Looks like Summer may be here to stay. We are in October and still in the 90’s. With Fall here, I am sure you all are wishing for sweater weather.

There are a few upcoming events locally I would like to share with you all. IRWA Course 901 Engineering Plan Development & Application February 27th and Course 902 Property Descriptions February 28th both in Riverside. We are also holding Course 701 Property Management on November 7th and 8th at RCTC. Please don’t forget to sign up. We are also getting ready to open registration for our 2024 Tri-Chapter Luncheon which will be held at the Victoria Club in Riverside on December 4th. Our speaker this year will be Holly Rockwell, Senior Executive Officer with LA Metro. We will be looking for sponsors as well so please reach out to myself at [email protected] if you are interested. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there.
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With the Holidays quickly approaching and our busy schedules lets remember to take a moment and be thankful for each day.

Cheers!
Darcy

Where did the year go? This time last year, I was sworn in as your Chapter President. It was an honor to be able to lead such a distinguished group of professionals. This past year I got the opportunity to sit down and pick the brain of our industries leaders and will take their advice to guide me through the rest of my right-of-way career. To those I called on almost weekly for advice and guidance, thank you. I wish the executive team nothing but the best and rest assured that your membership is here to support you. I’m looking forward to seeing most if not all of you in Long Beach. With Peggy and Hector as part of the planning committee, I can’t wait to see what they’ve put together.
Cheers everyone and I’ll see you at the next one.
Robbie ~

For those of you I have not had the pleasure of meeting, I am Darcy Mendoza, your Chapter 57 President for 2024 and 2025. I began my career in the right-of-way industry in 2012 with Epic Land Solutions as an agent and am now the Regional Manager for our California RW Department. I have had some amazing mentors throughout my career, and I have crossed paths with many amazing and knowledgeable people who have shaped me into the person I am today. As an agent who knew very little about right-of-way, I started taking courses with IRWA to get more familiar with the industry. Over the years I was able to obtain my R/W-NAC and my SR/WA and learn so much more about right-of-way. As I continued to grow in my career, I also became more involved with IRWA. If you know me, you know I love to plan a great event. Party and event planning is a passion of mine. I started by volunteering at certain events and then slowly started to help plan them. I was asked to join the board as the Events Chair and have had the pleasure of working alongside and learning new things from some of the best in the industry.

I am looking forward to this upcoming year and all it has to offer. I hope to see you all at board meetings and chapter luncheons as well as events. Speaking of events, Chapter 57 will be hosting the Tri-Chapter Luncheon this year in December at the Fox Banquet in Redlands. We also have our upcoming 2024 Education Conference right here in beautiful sunny Long Beach and this is one of our major events, which many of us will be attending. For those of you who have already registered, I look forward to seeing you and for those who still have not registered, I encourage you to do so. At the conference I hope to talk with many of you and get ideas and pick the brains of those who coordinated the event in preparation for the 2025 Education Conference which will be held in Virginia Beach.

I am excited to be working with this years Chapter leadership and serving as your Chapter President for Chapter 57.
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Cheers!
Darcy

Chapter 57 IRWA Members...​

Chapter 57 IRWA Members . . .
Things have been busy this season.  I saw some of you at our 1st picnic, I met new faces at the forum in Oakland, and I’m ready to meet some more at the education conference in Denver.

In exciting news, our Chapter is part of the 2024 Long Beach Education Conference Planning Committee.  If you’d like to volunteer in this committee or fill any of the Board's vacant positions, please see any Board member to get involved.
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I’d like to wish you all a happy, fun, and safe summer.
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I'll see you around,
Hector Casillas, SR/WA

For those I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting, I am Robbie Hechanova, your Chapter 57 President for 2023 and 2024.  I started my right-of-way career in 2010 with Overland Pacific & Cutler in the Real Property Services Department, cutting grass, then becoming an Agent, and then a Project Manager.  Currently, I work for SoCalGas supporting major projects.  Looking back, I would not change the path I took to get here as it played a big part of becoming the person I am today.  As a Relocation Agent, I took my first IRWA course in Relocation where I felt like a fish out of water.  Luckily, there were members taking this class for the credit and assured me that things would start to click.  Sure enough, they did and I continued to grow my right-of-way experience from relocation to acquisition and now pipeline work.  As I continued my journey in right-of-way, I was eventually invited to join the Board where I volunteered to become the Relocation Chair, and then voted in as Secretary for the Chapter.  Over the past few years, I've had the honor of working and serving alongside long time members and learning from the best in the industry.

​As we get back to what feels like a new normal, I look forward to seeing more of everyone at our board meetings and chapter luncheons.  Our upcoming 2023 Education Conference in Denver is one of our major events, which many of us will be attending.  For those of you who have already registered, I look forward to seeing you and for those who still have not registered, I encourage you to do so.  At the conference we hope to get ideas and pick the brains of those who coordinated the event in preparation for the 2024 Education Conference since it’ll be in our very own back yard, Long Beach.

I am excited for this upcoming term, working with the Chapter leadership, and looking forward to serving the "fun chapter" 57.

Cheers!
​Robbie