President’s Monthly Update–April 2019

ACEC News / President’s Monthly Update

April 2, 2019

President’s Monthly Update–April 2019

Dear Colleagues –

      Spring has sprung and the cherry blossoms are blooming in D.C., which can mean only one thing – ACEC’s Annual Convention and Legislative Summit is right around the corner.  As you know, the new Congress has brought a new (and hopefully bipartisan) focus on moving major infrastructure legislation in 2019 and our lobbying effort at the Convention will focus on that objective.  We need your active participation as ACEC’s “Citizen Lobbyists” in that important effort; contact Steve Hall for further info.  As mentioned last month, the new Last Word Blog is up and running, and I encourage you and your members to not only bookmark the site, but take it a step further and author a post on any issue of importance to you and ACEC’s membership; contact Gerry Donohue if interested.  See you all next month in D.C.!

      Linda

 

PRESIDENT’S MONTHLY UPDATE
April 1, 2019

General
 

Three MOs achieved important Minuteman Fund-assisted victories for the industry in April – ACEC/Florida in a court case defending the enforceability of contractual waiver of consequential damages; and ACEC/Virginia and ACEC/Metro Washington for a legislative effort to close a QBS statutory loophole in Virginia.

 

Two additional MOs received new Minuteman Fund grants in April – ACEC/Ohio to help support legislative advocacy for greater state transportation funding; and ACEC/Illinois to help support an initiative to enact sustainable funding for Illinois’ transportation needs.

 

 In response to MO requests to hold the annual Leadership Orientations earlier in the year, this year’s sessions are scheduled for June 5-6 and June 25-26 at ACEC headquarters in Washington, D.C.; we’ve expanded capacity to accommodate 45 persons per session.

 

Held first NAECE Executive Toolkit webinar on March 21st, covering association trends and results of the MO Survey (recording of the session available here); next webinar – “Save Time by Scaling the Membership Recruitment Process” – scheduled for April 18th, email here to register.

 

ACEC’s annual membership certification process to verify employee counts begins again on April 1; we perform this for Pay Direct firms and for MOs which have asked us to do it for their firms, and will send final results to each MO in May.

 

ACEC is looking to feature your high-quality images on its Instagram account; contact Jeff Urbanchuk for more information. 

Government Advocacy
 

ACEC was featured in a Bloomberg story on industry efforts to defeat so-called “transparency” legislation in the states; the Council also joined with several industry stakeholders on a letter opposing passage of transparency bills in the states and at the federal level.
 
ACEC staff briefed House staff on QBS as a part of a design and construction industry briefing on project delivery on Capitol Hill.
 
ACEC staff testified before the Appropriations Committee in Illinois in support of raising revenues to support a robust infrastructure program.
 
ACEC staff provided advocacy updates and training to ACEC emerging leaders programs in Oklahoma, Missouri and Maryland.
 
Rose Bougher, President and CEO of A.D. Marble and Secretary of ACEC/Pennsylvania, testified on behalf of ACEC at a Small Business Committee hearing on infrastructure investment.
 
Sent letter of opposition to the sponsors of H.R. 1099, legislation introduced in the House to mandate that only public employees perform all construction engineering and inspection services on federally funded highway projects.
 
Joined multi-industry coalition in support of passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement through Congress.
 
Joined with stakeholder allies on letters to House leadership in support of the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act, a bill to reauthorize and expand the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program; ACEC also issued its own endorsement letter of the bill. 
 
Signed a coalition letter to the bipartisan House and Senate leadership, asking them to suspend the health insurance tax on small business health plans.
 
Joined with industry allies on a letter in support of funding for the National Levee Safety Program.
 
ACEC/PAC co-hosted in-state fundraising events for U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Bill Pascrell (D-MD) and ACEC members delivered checks to Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and John Katko (R-NY).

 

Business Resources

 

The March/April issue of Engineering Inc. includes the new Private Side column, highlighting Opportunity Zone Funds.
 
With more than 62 participants, March’s most popular online class, New Proposed Overtime Rule:  What Engineering Firms Need to Know, focused on the proposed changes to the overtime pay rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which have not been updated since 2004. 
 
ACEC’s Senior Executives Institute (SEI) Class 23 met for their final ‘official’ session in Florida, where communication styles and protocols and leadership beyond SEI were discussed.
 
ACEC’s popular project management course Laying the Foundation for Superior Project Managers: Practices, Principles, and Fundamentals, designed for up-and-coming project managers began its eight-week run with 21 attendees.
 
Coalitions’ best sellers for March included CASEs “National Practice Guidelines for the Structural Engineer of Record (2018)”.
 
The Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP) added two new providers in March: Merrick & Company and Women’s Energy Network bringing the total of approved providers to 170.
 

April online classes will feature: Imminent Technology Disruption- A Career Killer, or Opportunity?; Must vs Should: the Truth about Negotiating with the Government; Why ESOPs Work So Well at Engineering Firms; Are You Building The Right Website?; The Potential of Opportunity Zones for Your Firm’s Project Pipeline; The 2018 EJCDC Construction Series: Significant Changes, Key Clauses, & the Interrelationship Between Documents; Working in a Consulting Organization:  A Beginners Guide to Achieving Success; Data is the New Oil – Dealing with Privacy When Data Has Become the World’s Most Valuable Resource; Maximizing Your Business Development ROI; Qualifiers and COAs: Understanding Connections, Mitigating Risks; Succession Planning: Rewarding Senior Owners & Opportunities for Younger Employees.

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