SAME Increases Its Emphasis on Continuing Education

I hope everyone is having a great summer. SAME is continuing to improve its offerings to members and the military engineer community. Our goal is to achieve our vision of being a “premier global engineering organization leading the professional and personal growth of all members in support of military readiness and development of solutions to national security challenges.” Let me highlight some of our ongoing and new initiatives.

SAME is leveraging its strategic alliances with the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), and the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) to provide SAME members with myriad continuing education opportunities. In late May, SAME HQ issued its first quarterly “Continuing Education Update” noting opportunities offered through our strategic alliance associations and academic institutions that are SAME members, including the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri-Rolla. Through these strategic alliances and institution memberships, SAME members receive “member” prices on workshops and courses when there is a difference in price between members and non-members. Further, SAME members can participate in high-quality programs in which other associations have made major investments to focus on the core competencies of engineers, facility managers and construction managers.

SAME continues to promote licensure and certifications as an important statement of professionalism and an assurance that Department of Defense (DOD) programs are implemented by individuals who have demonstrated competency in their chosen field through education, experience and excellence. Our success rate for individuals participating in the review courses offered by SAME, in conjunction with IFMA and CMAA, is outstanding. SAME members are excellent candidates for these certification programs because of their tremendous experience with military engineering and installation management. We look forward to recognizing SAME members who demonstrate their professionalism by getting licensed or certified.

SAME’s annual Joint Engineer Training Conference is an essential component of our continuing education efforts. An important aspect of a highly successful organization is the receipt and use of member feedback to continuously improve the delivery of products and services to members. SAME HQ sent out an attendee survey to obtain feedback regarding the 2007 Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference & Expo, which was attended by more than 1,600 individuals. Of those, more than 400 individuals responded to the survey. While SAME Executive Director Robert Wolff, Ph.D., P.E., F.SAME, has provided a summary of attendee feedback in his XD’s Corner on page 2, I would like to focus on the technical programs. More than 70 percent of survey respondents indicated that Education and Training was an important reason for them to attend the national conference, and 90 percent of the attendees felt the technical program met or exceeded their expectations.

Congratulations to the 2007 National Conference Program Committee for a job well done!

Our technical tracks at the 2007 national conference drew an average of 300 attendees, with the Installation Development and Realignment track
garnering the most interest with nearly 500 attendees at its five panels. The Installation Management track was second with close to 400 attendees at its five panels. The Air Force and Navy “all hands” meetings also were well attended, giving senior leaders an opportunity to brief and mentor junior officers.

The five top-rated sessions were:

• Cross Cultural Introduction for Engineering, Design and Construction;
• Professional Ethics Keynote Presentation;
• Using Instruments of Power to Achieve National Security Objectives;
• Ethics Case Studies; and
• Flood Risk Management—Protecting Our Critical Infrastructure and Resources.

The five panel sessions that drew the highest attendance were:

• Installation Realignment and BRAC;
• Joint Basing;
• Building Information Modeling (BIM);
• Contingency Engineering—Beyond the Sandbox; and
• Military Construction Transformation.

This reflects the diversity in SAME’s technical program and its relevance to the military engineer community. We continue to improve our process of allowing members to receive Professional Development Hours (PDHs) from our technical program in support of the growing number of states that require continuing education to maintain professional licensure.

The 2008 National Conference Program Committee has begun coordinating the technical program for the 2008 Joint Engineer Training Conference slated for May 19-23 in Minneapolis, Minn. Co-Chaired by Rear Adm. Gary Engle, USN (Ret.), URS, and Col. Brian Lally, USAF (Ret.), HQ USACE, the committee will be developing a program based on feedback from the 2007 conference in Philadelphia and an assessment of training that supports the SAME mission of partnering with public and private sector engineers. The committee will be seeking high-priority topics and the best speakers from the military engineer community.

SAME HQ initiated its first continuing education workshop on Design-Build in May 2007, after discussions with DOD and industry leaders and the conduct of a pilot workshop. Each workshop has had roughly 50 percent DOD and 50 percent industry attendees, making it unique among workshops sponsored by other associations. The workshop represents an excellent opportunity for DOD and industry attendees to learn best practices taken from the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) and other associations and publications, and to better understand how industry and government can use design-build to achieve military construction program goals. Attendees have rated the interchange between government and industry as the greatest value of these workshops.

SAME HQ is looking for high-priority subjects that will lend themselves to this workshop model. Topics currently being discussed include Building Information Modeling (BIM), Construction Management at Risk, Sustainability and Facilities Management. We will locate the workshops where we have an active SAME Post. This will help ensure that the workshops are easily accessible and affordable so more SAME members and DOD agency representatives can participate. We look forward to getting your feedback and input as we make decisions on how best to use SAME’s resources to benefit the military engineer community.

In summary, I am excited about the future of SAME and its quest to give greater emphasis to continuing education at the national, regional and Post levels.

I encourage Posts to emphasize continuing education and provide PDHs as part of their programs.

Maj. Gen. Del R. Eulberg, P.E., F.SAME, USAF
SAME President, 2007 – 2008