ASPE Region 4 Spring Newsletter

Matt Bell, CPD

ASPE Region 4 Director

61^st ASPE Chapter

As most of you are aware by now, ASPE has a new addition to Region 4. ASPE’s 61^st Chapter and the 12^th Chapter in Region 4 is the Seattle Chapter. I had the privilege of attending the Seattle Chapters Chartering Meeting on March 16^th of this year. This was the first chartering event I have attended. The meeting was well attended with a good mix of engineers, manufactures reps, and some contractors. Besides myself: the President, Julius Ballanco, the Vice President Membership, Jeff Ingertson, and the Executive Director, Stan Wolfson and his wife Nan, were in attendance. The members of the Seattle chapter that were in attendance had the opportunity to sign the chapter charter, thus becoming charter members of the Seattle Chapter of ASPE.

The Board of directors for the Seattle Chapter are; Patrick Cooper-President, Jason Hewitt-Vice-President Technical, Duane Lease-Vice-President Legislative, Kevin Jones-Vice-President Membership, Frank van der Harst-Treasurer, Bill Bennecker-Administrative Secretary, Greg Skaggs-Corresponding Secretary, and the Newsletter Editor is currently an open position. Feel free to extend your well wishes and thank the Seattle Board of Directors for stepping up and leading the Seattle Chapter.

I want to again thank all those involved in helping organize the Seattle Chapter, especially Chris Scott, the President of the Portland Chapter. Chris set up some initial meetings in Seattle on his own dime, and also ended up losing several of his chapter members that resided in the Seattle area. Chris did this in the interest of ASPE as a whole. At last years Region 4 Presidents Meeting I presented Chris with an ASPE Directors Award for this among other fine work he has done for the betterment of the Society.

I also again want to thank Mike Adkins, The ASPE Region 4 Affiliate Liaison, for his help in organizing support for the Seattle Chapter. Mike had a great list of contacts in the area that proved to be very fruitful. Mike also organized support from the manufacture reps in the area. As we all know the reps are the life blood of many of the chapters operations and financial support.

Congratulations to the Seattle Chapter and may your future be enlightening and rewarding! Thanks to all for a job well done!

I hope to have the opportunity to attend more new chapter chatering meetings in the near future, do you have an idea of an area the needs an ASPE Chapter or Satellite Chapter? If so, please let myself and/or the ASPE VP Membership, Jeff Ingertson, know. If you have not yet reviewed the “How to Start a Chapter Manual”, please check it out on the ASPE Website.

ASPE 2010 Convention and Engineered Plumbing Exposition

The 2010 ASPE Convention and EPE will be held in Philadelphia, PA from October 28 - November 3, 2010. The early registration price has been set at $695. Here is the link to the for information, http://aspe.org/EPEConvention. Registration opened in May. So if you have not registered yet, please register ASAP.

The hotel rates are set and very affordable, especially considering the area. Make sure you and your delegates have your reservations made!

We are hoping to set some attendance records at this convention. While I know times are tough for many, this convention is paramount for ASPE’s future. Please make sure your chapter sends each and every delegate that is allotted to Philadelphia for this Convention and EPE. There will be many Proposed Bylaw amendments and changes in the ASPE Board of Directors, so show up in full force and let your chapters will be heard!

I want to encourage the chapters that can afford to pay for extra registrations, in addition to their delegate budget, to have some promotions and award these registrations to interested members. Some ideas could be to enter a raffle ticket for each meeting a member attends and then have a drawing for the winners. You could also offer to subsidize the hotel stay and round trip to the convention. You may want to have people who are committed to going and are willing to pay a portion of this cost, say half, and the chapter covers the rest. There are many ways to influence a large attendance, I would like to hear some of your ideas…

 

Scott Steindler from the Charlotte Chapter and Bill O’Donnell from the Philadelphia Chapter of ASPE have agreed to accept the position of Co-Chairs for the 2010 ASPE Convention in Philadelphia. They will be working with Frank Heine who has been a chair to the Convention for many years. They will also have the support of the 2010 Convention Committee, ASPE Staff, and volunteers. These positions entail a lot of work and I want to thank Scott and Bill for stepping up and accepting these very demanding positions.

See you in Philadelphia!

ASPE Delegates and Alternates

Your delegate forms should be filled out with all possible alternates included. Please make sure you have included all your allotted delegates and any possible Alternates, its better to have a few extra name than not enough!

Convention and EPE Sponsorship Opportunities for Chapters, Manufactures, and Your Company

Please contact me for more details if your chapter or someone you know is interested in being a sponsor at the 2010 ASPE Convention and EPE.

Budget

As many of you already know and have inquired recently, the dues rebate payments are behind by a few months or more. This is due to a shortfall in cash flow, basically there has been more cash going out than coming in. This is due to a number of factors including a very poorly attended 2009 Technical Symposium, having a new mortgage payment along with paying the ongoing lease payments for the old building, the poor economy, and members not renewing their membership. I again want to encourage everyone to attend the upcoming convention in Philadelphia. I also want to encourage everyone to consider the sponsorship opportunities and ask your favorite manufacturers and your chapters to participate in the sponsorship program. Please contact me with any questions.

Technical Program Evaluation Forms and Speakers Bureau (Speakers List)

Each and every chapter should fill out and submit a Technical Program Evaluation form after every monthly meeting. These should be filled out by the chapter VP Technical and be reviewed by the president of the chapter before it is sent out. These evaluation forms should be sent to Pam Newman (Her e-mail address is on the form) at the society office, and copy me, your Region Director. Pam will send copies to the Society Vice President Technical and the Society Vice President Education.

The ASPE Speakers Bureau is a list of speakers that have technical programs that are above the standard. This is a working list as you can get speaker information and ideas from the list as well as submit speakers that you feel have provided an exception technical experience for your meeting attendees. Please go to www.aspe.org and make good use out of this list.

New Member Benefit Announced

ASPE is extending use of meeting space at the new ASPE Headquarters to its members. If you need a place to meet with clients, design team members, or if you just need a space that is larger than what is available in your office, call 847-296-0002 to make a reservation today.

If you need food or beverages for your get together, this can be arranged by ASPE for a nominal fee.

Region 4 Directors Assignments

Each member of the ASPE Board of Directors has assignments that are in addition to their outlined duties per the Policy and Operations Manual. As the Region 4 Director my current additional assignments are as follows.

2010 Convention Committee Member, among other duties, this includes the creation of technical programs for the convention. This starts at a concept stage, as example what technical tracks and what topics in general that the ASPE membership will benefit from. The end results are cutting edge technical programs that every plumbing engineer should take. Make sure your there, registration information will be available in May.

Association Relations, this entails maintaining, and assigning ASPE members as, liaisons to the various associations related to our industry. Are you a member of another organization as well as ASPE? Let me know.

Region 4 Travel

The last quarterly ASPE Society Meeting was held on April 16^th and 17^th in Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia the Board of Director along with the Executive Director and some staff took a tour of the Convention Center and Meeting rooms. This is a very nice facility and is attached to the host hotel, The Marriot Downtown Philadelphia. Most of the quarterly trips to Society Meetings are in Chicago.

In addition to visiting my home chapter now and then I visit other chapters in Region 4. As I mentioned at the beginning of this report I attended the Seattle Chapter Charter Signing in March as well as the Seattle Chapter Organization Meeting. Last June I attended the Los Angeles Chapter Meeting and inducted the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Chapters current year. I attended the Orange County Chapters Meeting on April 28^th. After the writing of this report and before you read this I will be attending the Los Angeles Chapters Meeting and Orange County Chapters meeting again. I am looking to get to more of the chapters after the region meeting. Is there a product show or event you would like me to attend? Please let me know and I will see what I can do.

In Closing

Please feel free to contact me by phone at 619-813-4800 or by e-mail at mattbinsd@aol.com with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.

Best Regards,

Matt Bell, CPD

ASPE Region 4 Director