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I believe this past year will be remembered as a very important one in the history the New York State Society of Professionals Engineers.
I believe this is so because we took monumental steps towards one of our main priorities at this time, which is: reducing member dues, while increasing member benefits….
Just imagine, you go to a restaurant that you love to eat at, and the waiter tells you that they increased their portion sizes and reduced the meal prices. You really couldn’t ask for more.
To that end, I was honored to be selected to personally represent NYSSPE on a National Society of Professional Engineers committee that was focused on restructuring and unifying member dues across the United States. It was an intensive process, which is not over yet, but all indications point to the strong possibility of an almost $75 (or approximately 20%) decrease in member dues, which would start in July of 2018.
In addition to this, we are working hard on adding new member benefits and recently announced a new one which gives NYSSPE members access to large discounts on various insurance products including disability, long term care, Medicare supplements and more (click here for details).
We did see a decrease in membership this year, which is the reason we need to focus on this priority, which I believe will put us in a position to grow again.
Legislative Work
On the legislative front we continue to work hard to promote and defend the lawful and ethical practice of engineering in New York.
Our longtime lobbyist Mark Kriss, Esq. continues to do a dynamite job, monitoring over 300 bills at any given time. This past year Mark helped us as a society to craft a more focused legislative plan, which we are now poised to act upon.
Also, as a way to keep you informed and let non-members understand the importance of our mission, we have continued to publish legislative updates in the form of videos (click here to view them), which typically includes Mark and myself discussing current issues. We published over 20 videos this past fiscal year and the feedback from members has been phenomenal and we promise to keep them coming (here are the year end legislative summary videos: Video 1 / Video 2).
Events & Training
Lastly, I want to highlights yet again, another successful year in terms of training and events for NYSSPE. Once again, Jen Miller has led NYSSPE to a year of success with twenty-two events, which is an amazing number when you consider our events department consists solely of Jen working on about 90% of what goes into our events.
In addition to all of NYSSPE’s offerings, NYSSPE also assists in running the Practicing Institute of Engineering (PIE) and the Foundation for Engineering Education (FEE).
PIE has again had a tremendous year, and continues to grow. FEE is an organization that we are looking to re-focus going forward and get back to utilizing FEE as a way to assist younger engineers in their efforts to secure engineering licenses.
Thank you to our staff, Jen, Kathryn, and Rachel for another great year, and our volunteers led by our Presidents: Laura Pellizzi, PE – current President of both NYSSPE and FEE, and John W. Sucharski III, PE, current President of PIE.
Let’s continue to promote and defend the lawful and ethical practice of engineering together.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead this premier organization.
Very truly yours,
NYSSPE Executive Director
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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.
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