elected for a one year term; these were as follows. George Y. Karmo, TYJT Chairman of the Board Keith Swaffar, NTH Consultants, Vice Chairman Mark Coleman, Wade Trim, Inc. Secretary Bernard Parker, Walbridge Aldinger, Treasurer This we hope will be a start of efforts by Detroit businesses giving back to the community in a way that best touches the citizens of the City of Detroit. We all should be proud of this effort and the leadership of TYJT and the core team members. by George Karmo
TYJT and Wayne State University ASCE
Mark Nasr, Richard Gifaldi, Jasna Bektas, and Murat Sonmez

Since its inception in 1984, TYJT has strived to meet our client’s needs to their satisfaction. Our undying commitment to maintaining the goodwill and confidence of our clients has since been the driving force behind our 22 years of success. Even in the wake our 20 year celebration, TYJT has not skipped a beat. We have renewed, and even expanded, our commitment to our clients by exploring a more “proactive” approach to meeting their satisfaction. “Proactive” in the sense that we are now trying to meet the needs of even our “future” clients.

Future Clients?

Future clients are the same young men and women of this community who have an indirect stake in the viability of our engineering business. They are our future clients, future colleagues, future teammates, and of course…our future civil engineers. That’s why TYJT and Wayne State University (WSU) Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) joined together for a day of “Civil Engineering Conversations.”

George Y. Karmo, P.E. and Awni Qaqish P.E.

The Civil Engineering Conversations Program was developed by the WSU Student Chapter of ASCE in the fall of 2005. The goal of the program is to bring WSU civil engineering students, faculty and practicing civil engineers from local area organizations together over lunch or dinner to have conversations and discussions on current issues concerning the civil engineering profession. The program allows the students to ask questions to engineering practitioners, and receive valuable advice based on “real life” experiences. Through these gatherings, the students would also get to tour various engineering facilities as well as become familiar with business etiquette in dining with professionals.

With the launch of the program in February 2006, TYJT seized this opportunity to be “proactive” with our “future” clients by becoming one of the first firms to sponsor and host the program.

On April 13, 2006, a group of six ASCE students from WSU along with Civil Engineering Department Chairman, Dr. Mumtaz Usmen visited our corporate headquarters to experience “A Day in the Life at TYJT.” George Karmo, President of TYJT, gave an overview of the firm’s background, professional services and target markets, as well as some of our high profile projects. The students and Dr. Usmen were very interested in the presentation, listening attentively, and then asking detailed questions on the business and the possibilities of internships. George and Awni Qaqish, Vice- President, fielded most of the questions during lunch which was provided by Opus One. I further encouraged their interest and enthusiasm by highlighting the fact that 20% of TYJT’s full-time engineering professionals are WSU alumnae.

I then led the ASCE group on a tour of the office where they could see our staff at work and briefly interact with them. The students indicated that they were very impressed with the professionalism of the staff and the various engineering disciplines within the firm, not to mention the “WSU Grad License Plates” outside the office or cubicles of WSU alumnae.

Dr. Usmen and Eric S. Tucker P.E.,

To remember their TYJT experience, the ASCE students were given TYJT business folders, each personalized to the student and containing information on resume writing, interviewing skills, and dining etiquette. The students stated that TYJT went “above and beyond their expectations” personalizing everything from lunches, to information and memorabilia. And that’s exactly what we, TYJT, want to do…exceed expectations.

All in all, the Civil Engineering Conversations Program proved to be a valuable experience for both the students and the engineering staff. TYJT has done it again “…meeting (and exceeding) our future client’s satisfaction.” And we look forward to the opportunity to do it again next year.

Eric S. Tucker, P.E., Associate and Mark Nasr

Special thanks go out to the wonderful TYJT team that coordinated and put together the program, Louise Bacon, Jason Hall, Gail Phillips, Remelle Staten, Awni Qaqish, George Karmo, and last but not least…me.

by Eric S. Tucker, P.E., Associate