President's Monthly Message
November 2007

Vibrant Governance Through Local Involvement

You have heard it said many times: All politics is local. And ASCE is no exception in this regard. What really matters to us most in life is what is happening close to home. For this reason, ASCE has created regions and made them an important part of its governance structure.

This decision recognizes the enormous value of interacting with peers at the local level. Many members of ASCE take an active role for years on the local or state level but never really get involved in Society-level activities. This change in our governance system is something we members truly need to embrace. I believe we must celebrate the fact that our members are very local in their orientation, and we all should make the most of the new system in place.

Someone once said that there are two things one should never see being made: sausage and laws. The process of creating and changing ASCE’s governance “laws” should probably be added to the list. But now that they have been made, these changes are going to confer benefits to the Society as a whole. Engineers do not like change. The ASCE membership was very comfortable with the old district and zone concept, and the formation of regions presented a major change. But the new regions have also created opportunities for greater involvement.

Charles R. “Chuck” Rendall, P.E., L.S., F.ASCE, one of the principal leaders of our change in governance, wrote an article for ASCE News a few years ago in which he noted that the basic rationale for the change was to involve more ASCE members in the governance structure and to improve communication between Society-level bodies and the sections and branches. When the task committee started thinking about how to improve ASCE, Chuck contended that those involved would do well to “strengthen the middle,” meaning strengthen the relationships between the regions as a way to improve the connections between Society-level entities and other ASCE entities. The regional governance structure was intended to strengthen the middle so that all geographic units would act as—and feel themselves to be—parts of an integrated whole.

The task committee believed that the regions should organize activities and events that would engage more members. This would include continuing education, both in technical areas and in career development. Other activities would focus on, for example, community service, activities with other professional organizations, and the formulation of public policy through meetings with legislators and regulators. In the case of activities held on a regular basis, regions could periodically change the venue so that everyone would have an opportunity to participate.

To fully embrace our local orientation and ensure that members participate more fully in our activities, members in various areas of the region must step up and take responsibility for events.

Society-level bodies are available to provide help and support to the regions—perhaps in training or organizing—to carry out these activities. It is also ASCE’s intent that regional boards include people with a range of backgrounds and perspectives. This diversity will go far in ensuring that the policies adopted will truly redound to the benefit of our profession.

Have the regions fulfilled this original concept as Chuck intended? We are definitely making progress, but we members need to do more to realize the concept, and we need to give the regions more time.

Expanding their reach is, I think, the challenge that regions must face. Many regions have plenary meetings supplemented with one or two board meetings throughout the year. These are valuable, but by focusing on the leadership plenary meetings may not fully address the interests and concerns of the region’s members.

Regional governors provide a link to sections, branches, and institutes. They can convene teleconferences involving, for example, all the chairs of the membership committees within their regions of all the chairs of younger member groups. They can also formulate an agenda of issues reflecting common problems and interests. So I urge you to connect with your governor and to share ideas and discuss interests that have a bearing on ASCE.

ASCE envisions the regions becoming more engaged in our strategic planning process as well. One technique that has already been successfully employed is bringing issues on ASCE’s “radar screen” at the national level to region meetings so that regions can prioritize the issues for themselves. Collecting the resulting input from the region governors is very important, but the effort should be expanded so that ideas come not just from the governors but also from the sections, branches, and institutes. One of the goals of the strategic planning task committee was aligning local entitles and institutes with the Society’s strategic plan. The regions can take the lead here. For example, they can help to plan activities that are consistent with the strategic plan but also reflect local interests. In this way sections and branches will be involved to a fuller extent.

I envision the regions reaching out to our Society-level, Board of Direction, and institute committees in a way that will help to determine our strategic direction and will improve the links between the local level and the Society level. ASCE’s leaders will thus have a better opportunity to reach down into the ASCE section leadership. This alignment process could be fostered at the regional leadership conferences.

Another important role for the regions is to find suitable candidates for committee openings. This will provide growth opportunities for section, branch, and institute members. The regions can also single out meritorious members for recognition, awards and distinguished member or fellow status.

As ASCE begins to further cement its ties with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), the regions will have a unique opportunity. Many of EWB’s professional chapters tend to be regional in scope. Our regions can thus provide an excellent link with our new partner and can further the latter’s goals be mobilizing the talent, creativity, and expertise of sections, branches, and institutes.

The Board of Direction is expending a great deal of resources in terms of time, talent, and funding in order to become a body concerned primarily with strategic thinking. But the national organization can do only so much on our strategic initiatives. We must engage members throughout the regions—through the sections, branches, and institutes—if we are to make significant progress on our strategic objectives.

Thank you for welcoming me as your new president. I look forward to facing the challenge of accomplishing our strategic objectives by taking full advantage of our regional governance system and fully engaging all our members!

-David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE