SAME Support to the Military Engineer Community

What a fantastic conference we had in Philadelphia! Hats off to the many volunteers from the Philadelphia Post and SAME HQ. The highlights for me were the Fellows Investiture and Ice Breaker, the Opening Session with Ben Franklin, the Honors Ceremony and Young Member/ Fellows event, the Post Awards Breakfast, the Technical Sessions and the Society Ball—in other words… everything! All the events were well planned and executed, and meaningful to the attendees. I congratulate Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, P.E., F.SAME, USA, on his leadership as the 2006-2007 SAME President and wish him well in his retirement from military service. I know he will not retire from SAME, for which he has displayed profound passion.

This year was the first time that we incorporated the Fellows Investiture into the Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference & Expo and the first time a national-level committee planned the technical program. We had “standing room only” in the auditorium for the Investiture. It was great to have so many people witness the ceremony and honor our 18 new Fellows. Based on the comments I received, the technical program was on target with top-notch speakers addressing the high priority issues facing the military engineer community. A “well done” to the National Programs Committee.

A report on the Board of Direction meeting, which was held on Friday morning of the conference, appears on Page 3 of this issue of SAME News, but I would like to highlight a couple of the Board’s decisions and elaborate on our strategic direction for the coming year.

For starters, the Board amended the Regional Conference Guidelines to achieve greater participation from the Posts within the two regions that co-sponsor the conference. We have an outstanding record of successful regional conferences. These changes will make them even better.

The Board also adopted a new strategy for planning and conducting our annual Joint Engineer Education and Training Conference & Expo. Rather than having Posts host a national conference, SAME HQ will solicit proposals from convention centers and cities to host our conference in locations where SAME has an active Post. SAME HQ will then partner with a local Post and recommend to the Board a site based on the “best value” to SAME and its members. SAME HQ will sign all contracts and conduct the conference in partnership with the local Post—the reverse of the previous process.

In addition, the Board voted to establish a National Conference Advisory Committee that will provide advice and assistance to SAME HQ and the Board. Specifically, the committee will provide oversight on a transition plan for the conferences to be held from 2009 through 2012 and for the new site selection process that will begin with the 2013 conference. The Board’s goal is to ensure the national conferences reflect the needs and desires of SAME members. I am confident that the new policies and processes will provide more efficient and effective national conferences that will become one of the highlights of our members’ SAME experience.

The Board conducted a Strategic Planning Workshop in March 2007, following my nomination as your new President, to develop some focus areas for 2007-08 in support of the SAME Strategic Plan. The three focus areas are:

1. provide enhanced service and value to the military engineer community, including both public and private sectors;
2. develop and implement programs and tools to enhance the value of SAME through continuing education programs; and
3. promote K-12 outreach programs that provide the greatest value to the military engineer community for implementation by SAME Posts.

While we will be developing these areas over the coming year, let me provide some ideas that came out of our strategic planning workshop. The first focus area expresses the need for SAME to bring value to its members as well as bring value to the military engineer community at large. While we often focus on drawing new membership, we have to first retain the members we have by providing value. As we pursue this objective, we will need to provide outreach to other organizations and individuals that have similar objectives to SAME. This does not lessen the need to grow membership—it is a different focus on our membership through retention and stronger emphasis on the contributions SAME makes to military engineering for America. Membership will grow because of the sense of significance SAME brings to our members and our profession.

The second focus area is to better communicate to our members and through our outreach programs the continuing education opportunities available through SAME and its strategic alliance partners. SAME HQ has done a good job in establishing these alliances. We now need to make the most of them to benefit the military engineer community. This includes classroom instruction, Webinars, licensure and certification programs.

As noted in the April edition of SAME News, SAME HQ has hired a Continuing Education Manager to support this focus area and the training and education goal in our Strategic Plan. And in March, SAME launched a series of Design-Build Workshops to support the military services’ strategic direction in using the design-build delivery method on the majority of military construction projects. This is a great example of SAME’s support of the military engineer community because few of the Department of Defense participants are SAME members.

The third focus area is K-12 outreach. Last year, Gen. Strock established a K-12 Task Force to survey Posts and other associations to determine the best K-12 outreach programs for SAME. That process is continuing, but we have transitioned the Task Force to the K-12 Outreach Committee. SAME’s most successful K-12 outreach program has been its three Engineering and Construction Camps, which serve 120 high school students each summer. This educational program has proven so successful that we have now established a new national committee to provide continuing oversight and direction to the program. We also have initiated an effort to track the progress of 400 students who within the past four years have attended the camps co-hosted by the U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Navy Seabees. We have a lot of anecdotal evidence that the camp has greatly influenced many students to enter engineering and to apply to attend service academies, but we need to follow up with all of these students. We have only made an important initial investment; the next phase is assigning “Mentor Posts” to track and encourage these bright, young superstars.

I am very excited about the opportunity to serve as your President for the coming year. We have an outstanding Board of Direction that is full of energy; a top-notch headquarters staff; and the best Post leadership of any professional society. Together, we will continue to keep SAME relevant, serve the military engineer community and have fun!

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