About

Our Founding

The Reading Branch was founded by the Philadelphia Section in 1975 to establish an ASCE presence in the northwestern corner of the Section’s geographic area, namely Berks County along with northwestern segments of Chester and Montgomery Counties, and to better serve the growing civil engineering population in that area.

From time to time activity waned a bit, and with changes in the engineering business in the Reading area, membership in the Branch began to decline. During that time, several attempts were made to revive the Branch, with limited success.

A Time of Transition

In the summer of 2016, Region 2 initiated a conversation with the Philadelphia Section to determine where the Reading Branch would be best suited. With many of the Philadelphia Section meetings are held in Center City Philadelphia which, as Reading locals know, can take several hours in rush hour traffic. This can prove to be a challenge for many of the members who live and work in this area and not many made the trip to these meetings.

With this information in hand, Region 2 convened conversations with the Central Pennsylvania Section, Lehigh Valley Section, and the Philadelphia Section. Collectively it was determined that the Reading Branch would be best served by the Lehigh Valley Section. In August 2016, an agreement was drafted and signed by both the Lehigh Valley Section and the Philadelphia Section Presidents, as well as the Region 2 Director to transfer the Branch to the Lehigh Valley Section.

Recent Times & COVID

From the transfer of the Branch in late-2016 up to the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic in early-2020 the Branch's Board of Direction consistently filled all of it's positions and multiple technical events were hosted each year. The Branch also had regular communications with it's members, primarily through a quarterly newsletter.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the uncertainty in the world overflowed into the operations of the Branch. The regular activity was reduced to only a few events a year and the newsletter began to be published on an as needed basis. The size of the Branch's Board of Direction also began to decrease.

Present Day

The amount of members in the branch has remained healthy through all of the transition the Branch has experienced, although some changes have occurred both positively and negatively. The Branch has also continued to collaborate with the Lehigh Valley Section as the parent group of the Branch.

Opportunities to volunteer, plan events, join the Board of Direction, and more are always available options for members of the Branch. If you have an interest in learning more about any of these opportunities, please email us or fill out the form below!

Contact us!

Button CTA

Full Width Promotional Block

Maecenas diam arcu, aliquam non egestas ac, imperdiet at velit. Aenean vulputate ullamcorper ligula, eleifend suscipit mi efficitur nec. Vestibulum viverra leo nec purus hendrerit accumsan.

Contact Us