ASPE Board of Directors April 2006 Meeting Highlights

ASPE 2006–2007 Fiscal Year Budget

The board approved the Society’s 2006–2007 fiscal year budget. The budget, with expected revenues of $3.6 million, is projected to provide a $576,000 surplus to the Society. This surplus will go directly toward reducing the overall monetary deficit of the Society. One important highlight of the budget is that there are no membership dues increases for the 2006–2007 membership dues year. Also, given that this is a convention year, PS&D magazine, powered by the special Convention/EPE issue, is projected to achieve a surplus for the year.

Chapter Dues Rebates

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the chapters began receiving current dues rebates as of July 1. Rebate checks will account for all dues paid, in advance, by any member with a July anniversary date. (This only accounts for those early payments received by the Society; billing for July goes out in April.) Each future month will include all rebates for all dues paid up until the last day of the previous month for all dues payments as based on anniversary date.

The big change is that chapters now will receive rebates monthly. Once the rebate process is working as expected, the chapters will be given an opportunity to have money wired directly into their bank accounts. However, chapters choosing this option (when it is made available) will be responsible for any fees.

Dues Membership Pins

The board has approved the reinstatement of the ASPE membership pin for all dues that are paid by the anniversary date for the 2006–2007 dues year. ASPE dues invoices are sent out 90, 60, and 30 days prior to the anniversary due dates. Although ASPE has more than 6,500 members, only about 3,500 to 4,000 members pay their dues by their anniversary date; the remaining wait from 30 to 90 days after the due date to pay. Only those paying by their anniversary date or earlier will be eligible to receive the membership pin. The membership pin will have the membership dues years indicated.

Special Chapter Membership Pin

The Society has found a new source for its membership pins. In discussions with this new source, the potential for a special chapter-specific membership pin was examined. The pins will require a one-time die fee with the final cost dependant on the number of pins ordered. ASPE will coordinate the ordering to provide the best available price to every chapter. The Society will not mark up the cost of the pin manufacturing and delivery to the chapters (pins will be produced in China).

Each chapter can decide independently if it would like its own chapter pin. The color of the chapter pin will be up to the individual chapters and/or perhaps a regional color might be chosen.

ASPE Bylaws

The board reviewed the proposed bylaw amendments it will be submitting to the delegates at the ASPE business meeting at the 2006 Convention. The bylaw amendments will be posted on ASPE’s Web site (www.aspe.org) for all members to review. As required, all bylaw amendments also were published to the general membership in the July/August issue of PS&D.

Resource Enhancement Committee

The board has approved an updated committee charge for the Resource Enhancement Committee. It is expected that this committee, which has been moribund for the past couple of years, will be reenergized by its new committee charge. It is expected that this committee will meet at the 2006 Convention.

CPD Examination

The CPD Examination is being converted to an online, proctored examination. The first online examination should be available the third week of April 2007 at approximately 120 sites around the United States.

In the meanwhile, the board approved holding the CPD Examination at the 2006 Convention. The exam will be Wednesday afternoon, October 25, at the Tampa Convention Center. This will be the last year that a special discount for the examination will be available to those attending the Convention.

ASPE Convention and EPE

All education programs for the Convention have been set. The full program and day-by-day schedule were sent with the July/August issue of PS&D. A downloadable PDF file of everything that is happening at the Convention and EPE is now available at www.aspe.org—pass it on! Convention and hotel registration also are now available at the ASPE Web site.

FORE! There will be an ASPE Golf Tournament at the 2006 Convention on Saturday morning, October 21. The tournament will be held on a TPC (Tournament Players Club) course. There is a limited number of player slots available. The price is $125, which includes all transportation to/from the course, golf cart, breakfast, lunch, and drinks on the course. ASPE is looking for sponsors to help make the tournament an overwhelming success. A special sponsor brochure will be sent to all affiliate members.

Both the patron and sponsor fundraising opportunities for manufacturers and exhibitors have started off strong, with contributions ahead of expectations at this time. All contributions go to reducing the overall costs of Convention events and provide the money for all gifts and giveaways at the Convention and Exposition.

ASPE Awards

It’s that time of the year: the time when the board begins the process of selecting the finalists for all ASPE Awards that will be bestowed at the 2006 Convention. Any member who has a nomination for one of the ASPE Awards should contact his/her region chair or region director to pass along the nomination and the reason the person deserves the award. If you need to review the available awards, check with one of your chapter officers. All awards are detailed in Chapter 1 of the ASPE Policy & Operations Manual.

ASPE’s Industry Award

This was one of only a few years in which the board opened the award process for nominations from all ASPE membership. The results were very gratifying: More than one dozen nominations made for this award, and the accompanying supporting material proved decisive.

For the first time, the board will be issuing two ASPE Industry Awards. This award is presented biennially, when merited, to a company for outstanding service to the advancement of plumbing engineering technology. Who are the winners? You will need to come to the ASPE Banquet on Tuesday, October 23, to find out!

Plumbing Engineers’ Opinions

The board approved the release of the data recently collected in the AAV survey to the chapters, and the results were published in the July/August issue of PS&D. The board also approved a second plumbing engineer/designer opinion survey on waterless urinals. Any member interested in providing his/her opinion on this next topic will need to talk to his/her chapter president to get a survey document.

Plumbing Engineer Design Handbook, Volume 2

The contents for Volume 2 of the PEDH have been completed, and the material is undergoing final editing, author reviews, and publication preparation. The work is proceeding, albeit a bit slower than originally anticipated by everyone involved. The expectation is to have the final publication ready for distribution by mid- to late summer, with the latest possible date being the 2006 Convention. Current planning continues to favor issuing Volume 2 in CD format, with a special, digitally imprinted hardcover version available only to the membership at the same special discounted cost as Volume 1.

Have an opinion regarding the publication? Be sure to talk to your region chair or one of the ASPE board members. E-mail addresses and telephone numbers are available on www.aspe.org.

Chapter Technical Presentations

The region chairs have been directed by the board to re-stress the need for all technical presentation at chapter meetings or special seminars to be nonproprietary. It has come to the board’s attention that some chapters have an unspoken but obvious requirement for a manufacturer permitted to make a presentation to also pay for all attendees’ lunches for which the presentation may be fully proprietary and limited to the manufacturer’s product line. In accordance with the ASPE Policy & Operations Manual, all technical presentations are required to be nonproprietary at both chapter and Society programs.

2007 Technical Symposium

The board has approved Atlanta as the site of the 2007 Technical Symposium. The board directed the executive director to finalize arrangements and negotiate hotel room rates. Based on available dates, three hotels are under consideration: two near the airport and one in the Buckhead area. Final arrangements will be undertaken in cooperation with the local chapter so it may benefit from the Symposium location in conduct of its local product show. The 2007 Technical Symposium dates are expected to be November 2–4, with the chapter product show on Thursday, November 1.

New Standard for Water Efficiency

ASPE President Joe Scott met in Washington, DC, in May with representatives of ASHRAE and the Green Building Council to discuss the creation of a joint committee to create a new standard for water efficiency.

Update to ASPE Logo Use Policy

Currently the ASPE use policy for the Society logo is limited to individual members and chapters. In both instances, the logo must be accompanied either with the statement “member of” or the chapter’s name. There have been numerous requests by both manufacturers and consulting companies that have members in ASPE to be allowed to use the general ASPE logo in advertising or promotional literature to show its support and/or membership. However, without a company or corporate membership, this general use is not permitted.

The board has directed the ASPE staff to prepare a special logo use policy that would permit companies or corporations the right to use the ASPE logo to indicate that individuals connected with the organization are members of the Society and/or that the organization is a major supporter of the Society. The board is reviewing a proposed policy at its July meeting. Anyone wishing to provide comments or input should contact the ASPE executive director at aspeexec@aspe.org.

ASPE Logo

The time for submitting entries for the ASPE Logo Contest is over. All entries have been posted on the ASPE Web site at www.aspe.org/logovote. There were 14 logo submittals with a number of individuals submitting multiple options. It’s now up to the membership to vote for their favorite logo (the original and current logos are also included). Please encourage all ASPE members to take a moment to express their preference.

Membership Shortfall

The 2005–2006 Society budget was predicated on having approximately 7,000–7,200 members overall. This is not proving to be the case. Rather, the Society seems to be “stuck” at about 6,500 members. While 6,500 is still a respectable number, the shortfall that has occurred is affecting the 2005–2006 fiscal year budget and may well result in an almost $100,000 revenue shortfall; a result that even additional belt-tightening by the Society cannot overcome.

There’s barely two months left for this membership dues year. The board is asking all region chairs to work with the chapters and, at a minimum, maintain all current membership. The retention of member is an important element to maintaining and building Society membership. Each month a number of previous members do not renew their memberships. We need the chapters to undertake a special effort for the next few months to contact every dropped member and get them to reinstate their memberships. The goal is for each region to have 100 previously dropped members reinstate their membership (approximately eight per chapter). Your help is greatly needed.

 Chapter Annual Reports

The required chapter annual reports for last year were extremely slow in being turned in and many were incomplete. Sadly, there remain a number of chapters that still have not sent in properly completed and necessary material. Since this calendar year is a Convention year, incomplete or missing annual reports have significant repercussions on the chapter.

First and foremost, with a recently approved change to the Chapter Award of Merit requirements, a timely chapter annual report is a necessity to receiving this award. Just as important, the chapter’s annual report must be received, approved, and accepted by the ASPE board for the chapter’s delegates to be seated at the ASPE business meeting. Late or missing reports also affect the payment of the delegate travel allowance to the business meeting.

Just to be clear, the delegate travel allowance has five major requirements that must be met.

First, the chapter must have turned in a chapter annual report. Second, the chapter annual report must be accepted and approved by the board (which automatically triggers re-chartering for that chapter). Third, the chapter must turn in a completed delegate attendance form to the Society office. This form is typically sent out in July and no later than August and requires the chapter list the names and membership numbers of the delegates. Each delegate name is checked to ensure its authenticity. Fourth, the Society must have published the chapter delegate allowance. For this year, the chapter delegate allowance will be determined by mid-July and sent to all chapter presidents. The delegate travel allowance is the best available roundtrip airfare that requires a Saturday night stay and is made at the earliest possible time from the stated chapter’s meeting place location. For this year, the staff will use the Internet and a minimum of two general travel sites to establish the base delegate travel allowance for each chapter. Fifth, the chapter annual reports are cumulative. That is, each chapter must have both 2005 and a 2006 board-accepted and -approved chapter annual reports.