We are planning a discussion on Roadway Illumination. The speaker is James Mercier. The meeting location is at El Gallo Mexican Restaurant from 6:00 PM to 9:00PM. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. To RSVP or for further information, please contact Stan Friend at stan.friend@us.schneider-electric.com.

James Justin Mercier, P.E. (SM IEEE, M ASCE) is both a construction electrician and a Civil Engineer. He graduated from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Apprenticeship program in 1979 as a Journeyman Wireman (construction electrician), where his electrical work experience included power plants, steel mills, refineries, schools, traffic signals, and office buildings prior to his returning to college. He earned a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, in 1986, and worked as an Environmental Engineer in the private sector prior to joining TxDOT. Since joining TxDOT in 1994, he has been a Traffic Engineer in Roadway Illumination and in Traffic Signals, and a Hydraulics Engineer with the Design Division. Mr. Mercier is a Licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin, and a licensed master electrician in both the State of Texas and the City of Austin. He is a past Chairman of the Austin, Texas Chapter of the IEEE Power Engineering Society.

The meeting announcement will be posted when available.

A big thank you to George Martinez, Professional Engineer, for his presentation and discussion on US Department of Energy Transformer Efficiency Rules that will take effect on January 1, 2010. This presentation took place at el Gallo Mexican Restaurant. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule for this presentation.

Glenn Drayson traveled from Vancouver to provide us a general overview of emergency generator-paralleling switchgear for distributed generation, auto standby or prime power applications, and details on Thompson Technology's approach to solving the problems one might encounter. We appreciate very much his taking the time to visit us. He provided a copy of his presentation slides for any who are interested in further study and for those who could not attend.