November/December 2018

A Pause for Gratitude

BY EVA KAPLAN-LEISERSON

Whether you’re taking stock before you tear into the turkey, thinking back as the year winds down, or pondering gratitude in a daily practice, it can be beneficial to take time to contemplate, What’s going right?

We asked organization leaders and NSPE members to answer the question, “What are you most grateful for in your professional life from the past year?”

Michael Aitken, P.E., F.NSPE
2018–19 NSPE President

Over the past three years of national service to NSPE, I have found numerous new reasons to be thankful.

I am professionally thankful for the advocacy efforts of the NSPE staff. With the current threats to licensure, our Government Relations team is working hard to advocate for the professional engineer’s ability to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

I am thankful for the dedicated, passionate work of all of our local, state, and national volunteers and leaders who devoted their time and effort to bring our members a new integrated membership model—which provides a consistent experience to every member no matter the size and capability of your state chapter.

I am thankful for the new communication platforms being provided by NSPE. Be it through the Communities platform, PE magazine, NSPE Update, PE Scope, Daily Designs, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, NSPE is continuing to develop new and effective methods of communicating with our members. Through these communications, we will continue to strengthen NSPE and member value.

I am thankful for the ability to serve as NSPE president. Through my position, I have been given the opportunity to get to know and work with many highly professional, dedicated, and passionate engineers. Through our interactions, I have grown as an engineer and volunteer leader.

Kristen Chandler
Executive Director
MATHCOUNTS Foundation

This year and every year, we’re thankful for the thousands of NSPE members around the country who make our programs happen. As a nonprofit organization, we’re only able to provide such high-quality learning experiences thanks to our dedicated network of volunteers and donors. We’re grateful to have so many engineers who care just as much about eager young Mathletes as we do. They play an instrumental part in fulfilling our goal of inspiring STEM’s next generation of game-changers.

We’re also thankful for the teachers who motivate and support our participants. The MATHCOUNTS Foundation and NSPE volunteers facilitate the experience, but the teachers foster it. They devote their time to the students and breathe life into the programs we’ve created.

As an organization that relies on so many generous supporters, we have a lot to be thankful for. Above all else, we’re thankful our combined efforts continue to make math more accessible for young learners.

Austin Lin, E.I.
2017–19 President
NSPE-California

One of the assets NSPE-California has been the most grateful for is the time our member leaders spend to promote the profession and build our community of engineering students, EITs, and PEs across our state.

Since becoming an integrated [state society] in January 2018, one of the most difficult realizations for us was to move from a “member value” mindset (that ever-elusive Holy Grail of all professional societies) to “member-valued” actions—activities that we, as member leaders, can actively execute and deliver to benefit our members. Partnering with NSPE headquarters, our integrated roles have become complementary—with our talented staff in Alexandria helping us manage our administrative needs so our volunteer leaders could focus the most possible time on member-valued events, gatherings, and communications.

Ben Railsback, P.E.
Immediate Past President
NSPE-Colorado

In 2018, I am most grateful for the developing relationship and engagement between NSPE-CO and NSPE and the resources that were available to respond to a threat to licensure in Colorado.

I had the privilege of serving as the president of NSPE-CO for the 2017–2018 term. During my term, NSPE and NSPE-CO entered a new relationship, with NSPE developing a new business model that Colorado was able to embrace as it improves the services and value available to our members within the state and nationally.

The strength and potential of this new relationship were demonstrated in 2018 when two bills were introduced into our state legislature that threatened engineering licensure in Colorado. Both bills fundamentally viewed licensure as a burden on market competition and entrepreneurship without sufficiently recognizing the value and safety that licensure can provide.NSPE and NSPE-CO were able to respond to this threat in a combined effort. Both organizations monitored the progress of the bills through the legislature and were ready to respond. NSPE provided excellent written analysis of the two bills introduced that laid a foundation for the NSPE-CO response.

NSPE-CO Executive Director Steve Conklin developed a great outline for testimony on the issue, and Steve and I were able to attend hearings and provide testimony in opposition to the proposed legislation that was received well. Ultimately, both bills failed and were not passed into law. I am thankful for the partnership between NSPE and NSPE-CO that kept professional engineering licensure and Coloradans safe.

Brian Kalina, P.E.
President
NSPE-Nevada

As we begin to pardon turkeys, pass the pigskin, and reflect on the events of the past year, the Nevada Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE-NV) has much to be thankful for. In 2018, the Nevada Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (NVBPELS) was reviewed by a Nevada Legislative Sunset Committee that was tasked with determining if the state board should be continued, modified, or terminated. These types of reviews are typical for states but seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity around the nation, with goals to reduce, eliminate, or justify professional engineer licensing requirements. These reviews have significant potential impacts on PE/PLS licensees and on public health and safety. It is critical to act when [they] occur.

NSPE-NV saw this review as an opportunity to reach out and provide support to help communicate the value of the state board to the review committee. Volunteers combined forces to draft letters of support and post alerts on the NSPE Communities forums to help bring awareness to the Sunset Committee review. Informing others in the NSPE community around the nation helped to educate and provide facts that allow all to exercise greater wisdom and judgement prior to modifying or eliminating professional engineering institutions and practices that provide great safety and value to society. NSPE-NV also benefited by receiving great support from NSPE national level administrators and leaders who helped muster the needed resources to strengthen Nevada’s efforts.

Overall, NSPE-NV is truly thankful for the outstanding NVBPELS leadership team and their expertise to address the Sunset Committee audits, and for the productive working relationship we have with them. We are thankful for the professional engineers and land surveyors that consistently execute engineering and construction projects with firm leadership and wisdom to ensure a healthy level of safety, service, and reliability to the public. We are filled with gratitude to be a part of the NSPE community and for all the friendships we have made as we work together with professionals who all have the goal of making society a much better place for us to enjoy the holidays with our friends, families, and fellow citizens!

John Kampmeyer, P.E., F.NSPE
Retired consulting engineer
Springfield, PA

Professionally, I am thankful for a 56-year professional career that was very rewarding. My decision to go into engineering was helped by my father who was a banker. He told me to go into anything I wanted other than business. I said I was good at math and science so maybe I’d go into engineering. He said, “Good. They eat!” With that inauspicious beginning, I entered the engineering field.

Several years ago, Future City had a video with a young lady saying, “I wanted to become a lawyer, but now I want to be an engineer. They have fun!” When I look back on my 56 years, it was fun. I was able to work in a profession I enjoyed and felt that I was making a meaningful contribution.

Leslie Collins
Executive Director
DiscoverE

From DiscoverE, we say to our partners and volunteers, “thanks for giving.” Each and every year, they give thousands of educators, parents, young students, and influencers a greater understanding of how engineers make a better world.

Our team is optimistic about the future. In fact, we have more than 45,000 reasons to be optimistic. The number represents our online community alone, and there are thousands of additional volunteers inspired to give back to their profession and communities. They mentor Future City students, encourage young girls in STEM as Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day Role Models, and inform community leaders for Engineers Week.

If you are not already part of DiscoverE’s volunteer movement, please join us. It’s easy and you’ll make a meaningful difference for the future. And, just maybe, for yourself.

Michael Clark
Chief Operating Executive
National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies

Another successful year with the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET), the credentialing arm of NSPE, [with] a 12% increase in testing activity, and recertification rates of 76% on average through the year.

We completed the conversion of the last four Civil Engineering Technology certification programs to the new Standard Testing Model utilizing computer-based testing—Highway Construction Inspection subfield and Construction Materials Testing subfields of Asphalt, Concrete, and Soils—to enable NICET to offer better examinations to our customers at more convenient times and locations within the US. We also completed program updates for two of the largest NICET certification programs within the Fire Protection Engineering Technology field—subfields of Fire Alarm Systems and Water-Based System Layout.

All of these accomplishments would not have been possible without the assistance of a talented staff of professionals, dedicated to providing the highest level of quality and service to all of our customers and stakeholders; an engaged Board of Governors guiding NICET operations; and a supportive NSPE management team.

Paul Inferrera, SET
NICET Board of Governors
NICET Ambassador

The American Society of Engineering Education created a Committee of 21 in 1948 to direct the activities of their Technical Institute Division. The committee found that engineering technicians lacked the recognition by engineering societies as bona-fide members of the engineering team.

The first article in NSPE’s magazine The American Engineer was written by Karl O. Werwath, P.E., in September 1955 and was titled “The Role of the Technician in Our Nation’s Future.” In the past year, the NICET and NSPE boards have worked to solidify the engineering team concept, and the vision of the Committee of 21 lives on.

As an engineering technician, and a member of the NICET Board of Governors, I am thankful that the National Society of Professional Engineers continues this conversation.

Peter DeGloma, E.I.
Designer
Security Fire Protection Co., Inc.
Memphis, TN

In the past year, I attained a NICET Level III certification in Water-Based Systems Layout, and I obtained a Responsible Managing Employee license in Tennessee.

Several large-scale construction projects came to a close this past year, and I feel grateful every time the job is closely coordinated and it goes smoothly. But more importantly, I’m grateful when there are unforeseen twists and turns, and as a team, we’re able to compensate for the changing situation and come up with a solution that is aligned with the intent of the standards for life safety systems. I’m grateful every time I catch a mistake, and every time I have an opportunity to learn something.

I’m grateful to work for an Employee Stock Ownership Plan company, to have realized and contributed to profits, and to have become more fully vested in the ownership.

Every time I am asked for direction by a peer, and I am able to provide it, I am grateful to be of service—even if it means answering the question with another question (which it often does).

Any time I have the opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone, to research and gain a better understanding of something, or to attend classes or seminars, I feel like I am growing. For that I am grateful.

Pamela Quillin, P.E.
Owner
Quillin Engineering LLC
Erie, CO

I am grateful for someone in NSPE, who I named as my NSPE angel, for an act of kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity. I was going to renew my membership but someone else had already done it. I couldn’t find a way to renew my membership and searched all around the website looking for information on my account. I made some inquiries about what happened through the NSPE-CO executive director. I was told about my NSPE angel. Whoever that person is has been thanked privately, but I would like to say that that act of kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity redeemed my faith in humanity, which has been lagging for many years. When I am back on my feet financially, I will be glad to do the same for others. It matters!

During the last NSPE-CO awards ceremony, I was honored with Woman Engineer of the Year. I think there were more outstanding and deserving women, whom I wished had gotten it. But that award made my year. I hope to be able to do the same for other very deserving women in the future. It matters!

Another NSPE member sent me a gift during the summer hoping it would bring me better luck. I keep the stuffed rabbit on my nightstand and hope that each of its feet, its front paws, its ears, and its heart, which represents the spirit in which it was sent, bring me better luck. So, thank you again, Dick!

David Martini, P.E., F.NSPE
2019–20 NSPE President-Elect

This year, professionally, I’m most grateful for the opportunity to serve as NSPE’s president-elect. With the commitment of the Board of Directors, all of our volunteer members, and the hard work of NSPE’s wonderful staff, I am confident that NSPE will continue to be a champion for the PE license, stand as the ethical guide to the profession, power professional advancement, and unite the PE community.