Board Expands Free Membership, Changes Bylaws and More

The SAME Board of Direction held its semi-annual meeting at the Marines Memorial Hotel in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 7, 2006. SAME President, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, P.E., USA, opened the meeting with a call to order and noted that a quorum was present.

Executive Director Report. The Executive Director reported on the following key points:

• Post Organizations. As of Nov. 7, there are 118 active Posts, within which 55 percent of the Post Presidents are from the public sector, compared to 22 percent of the overall membership from the public sector. Initiatives are underway to establish Field Chapters at Fort Riley, Walla Walla and West Point, rather than maintaining non-functioning Posts.
• Post Activations and Deactivations. The Board approved the following Post activations and deactivations:
• Reactivation: Dolomiti (Italy) and Sault Ste.
  Marie (Michigan);
• Deactivation: San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Sino
  American (Taiwan)

Finances. The special and reserve accounts increased in 2006. SAME’s total net assets increased from $1.3 to 1.7 million since Jan. 1, 2006.

2006 Budget. Year-to-date revenue and expenses compared to the 2006 budget indicate that the revenue from individual membership is down. This may be contributed to the transition to annual versus anniversary renewals, and to GWOT and downsizing of the uniformed services. Otherwise, revenue is $25,000 over the budged amount with a strong showing in advertising. Expenses were reduced from budgeted amounts by $107,000 leaving SAME with a net positive operating surplus of $91,000 year to date.

Membership. Individual membership is down 8 percent overall, compared with a 3 percent increase in individual membership in 2005. The decrease is in regular and young memberships, while Life, Student and company memberships continue to grow.

Changes to SAME Bylaws. The Board approved a revision to the SAME Bylaws to accomplish the following purposes:

• establish national memberships for corporate members to reflect the new Sustaining Member dues structure;
• change the approval process of Fellow nominations to eliminate review by the Executive Committee and requiring presentation to the Board at its Fall Board meeting;
• adoption of the Field Chapter concept, whereby a Post may establish a Field Chapter at a military installation where a separate Post is not sustainable; and
• clarification that a majority of the full Board is required for e-mail voting (rather than a majority of voting members present when voting at a Board meeting).

Changes to National Conference Policy. The Board approved changes to the SAME National Conference Policy document, which was first adopted in 2003. While there was discussion on the prescriptive nature of the Policy document, the Board concurred in the need to establish a framework for SAME’s national conferences to ensure consistency year to year. The Board agreed that the document should allow the Host Post to request approval from SAME HQ for a deviation, if needed. Changes include:

• eliminating the need for SAME HQ and the Host Post to sign a formal Memorandum of Agreement;
• establishing the responsibility of SAME HQ to manage the national conference Web site with input from the Host Post and the National Program Committee;
• establishing a policy that technical tours be conducted Friday morning so that Wednesday and Thursday can be focused on general and technical sessions;
• institutionalizing the Honors Luncheon or afternoon ceremony; and
• adopting a $10,000 budget for the National Programs Committee to support invited speakers for which expenses or honorarium would be paid.

Readiness and Homeland Security Committee Report. The Board approved the following recommendations of the Readiness and Homeland Security Committee to change the National Security Streamer and the role of Post Readiness Committees, effective in 2007:

• change the name of the streamer from “National Security” to “Readiness and Homeland Security”;
• transform the “Fast Start Plan” to a “Disaster Preparedness and Response Report” with a change in focus from developing a plan to collaboration with the local community and developing a gap analysis; and
• require Incident Command System (ICS) 100 training for Post Readiness and Homeland Security Committee members.

IFMA Presentation on Association Trends. David Brady, President and CEO, International Facility Management Association (IFMA), noted that associations use a variety of instruction delivery options. Instructor-led, classroom-based delivery is still strong within associations, while classroom-based education and “On-demand Webinars” are increasing.

Young Members Council. Heather Wishart Shriner, P.E., Carter & Burgess, noted that the Council has three new initiatives: a series of professional development conference calls; fundraising for the SAME Education and Mentoring Fund; and a Young Member Career Advisory Network.

Small Business Council. Jennifer P. Fogg, CPF, Valiant Construction Professionals Inc., stated that in addition to its involvement in the planning of the USACE Small Business Conference, the Council has established a point of contact at each Post, has had representation at all Regional Conferences, and has submitted articles to The Military Engineer magazine.

NCO Council. Sgt. Maj. William R.  Arthur, USA, reported that the recently approved noncommissioned officer (NCO) Medal will be awarded for the first time in 2007. The Council also sponsored a successful NCO Symposium at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in October, which featured breakout sessions on joint engineer education and training, lessons learned from Joint Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and opportunities for SAME to support NCOs.

Century House Fundraising Campaign. Col. Ronald B. Brown, USA (Ret.), Sundt Construction, reported that the task force co-chaired by himself and John Mogge, CH2M Hill, raised almost $250,000 of the $300,000 goal.

Education and Mentoring Fund. Louis J. Martinez, P.E., Martinez Engineering Management Services, reported that the Education and Mentoring Fund has a corpus in excess of $150,000 and $19,000 in cash. The E&M Fund Steering Committee has approved initiatives that will require $20,000 per year. The Steering Committee estimates a $6,000 gap, which the Young Members Council has offered to help close by sponsoring a silent auction at the 2007 Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference & Expo.

SAME Engineering and Construction Camps. Col. Ronald B. Brown, USA (Ret.), Sundt Construction, Chair, K-12 Outreach Committee, briefed the Board on the success of the three SAME camps that provided a great experience for 140 high school students and more than 30 Young Member mentors. Special recognition was given to Grant Bartee who has been USAFA Head Mentor for the past three years. Col. Brown commended the Posts that sponsored high school students to the camps—51 Posts to the USAFA camp, 30 Posts to the Seabee Camp, and nine Posts to the Army Camp.

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