October Board of Direction Summary
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Highlights of October’s ASCE Board of Direction Meeting
George Ghareeb, your Region 3 Director, is a member of the Central Illinois Section.
George represented you at the Oct. 10-11 Board meeting in New York City, held in conjunction with the new ASCE 2015 Convention. The Convention featured a new format – an array of tours, courses, sessions, and speakers focused on key themes vital to today’s civil engineer. The excitement of Times Square as well as the chance to see the many marvels of civil-engineering achievement in the New York City area made for a great week and further inspired the Board members’ work in guiding ASCE and the profession.
Among the many issues discussed at the October Board meeting, the Task Committee on Governance Activity recommended several restructuring plans aimed at improving and assisting ASCE’s work at the Region level.
- The Board approved the creation of a new task committee to study the revision of ASCE’s Geographic Region boundaries. This will balance the number of members in each Geographic Region and better align communities with common experiences and common needs. Currently, the number of members assigned to each Geographic Region ranges from 9,688 to 23,917.
- The new task committee was also charged with bringing forward a proposal to reduce the total number of Geographic Regions by one (and thus the number of geographic region directors by one) to allow for an additional technical region director to be added to the Board.
- The Task Committee on Governance Activity shared a guideline document outliningd core activities for the nine domestic Geographic Regions, and the Board charged the Region 10 Governing Board with the task of creating a similar document for the international Region. These activities, which include those already underway in many Regions, provide for Region meetings, awards, developing future leaders, maintaining Region web pages, and nominating members for Society and Institute committees.
- The Committee also recommended that funding be built into the 2017 ASCE budget for an annual agenda of interaction and training options for ASCE Region Directors, who serve as the Region Board of Governors chairs.
- The Board also approved a new Region funding model for future years, including travel reimbursement and an annual allotment.
Read more about the Board meeting, including the Board’s strategic planning actions at www.asce.org