MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
ASAE Annual International Meeting
Las Vegas, NV - July 27 & 31, 2003
Minutes
R. Nolan Clark, presiding
July 27, 2003
Nolan Clark, ChairPresent
Gary Anderson, Vice ChairPresent
Paul Heinemann, District 1 Rep.Present
Bill Barfield, District 2 RepPresent
Qin Zhang, District 3 Rep.Present
John Miles, District 4 Rep.Present
Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, District 5 Rep.Present
Larry Jacobson, Awards Committee Rep.Absent
Peter Ling, IET Rep.Present
Michael Delwiche, BE Rep.Absent
Adel Shirmohammadi, SW RepPresent
Paul Walker, FPEI Rep.Absent
Gary Riskowski, SE Rep.Present
Bill Koenig, PEI Rep.Absent
Don Erbach, PM Rep.Present
Jill Huenink, Preprofessional Rep.Absent
Billy Lawson, Student OrganizationsPresent
John Worley, Section Steering Committee Rep.Present
Neil McLaughlin, CSAE/SCGR Rep.Present
Michael Ngadi, NABEC Rep.Absent
Wayne Coates, International Commission Rep.Present
David Jones, P-204 Rep.Present
John Hummel, BOT LiaisonPresent
Kelly Detra, BOT LiaisonPresent
Mark Crossley, SecretaryPresent
Guests:Fred Payne, Finance Committee Liaison
Bob Gustafson, Foundation Liaison
Curt Weller, Marty Schipull, Chad Yagow, Bryan Shaw, Lyle Stephens
The meeting was called to order at 1:35 p.m. and introductions of the attendees were made.
Confirmation of Quorum Present
MDC bylaws state that there must be a quorum of no less that 40% of Council members present in order to conduct MDC business. There was a quorum present.
Review of Agenda
The agendas for both MDC meetings were then reviewed and additions to the agenda were requested. There were no additions.
Approval of Minutes
After review of the minutes from the 7/28/02 and 8/1/02 Chicago meetings and the 11/14/02 and 5/14/03 conference call meetings (Attachment A), the following motion was made:
Motion:To approve the minutes from the four meetings as written. Seconded and passed.
Nolan reported that President Lyle Stephens asked him to chair a Dues Committee to look at three issues: 1) To develop a procedure for periodic review of the ASAE dues structure; 2) To apply that process to the current dues structure; and 3) To look at all current dues categories and assess them for accuracy. The composition of the committee consists of Carroll Goering, Kelly Detra, Chad Yagow, Gary Bubenzer, Ron McAllister and Nolan. Mark Crossley will provide necessary statistical information when requested. The committee has been asked to report their recommendations to the BOT at their December board meeting. The committee will be meeting on Tuesday to begin discussions. Based on this information, the following motion was made:
Motion:To table all further dues discussions until the Dues Committee has met and discussed the issues further. Seconded and passed.
The BOT has been working on the strategic goals process and has requested that all councils review the existing goals and develop additional metrics if necessary. Nolan then presented Attachment B, which was presented to the BOT at their April meeting which outlines progress made thus far by the MDC in meeting current strategic goals. The MDC was then asked for input towards developing goals and metrics for 2004-2005 for Thursday’s meeting.
Reports from ASAE Leadership
Fred Payne, Finance Committee
-The Finance Committee made the decision in June to move ASAE finances from 5/3 Bank to Northern Trust.
-The 2003 budget forecast basically calls for a balanced budget with a $3,400 deficit.
-The 2004 budget deficit was at $164,000 back in April, but it has been brought down to $100,000. The Finance Committee fully expects it to be balanced by later this year.
-Annual International Meeting statistics show approximately 1,600 paying participants with more including speakers and spouses/guests. This year’s meeting had more students and was a bit less on full conference registrants. Projected income is down, but sponsorships brought in about $16,000 in income.
-Member subscriptions have increased this year and the ASAE staff has been able to save money by processing and mailing them in-house.
-Income from ASAE non-technical publication sales is rapidly decreasing due to market saturation. This was expected and it is thought that this stream of income will vanish over the next few years.
-Student dues revenue has been up over last year and has already exceeded budget figures for 2003.
-Public Affairs Manager Dolores Landeck has scaled back her hours for the summer and will go down to half time this fall.
-Due to the failing heating and air conditioning unit at headquarters, it looks like the capital budget will need to expend $120,000 to replace it in spring of 2004. It was hoped that it could hold out until 2005.
-Even though ASAE has been faced with a multi-year deficit,
the Society is strong and has a bright future, especially in light of what
other engineering societies are reporting.
Nolan reported that the MDC budget is really only a segment of the Society portion of the overall ASAE budget. Since the April BOT meeting, three areas of MDC expense reduction have contributed to reducing the 2004 projected deficit to $64,000; a reduction in membership recruitment postage due to more use of the Internet; a reduction in salary and benefits for the Public Affairs position; and an increase in student dues revenue based on increased 2003 numbers. He said that there would be further discussion on the 2004 budget and possible cost saving ideas reported at Thursday’s MDC meeting.
Nolan then distributed copies of the PowerPoint presentation on membership that he will present at the business meeting on Tuesday. He asked for any last minutes input or questions.
Chad Yagow gave an overview of what the young professional are trying to accomplish with the creation of this community. The concept of creating a group to address the needs of young professionals was discussed at the Sacramento meeting during a social gathering of ASAE non-student members under age 35. The creation of an YPC would help address the needs and issues of this targeted group. They could also be instrumental in assisting with retention of students and converting students to full members.
The YPC would exist for the following purposes:
-To act as a mechanism to
bring young professionals into ASAE professional membership;
-To confront issues facing young professionals and provide necessary training and discussion;
-To provide a social body that extends networking opportunities to its members;
-To promote society objectives among YPC members; and
-To foster formation of young professional communities at the section level.
Chad further reported that the YPs held a CPD on Time Management the Saturday before the meeting so that they could attend without taking time away from their jobs. The session was well attended. They are looking to develop more CPDs in the future. The YPs also had a business meeting at which they elected officers and approved a first set of bylaws. They will also be requesting a seat on each of the councils. They also plan to become more involved with the PE review process.
District 1
Paul Heinemann gave an overview of activity from District 1. Please see Attachment C for further details.
District #2
Bill Barfield stated that he would send a report to the MDC at a later date.
Membership Development Council Meeting
July 31, 2003
Nolan Clark, ChairPresent
Gary Anderson, Vice ChairPresent
Paul Heinemann, District 1 Rep.Present
Bill Barfield, District 2 RepPresent
Qin Zhang, District 3 Rep.Present
John Miles, District 4 Rep.Present
Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, District 5 Rep.Present
Larry Jacobson, Awards Committee Rep.Present
Peter Ling, IET Rep.Present
Michael Delwiche, BE Rep.Absent
Adel Shirmohammadi, SW RepPresent
Paul Walker, FPEI Rep.Absent
Gary Riskowski, SE Rep.Present
Bill Koenig, PEI Rep.Absent
Don Erbach, PM Rep.Absent
Jill Huenink, Preprofessional Rep.Absent
Billy Lawson, Student OrganizationsPresent
John Worley, Section Steering Committee Rep.Absent
Neil McLaughlin, CSAE/SCGR Rep.Absent
Michael Ngadi, NABEC Rep.Absent
Wayne Coates, International Commission Rep.Absent
David Jones, P-204 Rep.Present
John Hummel, BOT LiaisonPresent
Kelly Detra, BOT LiaisonPresent
Mark Crossley, SecretaryPresent
Guests:Fred Payne, Finance Committee Liaison
Bob Gustafson, Foundation Liaison
Chad Yagow, Bryan Shaw, Walt Hull, Lal Kushwaha, Ben Weinheimer, Allen Thompson
The meeting was called to order at 8:05 a.m. and introductions of the attendees were made.
Confirmation of Quorum Present
MDC bylaws state that there must be a quorum of no less that 40% of Council members present in order to conduct MDC business. There was a quorum present.
Bryan Shaw will give a report from the new Ergonomics, Safety and Health division.
There were four items of business held over or deferred from Sunday.
-Report from the Dues Committee
-Report from the Foundation
-Report from the International Commission
-Action item for the Young Professionals Community
The Committee met on Tuesday morning and the following items were discussed:
-Instituting a periodic dues increase – perhaps every 2-5 years. The committee is leaning towards using the five-year mark.
-Using the Consumer Price Index as a basis for dues increases.
-Asking other engineering societies how they determine their dues increases and frequency. Mark will check further into this.
-Creating a new dues category for graduate students, as many of them do not relate to being student members as it currently stands.
-Offering free dues or some sort of dues reduction for members over age 75.
The committee is to report to the BOT in December of this year with their recommendations. Please see Attachment I for further detailed notes from the meeting.
Bob Gustafson reported the following activities of the ASAE Foundation:
-Bob will serve as the liaison to the MDC through 2004.
-They will be appointing a liaison to M-102 Awards Coordinating Committee as well.
-The Foundation currently has $1.7 million in assets. He then overviewed the various funds within the Foundation.
-He also reported that the Section Grassroots Funding program is still being offered. Information is on the Web site.
-There is also a list of Foundation funds by priority on the Web site.
Chad Yagow, on behalf of the YPC, asked the MDC formally to have a representative named to the MDC. The following motion was offered:
Motion:To appoint a representative from the YPC to the MDC. Seconded and passed.
The name of the representative will be sent to the MDC in mid-August.
Nolan discussed how important it is that all members are given the opportunity to give feedback on this issue. There has been a forum set up through the ASAE Web site, which all members may access to provide their feedback. He also stressed the importance that the ASAE leadership clearly understands the procedure, should a name change go forward. Lyle Stephens and Bob Gustafson have worked very hard to make sure the process is clearly understood by everyone and Lyle outlined this at the Name Change Forum on Monday afternoon.
At the business meeting, the name change petition by P-210 was formally submitted and after some comments, there was a motion to table further discussion until a task force can take a closer look at all potential ramifications if the name were to change. Bob will appoint a task force to gather input and report back at the Ottawa meeting.
Mark Crossley overviewed these statistics. Please see Attachment J for more details.
Nolan again reviewed how the MDC budget fits under the Society portion of the overall ASAE budget. There are three main areas where all MDC revenue and expenses lie: Member Development, Membership Services, and Professional Development.
He then asked if there were any other additions to the budget from any entity, which falls under the MDC. There were none, but there was discussion that a funding request may be coming at some point to assist sections in putting together workshops that any section member may present at any meeting.
Conversation then turned to the 2004 budget. The overall Society budget currently shows a deficit of about $100,000 for 2004. Shortly after their meeting in April, the Finance Committee requested that each council come up with an 8% net positive change to their budgets. This may either be through expense reduction or an increase in revenue. The following items were discussed as possible expense reductions.
-No hard copy section mailings or hard copy mailing only to section members without e-mail addresses ($7,000).
-No headquarters staff travel to sections ($4,000).
-No more dues to JETS ($3,000).
-No Member Roster to new members ($2,000).
The MDC felt that cutting section travel would be too detrimental to section/headquarters relations. They also felt that something could be done with the section mailing situation, but wanted to discuss all possible options further before coming to a conclusion. The Section Steering Committee would need to become involved as well before any decision is made.
It was suggested that ASAE look into providing a pdf on the Web site of all ASAE committees and other important sections rather than mailing the Member Roster to all new non-student members. Since member information is already provided in a searchable format, it would just be a matter of making the remaining information available. This option will be investigated further.
Dropping dues to JETS may be the most painless option thus far as it will not directly affect member services and programs.
The M-102 Awards Coordinating Committee chair Larry Jacobson reported that all major awards were be awarded this year and that there will be a new award for 2004 entitled the Professional Engineer of the Year Award given to an outstanding licensed engineer. See Attachment K for further highlights.
Adel Shirmohammadi again requested of M-102 that each division have their own paper awards judged and ranked by the Paper Awards Committee of each division. The maximum number of paper awards would be based on the number of papers published by that division. He feels that the Soil & Water division has been treated unfairly in this regard in the past.
MDC members commended the ASAE president for the manner in which the awards luncheon was conducted. There was a suggestion offered that the ASAE president read the names of ASAE members who have died during the last year instead of only having a moment of silence.
The P-120 Student Organizations Committee chaired by Billy Lawson discussed the following items at their meeting this week.
-The Student Environmental Design Competition (option 1 – sugary waste issue) is concerned that so many teams dropped out at the last minute. They will be looking at ways to ensure this does not happen in the future.
-P-120 will be petitioning the Meetings Council for a seat on their council.
-They would like to see an expanded, centralized display area at annual international meetings in the future for all student competitions and papers.
-While Fountain Wars was a success and everyone would like to see it continue, they need to seek corporate sponsorship in the future to help defray expenses.
-There was discussion that the Student Honor awards need to be more prestigious. Perhaps giving a plaque instead of a certificate would take care of this. This option will be researched further.
-Some confusion arose concerning wording on eligibility for the Student Engineer of the Year scholarship. They would like to change the eligibility requirements to state that a student must have at least one year remaining and cannot graduate before December of the year in which they are applying for the scholarship.
-P-120 is considering changing the deadlines for three of the ASAE scholarships from April 15 to February 15.
Lal Kushwaha reported on the activities of the International Commission. The following items were discussed:
-The Commission had problems with the keynote speaker this year. They felt that he was not sensitive enough to certain international members who might be in the audience. They have passed a resolution, which will be sent to the Meetings Council expressing their disappointment.
-They feel that representatives from CSAE-SCGR, AOCABFE, ISAE and CIGR should all flow through the International Commission and should attend their meetings.
-It was reported that the cooperative agreement with the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers is currently in a holding pattern. They are not sure why their members have not joined ASAE yet. It is probably because they did not collect dues for 2003, but will probably do so for 2004.
-They asked that all discussions with international societies be shared with the Commission.
-They are trying to figure out a use for the funds that have been accumulating in the international dues rebate account. Currently, $10 per low-income country individual who joins comes out of this account to cover the one-time application fee.
-There was concern that links to CIGR, ISAE and AOCABFE are not prominent enough on the ASAE Web page. Mark will look into this matter and make sure it is taken care of.
The SSC met on Tuesday and had a very good meeting. They broke into groups by district and discussed a previously mailed survey on section activities. The results of those surveys may be found in Attachment L. As a result of this activity, many good ideas were shared and the need was expressed for a model survey to be sent to all sections so that each might survey their own members.
The SSC also elected Chris Butts from the Georgia section as vice chair for 2003-2005.
Please see Attachment M for further details.
John Hummel reported that BE would like to focus on member development and attracting a bigger pool of members to this technical interest area. They have also expressed interest in working with other divisions to accomplish this.
FPE reported that they now have a new secretary. They will also be proposing a few specialty conferences this year to the Meetings Council.
Information & Electrical Technologies (IET)
Peter Ling reported that while they were happy with the Las Vegas location, they were not at all happy with the hotel arrangements.
IET is currently focusing on how to retain young professional members and how to get members with an IET interest to recruit other members with a similar interest. They are also focusing on officer training and have held two training sessions at this meeting.
Power & Machinery (PM)
Walt Hull stated that PM is concerned with recruitment and retention of its members as well. PM-48 has been making contact with commodity groups, farm bureaus and farming groups to create ties to ASAE with people we might not normally reach. The potential for standards outreach is great.
Structures & Environment (SE)
Gary Riskowski reported that the SE area has been decreasing over the years and that they have even voted to inactivate a few committees. They are in the process of creating a process manual to better maintain consistency, which will be posted on the Web when completed. They also expressed concerns with ASAE specialty conferences and how topics are selected. They will be expressing their concerns to the Meeting Council. See Attachment N for further details.
Soil & Water (SW)
Adel Shirmohammadi brought up the paper awards issue, which was previously discussed under the Awards Report section of these minutes. He shared the feelings of IET on the meeting location and hotel arrangements. He also reported that there are about 50% no shows on international paper submissions.
Ergonomics, Safety & Health (ESH)
Bryan Shaw submitted the report in Attachment O.
Please refer to Attachment J for further details.
Nolan Clark presented certificates of appreciation for those MDC members whose terms concluded at this meeting and thanked them for their service. Gary Anderson presented a special certificate to Nolan in recognition of his position as chair of the MDC from 2001-2003.
Organization of the MDC for 2003-2004 and Schedule for Council Meetings
Gary Anderson overviewed the composition of the Budget and Nominating subcommittees for the next year. They are as follows:
Budget: Gary Anderson, Nolan Clark, David Jones & Paul Heinemann
Nominating: Nolan Clark, Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan and three more members to be appointed.
The MDC meeting schedule for the next year is as follows:
2003
-November Conference Call - time yet to be determined.
2004
-April Conference Call - time yet to be determined.
-August 1, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Annual International Meeting, Ottawa, ON
-August 5, 8:00 - 10:00 a.m., Annual International Meeting, Ottawa, ON
-November Conference Call - time yet to be determined
Gary stated that the goals of the MDC should remain the same as those from the last two years. They are:
-Professional development;
-Support to sections;
-Outreach to non-U.S. populations;
-Outreach to underrepresented groups;
-Recruitment and retention, especially of young professional members; and
-Strengthen the relationships between section officers and the district representatives.
Gary further encouraged any Council member to send comments and feedback directly to him anytime.
With no further business before the MDC, the meeting adjourned at 9:55 a.m.