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ACEC News / President’s Monthly Update

July 31, 2019

President’s Monthly Update–August, 2019

Dear Colleagues –

July was an active month for the Council and our Member Organizations.  I had the pleasure of attending ACEC/North Carolina’s Summer Conference and 50th Anniversary Celebration – congratulations again on this great milestone!  Our Chair, Mitch Simpler, and Chief Operating Officer Laura O’Neill Kaumo attended ACEC/Florida’s Annual Conference, and Senior Vice Presidents Steve Hall and Daphne Bryant presented briefings to the Deep South Convention for members from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  Mitch and I also attended the Strategic Planning Committee meeting in Chicago, where the MOs were represented by ACEC/Tennessee Executive Director Kasey Anderson.  Abbie Goodman of ACEC/Massachusetts is the MO representative on the Planning Cabinet, and we hosted their meeting here in D.C. at the end of the month.  All in all, a great month and indicative of the growing synergy between national and the MOs.  Our Fall Conference in Chicago on October 13-16 is coming together with a terrific line-up of speakers and business education sessions – check out the schedule and register here.  Early Bird registration runs through September 12, so be sure to lock in the discount while you still can.  Enjoy the remainder of your summer!

 —Linda
 

PRESIDENT’S MONTHLY UPDATE
August 1, 2019

MO Services

  • The semi-annual custom MO prospecting list will be delivered to all MOs on July 31st – it will include all ENR500 firms headquartered in your state, as well as all Pay Direct branches and other prospective firms from our database; please review this list with your board and membership committees.
  • ACEC National began its New Member Onboarding program in July with personal letters from Mitch Simpler and Linda Bauer Darr sent via overnight mail to the key contacts of 50+ new firms; we will continue to roll out the program over the coming months for new firms and keep the MOs copied on our correspondence.
  • ACEC provides value for your Member Organization through financial support and legal information:
  • Through the Minuteman Fund, ACEC provides matching funds to help support MOs on state legislative, regulatory, and judicial issues of critical importance to your member firms.
  • ACEC can assist with information on legal issues of importance to the engineering industry.
  • NAECE Executive Toolkit webinar, “Effective Communications Programs for Membership Growth” was delivered on July 23rd – the archived version of this and other webinars can be found on the MO Resource Page.
  • We are looking forward to welcoming 23 MO executives and staff for the MO Staff Training August 7-8 at ACEC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

General

  • ACEC’s podcast series, Engineering Influence, broke the 1,000 download mark on July 28th; podcast episodes have been downloaded 472 times during the last 30 days and 210 times during the past week – our most successful program has been the inaugural broadcast of the Chairman’s Corner with Mitch Simpler at 155 downloads, closely followed by our premier of the Government Affairs Update, with 108 downloads.

Advocacy and External Affairs

  • ACEC expressed its strong support for the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019, legislation that authorizes $287 billion for highways (a 27% increase over the FAST Act), codifies the One Federal Decision policy to improve coordination and timeframes for environmental reviews, and puts new emphasis on infrastructure resiliency and safety.
  • ACEC staff and several member firm representatives participated in the AASHTO Audit Subcommittee annual meeting, which featured productive industry-DOT discussions on FAR compliance and consistency issues and review of the new FHWA safe harbor indirect cost rate policy.
  • ACEC staff presented legislative and membership briefings at the ACEC Deep South meeting in Florida that featured members from Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
  • Recorded first Advocacy-focused podcast reviewing legislative progress to date and looking ahead to the new Senate surface transportation bill and other action items for the Fall.
  • Briefed members of the Blue Dog Democrat coalition working group on infrastructure with recommendations for improving project delivery.
  • The Federal Agencies and Procurement Advocacy (FAPA) Committee summer meeting featured a briefing by New York University on their study comparing USACE insourcing costs with that of the private sector; discussions with NAVFAC and the USDA officials; and a session with USACE examining the impact of changes within the Corps related to its ID/IQ policy which resulted in a letter to the agency from ACEC raising concerns over project delays and increased costs.
  • Delivered a webinar: “Introduction to Energy and Water Utility Risk Assessment and Cybersecurity Risk Management”, a collaboration of ACEC members Black & Veatch, Woodard and Curran, DirectDefense (cybersecurity firm), the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, and the American Water Works Association.
  • Joined with industry stakeholders on a letter to Congress in support of USMCA trade agreement.
  • ACEC/PAC exceeded the $500,000 mark; ACEC/Connecticut and ACEC/Alabama made goal.

Business Resources


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Date

July 31, 2019

Category

ACEC NEWS / PRESIDENT'S MONTHLY UPDATE

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