XD's Corner

With the SAME 2007 Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference & Expo behind us, I’d like to share with you some of the results of our attendee survey and discuss SAME HQ’s increased level of responsibility for national conferences, beginning in 2009. We are pleased to report that 89 percent of conference attendees who responded to the attendee survey indicated that the conference met or exceeded their expectations. The most important reason people cited for attending is Networking. The events with the highest levels of satisfaction were the Society Ball and the Young Members/Fellows networking event. Suggestions that will be adopted in 2008 include eliminating loud music at the Ice Breaker event and allowing exhibitors to attend technical sessions as part of their exhibitor registration.

This year, the Fellows Investiture was held at the national conference for the first time. This new venue attracted nearly twice as many participants as in previous years when it was held at a regional conference and we hope to see increased participation in future years.
 
The National Conference Advisory Committee, chaired by Maj. Gen. Robert Griffin, USA (Ret.), CH2M HILL, and composed of six other Board members appointed by the SAME President, is formulating a plan for SAME HQ to assume more responsibility for future national conferences. The Host Posts for conferences in 2009 through 2013 are being consulted in this process, which will be presented at the Board meeting in October.

SAME HQ’s increased responsibility includes a greater share of the workload and increased financial risk. This change will provide greater efficiency in the conduct of our annual conferences, better long-term planning as we incorporate lessons learned and greater revenue to SAME HQ, which, in turn, will be passed on to members through increased member benefits.

The primary motivation for Posts to host a national conference has been financial—to benefit their Education and Mentoring Funds—while a significant result has been strengthened relationships that grow from the tremendous effort of Post volunteers. While both of these reasons are important and will not be lost in the future, the financial health of the national society also will become a more important outcome of the national conference.

When I came onboard in 2002, SAME HQ’s revenue came from two primary sources: dues (72 percent); and advertising (17 percent). In 2006, revenue came from dues (49 percent), advertising (28 percent) and conferences (21 percent). This diversity of revenue is important to SAME, as is the need to grow the revenue stream from conferences and workshops.

With the continuing reductions in the Department of Defense (DOD) workforce, outsourcing of government functions and the frequent deployments of our military engineers to the Middle East, we cannot expect to grow our public sector membership. We have seen a 3 percent decline in Individual Members in the past two years and it appears we may see a further decline in 2007. Sustaining Membership remains strong. SAME experienced a 6 percent growth in Sustaining Member Representatives in the past two years; however, we have seen a 6 percent decline in company membership due to industry consolidations and companies electing to exit the DOD market. Revenue is derived from company memberships, not the number of sustaining member representatives.

What all of this means is that SAME must diversify its revenue stream to ensure its financial health. This includes funding reserves to support SAME through any potential hard times, and increasing revenue to carry out member programs and initiatives.

The best way to accomplish SAME’s financial goal is through increased revenue from conferences and workshops, and the national conference should be a major contributor to that revenue stream. Over the past four years, the current profit sharing from the national conference has yielded about $125,000 per year to SAME HQ, ($10,000 of which has been
donated to the SAME Education and Mentoring Fund), with about $300,000 remaining with the Post. Thus, the national conference has represented 3.5 percent of SAME’s annual revenue.

SAME HQ’s increased responsibility for the national conference should, in turn, ensure increased revenue from the national conference while leaving an ample share for the local Post’s Education and Mentoring Fund. This change will greatly benefit SAME at both the national and local levels over the long term.

Bob Wolff, Ph.D., P.E., F.SAME
SAME Executive Director
rwolff@same.org