The SAME Executive Committee, chaired by Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, P.E., USA, SAME President, met on Aug. 23 at Century House. Gen. Strock called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Following is a summary of the Executive Committee meeting.

Executive Director’s Report. SAME Executive Director Dr. Robert D. Wolff, P.E., F.SAME, (XD), briefed the status of the SAME HQ organization, reserve and special accounts, 2006 budget, membership, 2006-07 calendar of events, and the new Association Management System (AMS). SAME HQ now has 21 of its 22 staff positions filled with permanent employees. The reserve accounts are being reduced to finance the AMS, consistent with the Executive Committee’s previous decisions. SAME HQ has a net surplus of $184,000 at mid-year compared to a projected surplus of $89,000. Individual Membership is down 6 percent at mid-year while Sustaining Memberships are up 1 percent and the number of Sustaining Member representatives is up 3 percent. The number of Young Members (YMs) has fallen by 27 percent since Jan. 1. 2006; the XD is contacting several Posts to determine the reason for the higher than expected reduction in YMs. The AMS vendor, Euclid Technology, has completed the design document and has commenced with training and data conversion. SAME HQ signed a contract with an off-site data center to house the servers on which the AMS will reside.

Dues for Local Nationals in Developing Countries. Carmella Baccari, Director of Membership, briefed the Executive Committee on a concept to respond to requests from Posts in Baghdad, Iraq, and Cairo, Egypt, to allow local nationals to join SAME at reduced prices. The Executive Committee approved a recommendation to charge local nationals in Iraq and Baghdad $5 for Young Members, $10 for Public Sector Members and $15 for Private Sector members. The Executive Committee also approved a substantially reduced dues structure for Sustaining Memberships in those countries and the implementation of these reduced dues in other developing countries where SAME Posts are established in the future. SAME’s designation of developing countries is based on World Bank designations, which are based on per capita income.

E-mail Voting Protocol. The Executive Committee re-affirmed the use of e-mail to obtain approval from the Board of Direction on issues that cannot wait until the next Board meeting. The XD uses a three-step process, first obtaining comments from the Board of Direction on a proposal, revising the proposal as necessary, and then summarizing the comments when requesting the Board to vote on the revised proposal. While the Executive Committee recognized the limitations of this process in allowing open discussion, it agreed to continue with e-mail voting in order to allow the Board to be more responsive to the needs of the Society.

Fellows Approval Process. The Executive Committee discussed the process for approval for new Fellows and agreed to retain the current process with the proviso that Board members would be given the opportunity to discuss specific issues related to nominees that were not approved by the Fellows Selection Committee. The Executive Committee reaffirmed its confidence in the Academy of Fellows to evaluate the qualifications of nominees, but decided the Board would continue to have final approval.

Post Activations and Deactivations. Stephen Shepard, Director of Training and Post Operations, briefed the Executive Committee on Posts that have been unable to meet the basic sustainability requirements established for an active SAME Post. The Executive Committee activated the Moody/Valdosta Post in the South Atlantic Region, and deactivated the Air Capital Post in the Missouri River Region and the Vandenberg Post in the Southwest Region. The Executive Committee also reaffirmed the process of transitioning Posts that were not meeting sustainability requirements to Field Chapter status where the concept was feasible, including the Walla Walla Post in the Northwest Region and the Fort Riley Post in the Missouri River Region.

AMS Membership Decision Rules. The Executive Director briefed the Executive Committee on proposed rules to be established within the AMS for maintaining member and non-member records. The essential elements of the rules are to allow Individual Members to request that they be added to a Post
e-mail distribution list regardless of whether he or she is a member of that particular Post, while Sustaining Member Representatives will only be able to request that they be placed on a Post e-mail distribution list if they are a member of that particular Post. Non-member records will be placed in the new AMS as “prospective members” and will be dropped from the database after 180 days if they do not become SAME members. The Executive Committee concurred in establishing these rules at the outset of the AMS implementation and to re-evaluate the impact of such rules at the Board meeting in May 2007.

Council and Task Force Reports. Several Task Forces briefed their progress. Public Sector Membership Task Force Chair Lt. Col. Neal T. Wright, P.E., F.SAME, USA (Ret.), Baker Corp., briefed his plan to assess the issues surrounding public sector membership growth. D. Clay Kelly, P.E., Strand Associates, briefed the efforts underway by the K-12 Outreach Task Force. Lt. Col. Robert E. Adamski, P.E., F.ASCE, F.SAME, USA (Ret.), Gannett Fleming, briefed the results of a one-day workshop held the previous day to evaluate how SAME can best support the National Response Plan. Heather Wishart Shriner, P.E., Carter Burgess, briefed the initiatives of the Young Member Council.

The President adjourned the meeting at 4:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Robert D. Wolff, P.E., F.SAME
Executive Director