Jerry Paz PE, ENV SP Shares Region 6 Update

by Jerry B. Paz PE, ENV SP, Region 6 Director

There are no bigger shoes to fill than those of Nancy Cline PE.  She was such a dedicated ASCE servant and put her heart into this job.  There are a number of initiatives that ASCE is involved in, and they boil down to three main goals:

Balanced Budget. 

ASCE has been running a deficit for the past few years, and that is not sustainable when our expenses are more than our revenue.  There are several ways to make up the difference, but some of it is painful.  The simplest way is to increase revenue which is largely made up by dues paying members, and on the technical publications ASCE sells.  The second way to balance a budget is to cut expenses.  Cutting is always difficult because we are always trying to add programs that provide member value.  So if we can focus on increasing our membership and promoting our publications, it will make the pain of cutting programs and outreach minimal.  Bring a colleague to the next Section and Branch meeting and help build up ASCE membership.  Also, look to ASCE first for you technical publications.  I know you all are aware of member recruitment, we need to reverse the trend of younger members not finding value in professional society membership. 

Nimble. 

Because ASCE is the largest professional technical society in the United States (ASCE continues to set the standard) ASCE can get to be a little bureaucratic.  Decisions take too long to implement, and changes is even slower.  There are efforts on many fronts to try and make ASCE more efficient in how it provides member value.  Under President Kemper, efforts are underway to take nothing for granted and start with our governing documents to see if streamlining can be done from the ground up.  This includes possible updates to the ASCE Constitution, Rules & Regulations, and even our Code of Ethics is under review.  Stay tuned on this!

Future World Vision

Remember how inspirational Dream Big was for all of us?  ASCE launched Dream Big capture our next generation of Civil Engineers, and was moving.  Well, Future World Vision has all of the glitz and glamor of Dream Big, but it will be a multi-year event.  It is mind-blowing how exciting Future World Vision will be for at least the next five or six years.  It is the next step for Dream Big, but explores reimagining infrastructure for the long term to deal with the evolving world we will be living in.  It seeks to make our Civil Engineering profession, the profession of choice, because it will be Civil Engineers that grab the infrastructure challenges of the future.  You can find out more, by visiting their website.

In addition to highlighting the three main goals above, I wanted to let members know that the Board of Region 6 Governors welcomes the opportunity to financially support Branches, Institute Chapters, Younger Members, and Student Chapters. I encourage you to apply for grant funding today. The 2020 Grant Program Guidelines are available here. We will consider all proposals up to $1,500!

I hope to serve Region 6 as your Director as faithfully as Nancy Cline, and I look forward to collaborating with you on what is happening at ASCE global.