| Volume 03 | Issue 05 | September
- November
2005 |
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Candidates Invited for New NJSPE Officer State Transportation Funding Crisis Coming June 30, 2006 Determined To Open Doors, Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day Takes On New Urgency |
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Fellows Nominations Solicited NJSPE has participated actively in this program since its inception. Again this year, the NJSPE Nominations Committee solicits nominations to honor a select group of individuals and to bring deserved prestige to them as members of the engineering profession. There are certain guidelines- set by the NSPE Board of Directors – that must be followed:
To give sufficient time to the NJSPE Executive Committee, which makes the final decision, and the NJSPE Nominations Committee, which reviews all submissions and makes a recommendation to the Executive Committee, all completed nominations with letters of endorsement – except for the one from the NJSPE President – are required to be received at NJSPE Headquarters no later than Friday, January 6, 2006. Because submissions to NSPE are not carried over, any NJSPE member who has been previously nominated but not awarded Fellow status must re-submit her/his credentials for consideration by the NJSPE Nominations Committee. NJSPE will be allowed to make two submissions for the NSPE 2006 Class of Fellows. The Fellows Nomination Form is available on the NSPE website as follows: www.nspe.org/aboutnspe/ab1-fellow.asp. Dues Payable with Credit Card Most members are on the January-to-December payment cycle and should have recently received from NSPE their renewal invoices. Newer members are on a 12-month cycle based upon the month in which s/he joined the Society. For example, someone who joins in October would be on an October-to-September payment cycle and receive a payment reminder in August. No matter what your cycle, if you pay your membership dues, you may instruct NSPE to charge your credit card. Each month one-twelfth of your Total Dues Amount will be charged. This eliminates the larger, one-time payment that sometimes can be inconvenient for you. Your credit card statement is your payment documentation for tax purposes. When you get your dues payment notification, look for the goldenrod sheet that gives more details about this procedure. If you have misplaced that sheet, call NSPE’s Member Services toll-free number (888-285-6773) to get more information. It’s as simple as listing your credit card (Amex, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa) number and expiration date and then signing your dues renewal form. Try it…you’ll like it!
State Board Hosts Semi-Annual Ceremony The program was conducted by Board President James K. Valenti, PE, Esq. with other Board members assisting in the presentation of certificates. The featured speaker was Robert English, PE, Chair of the Engineering Technology Department at NJIT. This event enables licensees’ families to join in the celebration of each’s achievement. Board members encourage photos and go out of their way to engage family and friends in the proceedings. Before the formal program begins, the Board hosts a reception for all attendees at which the Board members and representatives of the professional associations that serve the engineering and land surveyor professions may mingle with the guests. Candidates Invited for New NJSPE Officer Each NSPE state society is entitled to one representative. The term of office is two years with an incumbent Delegate eligible to serve one additional, consecutive term. The New Jersey Delegate is expected to have an understanding of issues of concern to NJSPE members, to be available to discharge the duties as defined by NSPE for the House of Delegates, and to have an interest in serving the needs of Professional Engineers. This person will also serve on the NJSPE Executive Committee and Board of Trustees. Any NJSPE member who holds the Licensed Member category in NSPE is eligible to be considered. The NJSPE Nominations Committee will be considering interested candidates in mid-January. The requisite changes to the NJSPE Bylaws related to this new position and the selection process will be reviewed by the Board of Trustees at its December 14 meeting. The following is an excerpt from the draft Bylaws to provide guidance to interested members. “In compliance with NSPE Bylaw 13 – House of Delegates, the NSPE Delegate shall be the representative to the NSPE House of Delegates, who shall be eligible to be re-elected for one additional, consecutive term. This individual should be familiar with member needs and be interested in helping shape the direction of NSPE and foster an effective partnership between State Societies and National. “Any Licensed Member, who wishes to be considered to serve as the NSPE Delegate, shall notify in writing the Chair of the Nominations Committee no later than January 15 of the year in which such election is to be held. This notification shall include an explanation as to why the individual is qualified for the position. The Nominations Committee shall review each such application to determine whether the individual is deemed to have adequate background to comply with the provisions of Bylaw X, Section 1. The Nominations Committee shall submit for appearance on the ballot as a candidate for NSPE Delegate the name of each such individual deemed qualified.” Members who wish to be considered for this position for the 2006 meeting of the House of Delegates must have her/his notification received no later than Friday, January 6, 2006, at NJSPE headquarters.
Determined To Open Doors, Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day Takes
On New Urgency “Girl Day,” as it’s known among engineers, is one of the most crucial components of the EWeek outreach. Women engineers, with help from their male counterparts, are planning to reach as many as one million girls through workshops, tours, speaking engagements, on-line discussions and a host of other activities aimed at showing that engineering is an important career option for everyone. Engineers have long promoted diversity outreach, but Girl Day 2006 takes on added urgency on the heels of startling findings from a survey of attitudes among high school girls, teachers and counselors, engineering students, and engineers. According to the Extraordinary Women Engineers Project (EWEP) study, led by a coalition of engineering associations and the WGBH Educational Foundation and released in April 2005, a staggering number of high school girls – more than 90 percent – do not even consider engineering as a career option. Further, only three out of 85 girls in an EWEP online focus group of academically prepared students indicated that they were planning to become an engineer. More troubling is the fact that there is no lack of ability or preparation on the part of girls and young women. Previous studies have found that girls, on average, are just as or more likely as boys to have taken the high school science and math courses (biology, chemistry, physics, and advanced algebra) necessary to enter engineering school. Currently, about ten percent of America’s engineers are women, despite the fact that women make up 46 percent of the nation’s workforce. To counter that, Engineers Week – a 55-year-old consortium of professional and technical societies and major corporations – launched Girl Day in 2001. By all counts, it has become one of the most significant and well-received programs in EWeek’s history. In particular, Girl Day is hailed for its direct introduction of engineering to girls, often by women engineers. The EWEP study found that one of the most effective ways to draw young women into the profession is for them to know and be exposed to role models. That emphasis is a departure from typical appeals to girls that stress math and science acumen, messages shown to have little resonance with the target audience and that may, in fact, be counterproductive. The EWEP study revealed that high school girls, instead, react positively to personal, informational stories about how engineering makes a “difference in people’s lives” and offers a monetarily and personally rewarding career. Outreach by engineers themselves is essential, since few of those who influence young people – parents, teachers, guidance counselors, media personalities and peers – are likely to understand or even have knowledge of engineering. These factors, along with long-standing stereotypes of engineering being for men only, have spurred the increased attention on Girl Day this year. Diversification has ramifications far beyond engineering. It is estimated that engineering, science and technology have accounted for more than half of America’s sustained growth in the last 50 years, yet these sectors represent only five percent of the work force. Though billed as a one-day event, Girl Day actually kicks off of a year of activities, including:
Last year, Girl Day took its first steps into the international arena, with outreach to girls in Canada, Columbia, Egypt, India, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Educational material from the "ZOOM into Engineering" program, developed in collaboration with the PBS television show, "ZOOM," have been translated into Spanish, with French, German, Mandarin, and Portuguese to be added in late 2005. The translations, provided by the IEEE Women in Engineering international project, can be found by clicking here. Organizations and engineers are urged to list their Girl Day activities on the online Pledge Roster. Patricia Welesko Garland, Chair of Engineers Week 2006 activities and a chemical engineer who currently serves as Combined Heat and Power Program Manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory based in Tennessee, notes that the challenges to diversification are great, but the potential reward greater. “If we turn this around not only will engineering benefit, but so will all of society around the globe.” Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is led by Engineers Week 2006 co-chairs, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Northrop Grumman Corporation, with major sponsors Agilent Technologies, Inc., Lockheed Martin, and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.
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 President’s
MessageBy Timothy F. McGough, PE In a speech in 1966 in Cape Town, South Africa, Robert F. Kennedy said, “There is a Chinese curse which says, 'May he live in interesting times.' Like it or not, we live in interesting times…” Had Bobby Kennedy lived to see today, he surely would found these to be very interesting times. The war against terrorism; the unrest in France; three brutal hurricanes ravaging the United States, one essentially destroying the Nation’s 35th largest city in a matter of days; a massive earthquake in Pakistan and India; and most recently a tornado that came in the still of the night to wreak havoc on a sleeping hamlet. These are interesting times, times that beckon the talents, skills and energies of professional engineers. Professional Engineers all over the globe are responding to these crises, many of whom are members of NSPE. Our members have also responded with financial assistance. As of October 30, 2005, NSPE’s Hurricane Relief fund had reached almost $70,000 and climbing. These certainly are interesting times, but they are both a curse and a blessing. War, violence, and natural disasters are events no rational human being wishes to experience; however, in the midst of these unseemly events we are surrounded by acts of goodwill and reasons to celebrate. The global response to tragedy is always a source of comfort for me personally. We may individually take umbrage at a particular Country’s lack of response from time to time, but in the aggregate, just like our pledge to protect the public welfare, our communities all over the world respond in kindness and generosity. Locally we recently celebrated the accomplishments of many individuals, agencies, and companies at our Awards and Installation Banquet. It was a splendid evening of feast and finery; a night of celebration for the interesting times in which professional engineers live and work. I recently returned from the NSPE Northeast Region meeting held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a tremendous event, attended by over a hundred people. The hospitality of NHSPE was heartwarming, and the gathering allowed for learned discussions on a great many issues. NSPE is evolving. We will seat a new House of Delegates at the Annual Meeting in July, 2006 in Boston, a city which gave birth to a new nation – now those were interesting times. How exciting it will be to witness a rebirth of our Society at that meeting. Each state society will send one delegate to the House, and the House of Delegates will have overarching governance responsibilities for NSPE. Also interesting is our continued work on legislative and regulatory issues. Representatives of NJSPE recently met with the NJ Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors to express our concerns regarding the proposed new regulations. NJSPE will continue to work with the Board to more specifically define the purview of the professional engineer as it relates to topographic measurements. The year ahead portends to be an interesting year. NSPE and NJSPE will forge ahead and meet any challenges we may face. I invite you to be enjoined in these interesting times, to get involved on any level. Our Society exists in large part to protect the interests of the Professional Engineer, but our humanistic side is here to serve our fellow citizens with our unique talents. I invite all of you to engage yourselves in these interesting times.
NJSPE Honors Award Recipients In addition to the presentation of awards to the winners selected earlier in the year by the Awards Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees, the current year officers were installed by Bernie Berson, PE, LS, PP, F.NSPE who has been nominated to become the NSPE President-Elect for the 2006-07 year. The following photos show some of the highlights of this annual gala event. Click on photo for larger view.
IPL Program 4 Completed…Program 5 Scheduled Based upon the continued positive feedback from participants and our organization’s desire to make available this excellent leadership training for others, the start of a fifth program has been scheduled for January 26, 2006. Readers who either would like to participate in the program or who have an emerging leader in their employ to be sponsored should contact the NJSPE office to obtain an Application. The Institute employs a professional faculty to facilitate each of the eight sessions plus individual counseling sessions. The Jennings Group has over 30 years of collective experience in leader and management training. In fact, another national engineering association hired them to lead a similar curriculum, which is now in its second program. The key learning tenets of the IPL program are to help the individual understand oneself, to know how to understand what drives others, to create and follow a vision for success, and to be able to communicate that vision to motivate others. Individual sessions include dealing with difficult people; understanding delegation, coaching and empowerment; creating a leadership culture in an organization; and overcoming resistance to change. In the recently completed program, participants reported an improvement averaging 55 % in 18 separate categories pertaining to being a successful leader. Some representative comments from the participants include:
Each participant said s/he would recommend the program to colleagues. State Transportation Funding Crisis Coming June 30, 2006 Every transportation project in the State will literally grind to a screeching halt. Earlier this year Transportation New Jersey (of which NJSPE is a member) – a broad-based, non-partisan coalition – released a list of nearly 100 needed State transportation projects totaling over $3 billion throughout every county of our State that would be jeopardized if the Transportation Trust Fund is not renewed by June 30, 2006. This crisis affects everyone throughout New Jersey if it is not solved. As professional engineers, it is our responsiblity to spread the word about this crisis, and to contact our legislators and our new Governor to ask that they concentrate on solving this crisis during the lame duck session from November till Inauguration day. This is a public welfare and safety crisis for New Jersey. Most of the priority projects in NJDOT and NJ Transit’s Capital Program are intended to replace crumbling infrastructure, or address a serious safety problem. It also impacts one of New Jersey’s most treasured assets, our strong economy. New Jersey routinely ranks in the top five in the nation for per capita income. While most of the nation struggled through a recent recession, New Jersey’s economy continued to grow. It is our comprehensive, multi-modal vital transportation network that facilitates sustained economic growth. If New Jersey loses its edge in transportation, the economy will soon follow, and business will choose to locate elsewhere. Providing a dedicated, sustained funding source for the Transportation Trust Fund should not be considered an expense that all New Jersey’s citizens must bear, rather it is an investment in our future. Talk to government leaders you know in these terms and help push them towards a solution. Some disturbing facts for you to use in your discussions: If the Transportation Trust Fund is not replenished after June 30, 2006 and beyond:
The solution to this transportation-funding crisis rests in the hands of the New Jersey State Legislature and Governor. NJSPE is currently working with Transportation New Jersey to let our Legislature and Governor know that we are concerned with this growing State crisis. Together with Transportation New Jersey, we are mounting a grassroots public information program to alert the public, elected officials and the media about the transportation funding crisis. We need your help to make this campaign a success and encourage you to join the Transportation New Jersey coalition. For more information on the Transportation Trust Fund crisis and to sign up to join the coalition, please visit: www.transportationnewjersey.org.Engineering Ethics:
A Search For Solutions - Part II Recent Opinions of the NSPE Board of Ethical Review Changes in the Code of Ethics "Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities." After careful review and deliberation and in response to the growing need for adequate procedures to safeguard engineers against untoward professional liability exposure, the NSPE Board of Directors agreed to modify Code section III.9. to state: Engineers shall accept personal responsibility for their professional activities; provided, however, that Engineers may seek indemnification from professional services arising out of their practice for other than gross negligence, where the Engineer's interests cannot otherwise be protected." This change reflects the fact that the Code is not a static document but a living document reflecting alterations in circumstances and practice. A Code must adapt with the times; otherwise it risks losing its legitimacy and acceptance. Another recent example of a case where the NSPE Code was modified to reflect changing practice relates to the issue of conflicts of interest and Section II.4.d. That section admonishes engineers in public services not to participate in decisions with respect to professional services solicited or provided by them or their organizations in public or private engineering practice. Because of instances in which the Code was held not to apply to certain conflicts of interests involving engineers serving on "quasi-governmental" bodies, Section II.4.d. was broadened in the late 1980s to add "quasi-governmental" bodies as areas of public service where engineers should avoid conflicts of interest. On the other side of the coin, there have been issues that have been addressed by the NSPE Code where NSPE was required as a matter of law to modify the Code to comply with the law. During the 1970s, the codes of ethics of several professions were challenged by the federal government as constituting an "agreement in restraint of trade" and therefore violative of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Following litigation national architectural and engineering groups including NSPE, the NSPE Code as well as the codes of other groups were modified to remove provisions (1) prohibiting competitive bidding for engineering services and (2) supplanting of one engineer by another. In addition, NSPE agreed with federal antitrust officials to eliminate provisions from the NSPE Code that made it unethical to engage in certain types of promotional advertising. Conclusion As
the profession of engineering grows in stature within our
society, the engineering and engineers will be increasingly
examined and scrutinized by the public, the media, the government
and the profession itself on moral and ethical questions. Having
a thoughtfully developed code of ethics along with members
that adhere to that code will be vitally useful in that process. |
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PErspectives Newsletter
Layout/Graphics The opinions
expressed in bylined articles are those of the authors and do not
represent the opinions of NJSPE. The authors are solely responsible
for the information contained in those articles. |
