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NSPE Board of Directors: Read
Out
January 9-10, 2015
Hollywood, Florida
Rough, contemporaneous notes: not an official record.
Disclaimer
The following are rough notes that capture the sense of
discussions that were broad in scope and general in nature.
The output from these discussions will inform future, more formal
and structured debate but they do not represent final conclusions,
commitments to action, or statements of position or policy.
In free form, open discussions, sometimes vivid or even
provocative language emerges that becomes a kind of shorthand,
immediately recognized and understandable to those who were
present for the discussions. In the moment, such phrases have a
very specific and narrow meaning. That intended meaning may
not be obvious to someone not present for the discussions.
Accordingly, please be sensitive to the potential for
content to be misconstrued or misunderstood if
taken out of its specific context.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Author of Life’s Little Instruction Book
“When you can't change the direction of
the wind — adjust your sails.”
Issue Statement
Last meeting, the board engaged in discussions of six
“mega-issues.”
The ED’s regular board updates, subsequent board
conference calls, and materials for this meeting all
provide data and insights on what has happened since
those discussions.
Before engaging in additional topics the board is
asked to take stock in how far it has come since
October in these areas, and where things are going
from here.
Following Through From October
Dialogues…
Committee Charges, Work Plans, Reports have
increased
– Volunteer Accountability
– Alignment
– Sense of Purpose
Staff organizational goals to deliver concrete
achievements.
We’ve laid the foundation … but there is work left
to be done.
Being a PE Stands for Something
Being in the profession
requires and means more.
The license allows you
to practice in the
profession.
Licensure as a statement of personal values/core
commitment.
Individual Leaders as
Advocate/Salesperson
Focus and message
✔Why it is important to be a member
☐WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)We have found strong branding messages at the first level: We still need to to
articulate why being a member is critical at individual member level.
Accomplishments
– Renewed commitment
– Heal old wounds
New Issues/Questions
States and Strategic Partners:
– Different audiences.
– Require different approaches.
– But draw upon the same resources.
• Volunteer capacity
• Staff capacity
• Dollars and other resources
New Issues/Questions
What have we done that is recognized and
valued by the average member?
Can we survive as an organization,
depending upon membership dues as our
primary revenue source?
Issue Statement
The recommendations of the Position
Statements/Professional Policy Development Task
Force are now being implemented, raising both
transitional and long-term challenges as the Society
attempts to realize the advocacy aspirations of its
strategic plan.
What are the practical/operational and
strategic/substantive ramifications of being an advocacy
organization that is multidisciplinary and focused on
the issues of importance we all share, as opposed to a
collection of coordinated, but “siloed” special interests?
Perspectives
States protect the license.
– What PE means;
– Ensuring that people who aren’t PEs don’t engage in the practice of
engineering.
National protects the profession.
– Activities that create engineering jobs and opportunities.
– Activities that ensure states can be effective protecting the public
health, safety and welfare “on the ground.”
Subject matter expertise (content/programs), with the
exception of ethics and professional practice, is primarily
the domain of technical societies and ACEC
– Complement and enhance not compete or displace
Is There a National Advocacy Role?
Licensure is largely a state issue.
Advocating for PEs means:
– Supporting states who are doing well protecting the
license.
– Shore up states that are not
– Clearinghouse/Coordination between states
Limited scope of issues that NSPE advocates (lobbies) directly
on at the Federal level.
– Legislative
– Regulatory
– E.g.; Brooks Act
The Whole is Greater Than the Sum
of the Parts
Effectiveness is based on the
national/state/chapter system operating
as an integrated whole, not division
into self-sufficient, stand-alone
activities.
Licensure is a Means to an End We are for protecting the public health, safety and
welfare.
Licensure is a means to advancing that goal.
National role:
– Address how public health, safety and welfare is
advanced and served through licensure.
– Enables and empowers states to be effective advocating
for how the license is defined, administered and
enforced.
– NSPE speaks for the profession before national groups
like NCEES and ABET.
Is National structured to do this effectively?
NSPE Speaks Nationally …
Only when it does not conflict with the states.
– Stay neutral if there is no agreement.
– Respect states who don’t agree with National even when there is
agreement.
Standard of Agreement:
– Full consensus is impractical.
– Majority vote of HoD (as policy spokespeople for the states).
Is HoD structured to do this effectively?
– Following the process does not automatically translate into
credibility.
– HoD must be strengthened or reinvented in order to be a more
effective and productive venue for building consensus among the
states and articulating national policy.
Advocacy is a Joint Venture
National and states.
Integration of effort is improving, but level
of collaboration and coordination is not what
it needs to be to maximize effectiveness.
– Between National and the States
– Between States
House of Delegates and Regional Directors
are critical infrastructure for the necessary
degree of partnership to occur.
Scope of Policy Umbrella Policy
– Maximize areas of agreement first.
– Do not push for detail beyond the boundary of substantial
agreement.
An 80/20 agreement on policy can be stronger than including a specific detail
that reduces agreement to 55/45.
Not everything we have a position on is something we
invest resources lobbying on.
– Others might take the lead.
Policy/Topics that are important to states are important to
National
– We do not need a policy on every engineering issue we might be
asked about.
Scope of Policy (continued)
The need for consensus does not reduce the
obligation to work hard to extend policy to its most
meaningful level.
– Avoid the trap of watering down to such a low common
denominator as to be meaningless.
• Being “for” infrastructure is easy … and relatively meaningless.
• Being “for a gas tax to fund infrastructure” would be powerful
and meaningful.
• If and only if that is a policy supported by a majority of the
states
Illustrative Example Only: NOT discussed as a policy proposal.
Issue Statement
National has no shortage of programs, products
and activities intended to meet the needs of
young engineers; it has given serious attention
to strategies and tactics to be more accessible,
relevant and engaging to young engineers.
What are we achieving through these efforts?
What more can and should we be doing?
Two Conflicting Paradigms
“NSPE is here to provide us what we need to
know but they didn’t teach us in school.”
Versus
“I already have two parents … I don’t need
someone else telling me what’s good for
me.”
Findings
Most meaningful engagement and
involvement with students and post-
graduation/pre-licensing can only be
provided at the local or state level.
– Direct, national-level mentoring is not feasible.
Student chapters need resources.
– Funding and grants?
Without faculty engagement, traction with
students is difficult.
Partners Are Needed To Be Effective
With Students/Early-career-stage
Engineers. With states and chapters, to provide direct services,
such as mentoring;
With The Order of the Engineers, to foster ethical
awareness;
With groups like Engineers Without Borders, to
respond to YE’s desire to create a sense of purpose
and for an opportunity to “give back” to society;
With NCEES, to support and remain engaged with
graduates/EITs on their pathway to the PE.
Options to Explore
Invest in real research and data on student/ young
engineer needs and preferences.
Partnering
– NCEES: Create a “Pathway to the PE” portal to get
graduates to sign up for the FE examination and
maintain contact/connection via email to support them
post-graduation to PE testing.
– EWB: Create purpose and opportunity to give back.
– Order of the Engineer: Ethical awareness.
– States/Chapters: Hands on assistance.
ABET Criteria: Require FE testing
Additional Thoughts from Day One
Being “in the profession” means different
things to different audiences
– Being a PE
– Being an engineer (lower case e)
NSPE’s focus is on the first level.
NSPE activities/communications need to be
sensitive to the paradigm of the intended
recipient.
Engineering Continues to Expand
Protecting the public health, safety and welfare
encompasses more than the traditional engineering
arenas of the built environment.
– Civil
– Mechanical
– Structural
– Etc.
Includes biomedical and genetic engineering,
software/cyber (e.g.; artificial intelligence), etc.
– NSPE tends to lose students in bio/cyber post-
graduation.
Ethics is Core to the NSPE Brand
NSPE has Subject Matter Expertise and established
stature/credibility in ethics and professional practice.
– National and state.
How many states have ethics as a specific domain for
continuing education requirements?
Large number of states using national speakers (volunteer &
staff) to deliver ethics programs at the state level.
Support states in making the case for meaningfully enforced
ethics requirements.
Order of the Engineer
Important (and under-utilized) element of
NSPE Ethics and Professional Practice
strategy.
Can NSPE provide “continuity of
engagement” after induction into the Order?
– Provide a mechanism to maintain contact and a
relationship with Order Link membership.
Breaking the Stalemate
Without faculty engagement, traction with students
is difficult.
ABET requirement that Dean of Engineering being
licensed?
– Option for faculty to become licensed outside of the FE
test > Internship > PE test framework?
Long standing stalemate: Time to end the stand-off?
ABET Criteria: Require FE testing of
undergraduates as a requirement for graduation?
Issue Statement
The Annual Meeting Planning Task force is
creating an opportunity for delegates to caucus
and engage in open dialogue in preparation for
the formal business session, a new feature in
the House of Delegates activity.
Agenda development for the House of
Delegates Assembly will begin in several
weeks.
Questions
How can we engage, excite and support the
planning and convening of the House of
Delegates in Seattle in a manner that is
productive, rewarding and relevant?
What topics should be included in the House
of Delegates Caucus?
– What are the anticipated outcomes of the
Caucus?
Deepen the Governance Role
HoD needs opportunity to dialogue on emerging “mega-
issues” before the formal business meeting, which addresses
specific, pre-identified issues for decision.
– HoD Caucus is to the HoD General Assembly as these Strategic
Dialogues are to the formal, NSPE Board agenda.
Better HoD orientation needed.
– Effectiveness.
– Continuity.
– More clarity and accountability on role, responsibilities and
commitments
• E.g.; Produce something similar to the summary of “Time and
Financial Commitments for the Two Year Term of NSPE Regional
Director,” produced by the Regional Directors Best Practices Task
Force.
HoD Caucus: Purpose
How can we create opportunities for HoD to look
beyond issues of immediate concern and think
about strategy and policy needs for the future?
– E.g.; clarity on the roles of certification versus licensure.
– E.g.; What is the value, need and role for licensure in a
future that includes Artificial Intelligence, genetic
engineering, etc.?
How do we engage elected leadership and staff
leadership from the states?
Scheduling Has Impact
Convention programing (content) includes an
increasingly strong element of value to state leaders
(staff and volunteer).
– State leaders will get real value in coming for the entire
week of governance and education/networking elements.
State budget constraints severely limit states’
willingness and ability to send elected leaders and
staff for an extended period, notwithstanding the
value offered.
Governance Meeting or
Education/Networking Event? Both
Need to maximize the scheduling overlap to make it easier
to involve those who come (primarily/exclusively) for
governance and those who come (primarily/exclusively) for
education/networking.
Governance
Education/Content
Day One Day Five
Practical/Market Place Reality
We do not yet have the ability to secure the commitment
from everyone we need at the Annual Meeting to come for
everything.
– Do everything we can to encourage but do not predicate plans on
attendees seeing the value and coming to both.
– Create a track record of value for expanded participation in the
future.
We need to continue to expand the areas of overlap (a more
fully blended/through-programmed schedule), but we are
not there yet. (Build the self-evident value of participation)
To successfully attract the individuals we need to be in
Seattle for specific programs to be successful, we must
adopt contiguous, overlapping, but separate programs.
Governance Elements to
Accommodate
HoD
Caucus
SSEC
Board
Meeting
HoD General
Assembly
Orientation
Joint
SSEC/State
Leader Meeting
Block Schedule
Friday Saturday Sunday
SSEC/State Leaders Joint
Meeting (10 am -12 noon)
HoD Caucus (8 – 10 am) Board of Directors (7 – 11
am)
SSEC (2-4 pm) Part 1: HoD General
Assembly (elections) (10
am - 1 pm)
Include SSEC in Awards
Lunch
Installation Luncheon
Part 2: HoD General
Assembly (3 – 5 pm)
Board Orientation (5 – 7
pm)
Times are approximate - more an assessment of time required and staging order than
final scheduling.
“Will there be beer?”
Particularly for new events (new demands on
delegates time and attention), do not
overlook the niceties that will make coming
more:
– Convenient
– Attractive
– Social in feel
A small investment in food, beverage or
hospitality can go a long way.
Issue Statement
The Society continues to explore the
development of a Leadership Academy, but in
the meantime, a new class of directors and
delegates will enter leadership at the annual
meeting in Seattle. NSPE typically provides a
two part, interactive live orientation webinar
each spring. These sessions are well but not
universally attended by new and emerging
leaders.
Questions
What can we do better this year?
How can we bring new members up to
speed quickly?
Can a mentoring program be
established?
First Who, Then What
Jim Collins: Good to Great
– Companies that went from good to great concentrated first on
“getting the right people on the bus,” and then figured out where to
go.
How do we get the right people on the HoD bus?
– Understand it is a significant policy and governance role, not an
honorary position.
– In touch and current with the practical and political realties in their
state and region.
– Informed and current on policy issues.
– Aware and sensitive to strategy and long range goals and vision.
– Able to fit their state-specific concerns and needs into the bigger
picture.
House of Delegates Orientation
Single webinar, focused exclusively on HoD.
– Not combined HoD and Directors
More volunteer-to-volunteer discussion and
presentations.
– Don’t delegate to staff.
Single speaker, not multiple speakers.
President-elect (who will chair the General
Assembly) should conduct the orientation.
Incentive for participation?
House of Delegates Orientation (continued)
Present more in advance, less lecture during orientation
session.
– Work book with the substance and detail provided in advance.
– Brief summary/review and questions during orientation session.
As with Regional Directors Best Practices Task Force:
– Explicitly document expectations/time demands.
– Emphasize role and responsibilities that extend beyond or between
actual meetings.
– Provide best practices.
Key Actions Taken
Comments and revisions to the draft advocacy and
communications platform.
Approved the “PE Institute” concept.
– Creating a national platform to promote, market and support
education offerings from national and its state societies.
Approved the fast-track planning for possible
implementation of an upgrade to NSPE’s netFORUM
membership system.
Received a status report on efforts to improve financial
management and reporting systems and staff;
Reviewed and provided comments/feedback to the Regional
Directors Best Practices Task Force on their draft report.
Key Actions Taken (continued)
Accepted the independent auditor’s report on NSPE
finances.
Approved the ratification of amendments to ABET’s
constitution.
Finalized comments to ABET’s Engineering Accreditation
Commission on proposed changes to the curriculum criteria.
Signed-on to a joint letter from the engineering societies,
supporting efforts to educate engineers to meet the National
Academy of Engineers’ “Grand Challenges.”
Reached consensus on continuing to hold two face-to-face
meetings a year, but adjusting the schedule in 2015-16 to:
– September/October
– April