July 2010

We have now reached our first anniversary under the new governance structure that has the Region Board electing all of the members of the Region Executive Committee. During this past year, all of the Region Committee positions were filled with the exception of the Region Technical Chair and that problem has now been corrected. During this first year we were also able to hold a Chapter Leader Training Program in conjunction with a Region Board Meeting in response to the Region Directors setting a high priority for this Training.

This year, we intend to expand the Region’s activities in the area of “Communications”. This will include increased 2-way communications between Region Committee Chairs and Chapter Committee Chairs as well as 2-way communications between Region Committee Chairs and Institute Committee Chairs. Many changes are occurring in Institute programs and we have a collective responsibility to assure these changes reach not only our membership but also the larger design/constructioncommunity. In addition, Institute Committees need feed-back to help them better understand the impact of changes or proposed changes in Institute programs.

The Region will be continuing and hopefully expanding its Chapter Leader Training Program started last year as well as implementing a “Leadership Training Program” approved by the Region Board at their FY2010 Spring Meeting. These two programs are intended to help Chapter Leaders and potential Chapter Leaders better understand the expectations of those that are serving in some leadership capacity.

Within the Region, we have many members with experience in a variety of Chapter, Region or Institute positions and we hope to be able to draw on this “Bank of Experience” to provide assistance to any Chapter that has questions or needs a “sounding board” for ideas. At the present time, all of the Region’s Chapters are active but if any of the Chapter Leaders have a time that they feel overwhelmed by their Chapter activities, they should know they can contact the Region Leadership for assistance.

We all need to work on bring more “younger members” into CSI and getting them involved in Chapter and Region activities. National statistics show that we are an organization with a relatively high “average age” and this average has been going up. We need to collectively work on this issue, not only for the coming year but for the long term. If any Chapter in the Region has success in this area, I would ask that they share it with all of the Region’s Chapters as we not only need to begin bringing down our average age, we also need to show membership growth. Only a few Chapters in the Region ended FY2010 with more members than they had at the beginning of the fiscal year. We have a large pool of potential members and we have a good mission to promote so let’s all make FY2011 a “success story”.

Richard A. Eustis, PE, FCSI, CCCA, CSC - NE Region President