Introduction – Not a Template
Since I started as the Executive Director of The New York State Society of Professional Engineers (NYSSPE), I have written this update for the journal every year. Looking back, I feel like the message is always somewhat generic and written in a template fashion. For this year’s update, I didn’t follow any past year’s pattern in an effort to give you an engaging and up-to-date information on NYSSPE and where we are headed moving forward.
Strategic Planning
For the first time in a long time, this past November, NYSSPE staff and leadership gathered for a day long strategic planning meeting. The reason for the meeting was to assess where the organization is currently, to put together a plan for moving forward, and growing NYSSPE in a way that is most beneficial to our members.
Some of the key initiatives that resulted from the planning meeting include:
- Survey members and non-members to gauge their perspective of NYSSPE with respect to other associations.
- Add more member benefits for engineering corporations.
- Become more of an industry leader on breaking engineering news, both practice related and legislative.
- Improve communication with members, non-members, and the public by organizing our channels of communication.
- Explore the idea of putting on regional events through state and local partnerships.
- Build a more comprehensive chapter toolbox to make it easier for the chapters to succeed.
- Continue STEM activities and attempt to measure their success.
We have already begun and completed several of these initiatives, including the survey, all of which I will touch on through the remainder of this report.
Staffing Updates/Changes
Over the past year, we have made some significant staffing/operational changes. We have retained an outside company to handle all of our bookkeeping. This decision was made due to the increase in bookkeeping workload because of the large number of events we now put on each year.
We hired Rachel Pieniazek as the Operations Manager for NYSSPE. Rachel has extensive experience in planning and coordinating events, but also has worked expansively in marketing and media while serving as a marketing coordinator for the Times Union Center. She will focus on day-to-day operations, marketing (including social media), and membership.
We also hired Kathryn Viggiani who brings a wide array of event planning and course accreditation experience to NYSSPE. She is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) with more than ten years of experience in all aspects of event management. Kathryn will focus on course accreditations, event planning and management for NYSSPE, and the Practicing Institute of Engineering (PIE).
Additionally, Jen Miller, who has been with NYSSPE for 20 years, is relocating to Florida in June of 2016, but will remain a full-time NYSSPE employee and work remotely. Systems have been put in place to ensure that workflow and productivity remain the same, if not improve, while Jen is in Florida. She will still attend our major conferences and spend time in New York around those major events.
We have continued to utilize engineering students as interns. We plan to have at least one intern again this summer as they have been very productive and helpful in all aspects of our operations.
Organizational Growth
Our organization has continued to grow from a revenue standpoint. This year we are on track to slightly increase our revenue once again. This is due mostly to stellar attendance at our events. Over this past year, led by Jen Miller, we put on a total of 25 events which generated $200,000 (as of April 15, 2016) in gross revenue. Most importantly, these events are providing top-notch training to licensed New York Professional Engineers on many important topics.
As mentioned above, we have increased our staff as well. At the end of the 2015 fiscal year, we had 3 full time employees and one part-time. We now have 4 full-time staff members and that is with our bookkeeping being outsourced.
As far as membership goes, we did experience a slight decrease this year, and it is one of the areas we plan to spend significant time on during the next few years.
We are currently investigating the possibility of offering some different membership packages. The goal with this move would be to provide more affordable membership options, increase our overall membership, as well as our voice in the industry.
2016 Survey and Initiatives
Following up on our strategic planning initiative, we recently surveyed 340 engineers of whom approximately half were NSPE members and 85% were licensed. It is important to note that 70% of those surveyed were age 50 and older, and 90% were age 40 and older.
A survey approach called semantic differential was used in an effort to gauge how the industry perceives NYSSPE with respect to other associations. The idea was that if we understand what people look to NYSSPE for, we can provide more of that service and spend less time on other efforts.
The survey results provided some very helpful information. Approximately 65% of respondents identified NYSSPE as the ‘go to’ organization on engineering legislative issues in New York. Approximately 70% responded that they would most likely go through NYSSPE for their professional development hour (PDH) training. This proves that these are the two items we should be focusing our energy on. To that end, we recently launched a legislative updated video series that will serve to keep members informed on all legislative matters. We are also getting more aggressive with our social media presence so we can be more of a “breaking news” resource that engineers want. Also, with the hiring of additional staff, we are better able to focus on our event offerings, and we plan to coordinate some regional events with the local chapters as discussed in our strategic planning meeting.
Two other items of interest that came out of the survey results were related to career and student services. Only 30% of respondents stated that they would look to NYSSPE for employment/career opportunities, while 40% said they wouldn’t turn to any association for these services. Also, less than 30% of respondents identified NYSSPE as taking an active role with students in engineering. These results tell us that our current career center, which is very little work for us to maintain, is probably adequate for our audience. And while we should always speak to students about our profession, perhaps student chapters aren’t the best idea in most areas of the state. Again, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t visit schools and speak to students on a regular basis. We have visited schools and will continue to do so.
In addition to these initiatives, as mentioned above, one of our key initiatives over the next year will be to create an avenue for a lower priced membership option in an effort to get more people involved with the society. We want to work with NSPE, but we also can’t allow our level of membership to drop due to rising fees. We have to act now to ensure that our organization remains healthy and can continue to proudly represent New York State engineers.
I’d like to kindly ask that people continue to recognize NYSSPE for its legislative leadership and that we need to keep our reputation strong as we move forward.
NOTE: NYSSPE facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not the views or accounts of NYSSPE, its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. NYSSPE, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.
James A. D'Aloisio, P.E., SECB, LEED AP says
I wonder if NYSSPE has any plans to take a position on advocating for action on climate change mitigation and adaptation/resilience. Many other professional engineering organizations have passed policy statements, including ASCE and ASHRAE. I think it is imperative that the engineering community step up to the challenge – it’s our societal role as engineers. I strongly recommend this issue be considered, and would be willing to assist in any way possible.
Anthony Fasano says
James great point, we will discuss this with our Board of Directors, and I will also discuss this at the National Society of Professional Engineers conference in late June.
Jim Galarneau, PE says
Relating to NYSSPE taking an active role with students in engineering, I suggest that Chapter efforts continue to reach out to high school/college students interested in engineering maybe one meeting a year as a networking with our members. This could be in the form of a free breakfast and/or dinner with a interesting speaker promoting engineering as a career. At this event students can be able to network with professional/firms and ask career questions to our members. This will at least keep NYSSPE and their Chapters assisting and promoting potential future engineers which is always important to our Society.
Anthony Fasano says
Great point Jim, in fact our Capital Region had their scholarship dinner with students last night!