Summer 2022

NSPE Today: Outlook
Moving the Society Closer to Our Vision

By Britt Smith, P.E., F.NSPE, President 2022–23

What does NSPE mean to you? I’d like to try to tell you what it means to me. I began my career with a small civil engineering firm with a focus on municipal engineering. After a few years, I moved to the public works department in Jefferson City, Missouri. This is the same city where my wife and I have raised our three children. As a result, I’ve had the privilege of working for the community that I have called home most of my career.

Like many of you, I was approached by another engineer early in my career and asked to join NSPE. I have moved through various leadership and volunteer roles at the chapter, state, and national levels. I could not be more humbled to be the president of NSPE. I never dreamed that I would be in this position. As I got involved with NSPE, I met and built friendships with many wonderful engineers within my community, around the state, and across this great country. Each time I get involved and want to give back, I seem to receive so much more than I give. Our founder David Steinman probably had similar thoughts. Steinman understood that the technical problems of the various engineering disciplines are different, but the interests of the profession are shared. He founded NSPE to unite the profession around those common interests. NSPE was created, and continues today, to be the single national professional society, with solidarity of purpose and concentration of strength, to provide for the professional interests of the engineering profession.

NSPE has adopted as our vision: A world where the public can be confident that the engineering decisions affecting their lives are made by qualified and ethically accountable professionals. Our vision statement is a simple statement, but a very powerful message. I heard once that the average engineer holds the lives of more people in their hands than any doctor could see in a lifetime. As I considered that statement, I couldn’t help but think about the awesome responsibility we carry. NSPE was created and continues today to help all members of our profession fulfill that responsibility.

I’ve been asked, “What will be your focus as president?” I’ve tried to explain that, as president, I must continue the work of those before me. We must continue advancing toward the goals of the strategic plan. We will continue in our four key focus areas:

• Driving Growth
• Shaping Public Policy
• Educating for the Future
• Promoting Diversity and Tomorrow’s Engineer

I want to continue our conversation about each of these, but for now I’d like to focus on the last one.

Why do we need to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion? Why is it important to the profession and to NSPE? I could just say, “It is the right thing to do!” But the reality is that it is not only the right thing to do, it is the only way we are going to grow and continue to be relevant in the profession.

Over the past year, we’ve conducted a research project we’ve termed the Value proposition. Through that research, we gained feedback from members and, maybe more importantly, nonmembers, about NSPE and our relevance. On the positive side, we found very high overall satisfaction from our members, and we’ve been rewarded with an exceptional member retention rate.

As we dig into the Value Proposition data, we see that we are not as strong with younger members, women, and underrepresented communities. People in those membership segments find us lacking in some areas. One of which is promoting diversity for our membership and profession.

When I first saw the results, I wanted to challenge it. I believed they were wrong. I’ve never seen anyone not welcomed. Then I remembered a time my wife and I attended a wedding for a young lady we knew. A young black lady, to be more specific. We found ourselves to be the only white people at the venue. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I felt uncomfortable. It was not because of anything that anyone did or said. My uneasiness stemmed from worry that I would not be welcomed or that I didn’t fit in or belong. No one there did anything to make me feel that way but also, no one did anything to make me feel welcome either.

A good friend explained it this way: If you are not intentionally trying to include someone you may be unintentionally excluding them. I don’t believe that any of us would ever want to exclude any member of our profession from NSPE. However, if we are not creating a welcoming environment that may be exactly what we are doing.

New members with various perspectives and backgrounds bring new ideas, new solutions, and new energy to NSPE. These ideas, solutions, and energy will make NSPE a stronger organization and will help move us closer to our vision.

As we continue our journey with diversity, equity, and inclusion, I hope we can begin to think about what we can do to make new members feel welcome. If we do, we will be joined by many who will proudly post #IamNSPE and #ProudPE!