Engineering Influence from ACEC
Episodes
Tuesday Jul 30, 2019
ACEC's Statement on the America's Transportation Infrastructure Act
Tuesday Jul 30, 2019
Tuesday Jul 30, 2019
America’s engineering industry applauds Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Carper and the committee for approving the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act. This bill provides funding to grow essential programs and long-term certainty; the two most important ingredients for addressing the nation’s transportation needs.
We are also encouraged that the bill codifies elements of the ‘One Federal Decision’ policy to speed project delivery and includes new competitive grant programs for resiliency.
America’s engineers are tested daily to design infrastructure that can withstand a changing climate, unpredictable weather and increasingly devastating natural disasters. This bill provides the resources necessary to help state agencies improve resiliency and durability in their long-term planning.
By approving the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act, the committee took the critical first step towards FAST Act reauthorization. We urge Congress to use this bill as a means to address the looming issue of Highway Trust Fund solvency and the need to increase the gas tax.
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Government Affairs Update: Senate Surface Transportation Bill & Water
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
ACEC's Government Affairs Update for the week of July 22, 2019.
In this week's episode, Matt Reiffer and Steve Hall discuss the upcoming Senate Environment and Public Works Committee markup of the America's Transportation Infrastructure Act, as well as the current status of water related infrastructure bills in Congress.
Transcript:
Announcer: 00:00 Welcome to the first edition of the ACEC government affairs update for the week of July 22nd, 2019 we're coming into the last few days of session in Congress before the August recess and we're seeing action on infrastructure and water. Starting to heat up. Matt Riffer is our expert on surface transportation in our Washington office and he's here to give us an update on what's happening on surface transportation. Matt...
Matt Reiffer: 00:34 Thanks Jeff. After a year where we expected a lot of activity on infrastructure and series of fits and starts from congressional leaders meeting with the administration. And you know, we got all excited a couple of months ago about a top line number of $2 trillion that hasn't really materialized in any subsequent meetings or conversations. Uh, now this week we're finally, as you said, getting some real action and legislative productivity coming out. We are had meetings today with the senior staff from the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, that EPW Committee has primary jurisdiction over federal highway programs, uh, and they are and have been working on a reauthorization of federal highway programs under the Fast Act, uh, and they are set to release that bill, uh, next week Monday. And they briefed us and other stakeholders on some of the high level content of that bill today which is very exciting as it's a first step in a long process to reauthorize the FAST Act. The FAST Act doesn't expire until, uh, next year, September 30 of 2020.
Matt Reiffer: 01:47 But we want to get a head start on this, given the political dynamics of the election season and the time and effort it will take to get this over the finish line so that the EPW processes the first start, first step and it is a great first start. According to the committee, it's going to be a five-year bill authorizing highway programs at $287 billion, which is a 27% increase above the fast act level. It will also include, uh, a repeal of the rescission that's scheduled at the end of the fast act, which is gonna take 7.6, seven point $6 billion off the table from state and arbitrary. We lower the baseline for budget scoring, so that's an important step as well. And we're going to be supporting a standalone effort to get that done soon. The bill will be a threefold, a heavy emphasis on safety emphasis on, uh, bridges and on resilience.
Matt Reiffer: 02:56 Uh, there's going to be new programs, both formula based for states as well as discretionary funding, a directed to those initiatives. A lot of issues that ACEC and our member firms had been very active and engaged on. A, what we've been hearing so far is very positive based on the priorities that we have outlined. Um, next steps after EPW marks up their bill they'll have to work with the other committees of jurisdiction in the Senate. They only have highways. Uh, the banking committee has transit programs. The Commerce Committee has, uh, highway policy as well as commercial vehicles and safety programs. And then the most essential, uh, the finance committee has jurisdiction over revenues that flow into the highway trust fund. Uh, there is $100 billion hole in the trust fund over the next six years that needs to be filled plus the additional funding that would be authorized in this bill. Um, the EPW committee leaders, uh, are expressing confidence and optimism that they can pay for these funding increases with the user fee revenues coming into the highway trust fund and they'll be working with their finance committee colleagues and Senate leaders to get that done after the August recess. So again, first step, but a very important step, the first tangible legislative product that we've got to rally around as an industry, uh, and a top advocacy priority for ACEC. So it's a very exciting, uh, and encouraging, uh, development this week.
Announcer: 04:28 That's fantastic news and we're looking forward to seeing how the bill develops and what happens at the mark up and we'll be sure to hear about that more next week and leading into August. And Matt, thank you for that update. So FAST Act authorization is one of the highlight issues in Congress right now, but there are other issues moving forward, including water and related issues. And Steve Hall, our Senior Vice President of advocacy is with us to talk about those.
Steve Hall: 04:54 Yeah, so progress on the fast act is very encouraging as Matt indicated and at, as we've been talking about, uh, may be the vehicle that pulls a number of other priorities, uh, forward as a larger infrastructure package. But beyond surface transportation, Congress wants to do water through the Water Resources Development Act or WRDA they've got to finish the appropriations process. And we recently had a deal, a two year budget deal that plugs in some additional resources for appropriations and we hope and believe we'll at least maintain the increases in the infrastructure accounts from the last two year deal. Uh, but in addition to the fast act, individual water components are starting to move. Uh, the house has a bill that would reauthorize and significantly expand the clean water act, state revolving fund program or SRF program. $20 billion over five years. Uh, grants for combined sewer overflows and other issues.
Steve Hall: 06:01 They're still working through some issues with respect to, uh, the regulatory side, whether to extend, uh, permits from five years to 10 years. And we're providing some technical guidance to committee staff, uh, on that. Uh, there's other pending legislation that would create a water trust fund. All of these may find a home in a word, a bill that traditionally includes a new Corps of Engineers, project offer authorizations and other related matters, other things that are waiting in the wings. We have a legislation that would create a new category of private activity bonds for vertical projects. That's the sort of thing that could ride on a FAST Act reauthorization bill. We've got a couple of expired tax provisions that are critical for, uh, vertical projects, uh, and encouraging energy efficient building design. those need to be extended as well as another provision dealing with renewable energy projects. Again, these are the kind of things that could ride on a larger, infrastructure package. Uh, and then other issues, other priorities for ACEC...Reauthorization of the Export Import Bank. Interestingly, that was done in the context of the fast act in 2015. So could that be something that benefits from movement on a surface transportation in the house and the Senate shaping up to be a busy fall, uh, looking forward to getting some things over the goal line.
Announcer: 07:31 So a lot going on in Congress. They're going out of session, but we will not, we'll be following all of these issues with staff and the members throughout August. Uh, and always, always encourage our member organizations to do the same when the members are back in their districts. Uh, just because they're not in Washington doesn't mean they're not working and it's a good time to meet with them there. That's the first government affairs update from ACEC, one of the first of many. Thank you for joining us and happy August. [inaudible].
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Engineering Business Index Update for Q2 2019
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Thursday Jul 25, 2019
Announcer: 00:00 Last week, ACEC released its second quarter engineering business index survey or firm leaders. Gerry, what update do you have for us?
Gerry Donohue: 00:15 Well, the survey which is known in the industry as the EBI edged up slightly by 0.4 points to 62.6.
Announcer: (00:23) So a 62.6 score. What does that mean? Gerry Donohue: (00:25) The EBI is a diffusion index in which the responses of about 200 firm leaders to more than a dozen questions about the business market and financial performance of their firms are distilled down to a single number. A number above 50 signifies business expansion. All scores below 50 indicate contraction.
Announcer: 00:46 How does this score compare to past scores?
Gerry Donohue: 00:48 We've been doing the EBI for about six and a half years and it has moved in a relatively narrow band or my high of 68.9 in the second quarter of 2014 to a low of 58.5 in the fourth quarter of 2018 that pretty accurately tracks the market.
Gerry Donohue: 01:04 Over that period, business has generally been good for engineering firms and respondents. Concerns have focused on forces that create uncertainty. In the marketplace. For instance, the survey low in the fourth quarter of 2018 was due largely to worries about what tariffs and the trade war could do to the domestic market.
Announcer: 01:20 What are some of the other highlights?
Gerry Donohue: 01:22 Profitability and backlog are the big drivers in the Ebi and they reflect near term concerns, but long-term optimism, respondents expectations for firm profitability over the next three months and the next six months declined. But they're optimistic about increased profitability three years from now. Likewise, they reported that their backlogs have shrunk, but they expect them to grow over the next 12 months, which then feeds into those increased profitability expectations.
Announcer: 01:49 So we do ask questions about market sector. What do the private and public market sectors, what are they looking for?
Gerry Donohue: 01:56 Well, in the private sector, which is the, which accounts for about 80% of all construction firm leaders, expectations are mixed. They expect to see the industrial manufacturing education and land development sectors increase, but they're less optimistic about the energy and power, healthcare and building sectors and the public markets. They were more optimistic with five of the six sectors expected to improve. They said that the environmental sector and the building sector will improve the most followed by transportation, education and water and wastewater. They expect the healthcare sector to be flat.
Announcer: 02:29 You'll also ask firms to report on the impact of the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act. What are they saying?
Gerry Donohue: 02:35 Well, it's been over a year since the law took effect. It lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and due in large part to ACEC lobbying created a new 20% tax deduction for pass through entities such as s corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships.
Gerry Donohue: 02:51 More than a quarter of the respondents credited the new law with improving their bottom line. One said it was absolutely the right thing for business growth. While it's been made hiring harder and wages have gone up, profits have gone up as well. They also said that they've been able to increase investment in their firms. One firm leaders said that the lower tax rate incentivized his firm to retain more earnings and to improve their balance sheet. Other responses include, they've made new hires, they've grown their firm, and they've increased the value of their employee stock ownership programs. Something to note though, while almost all the comments on the new law were positive, several firm leaders were critical citing the subsequent rise in the federal budget deficits. One said the tax cut looks good in short term, but ultimately it's a terrible idea.
Announcer: 03:34 And you also ask from leaders about their biggest challenges of running an engineering firm. What did you learn?
Gerry Donohue: 03:40 Well, not surprisingly, more than 52% said that recruiting and retaining top talent is their biggest task. One said that they helped the economy and a talented high achieving, self-focused young workforce. Employee retention sits at the top of his worry list. Second was onerous contract demands from clients and owners. One firm leader said that clients increasingly viewing engineering services as a commodity and his firm constantly has to prove its value. Other challenges, we're distinguishing the firm from the competition, generating a suitable backlog, slow paying clients, and burdensome government regulations.
Announcer: 04:13 That's very interesting. So how do our members find the report?
Gerry Donohue: 04:17 Well, if you want to read the full report and look at the numbers behind the index, go to www.acec.org and scroll down to the engineering business index link.
Announcer: 04:26 That's great. So we look forward to your next update, Jerry, and thank you for coming in.
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Matt Murello Discusses the Importance of ACEC Coalitions
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
ACEC's Chair-Elect of the Coalition Leaders Steering Committee discusses the importance of coalitions through ACEC membership.
Transcript:
Host: (00:03)And welcome to another edition of Engineering influence with ACEC. Very happy to have a repeat guest to the podcast. Matt Morello is the Chair-Elect of the Coalition Leaders Steering Committee. Matt Murello: (00:50)Thanks for having me, Jeff. Host: (00:51)Yes, thank you for coming in. I know you're a busy man. You have a lot of hats that you wear. Not only being president of your firm Lewis Goodfriend and Associates out of New Jersey. And Mayor as well. And then also of course Chair-Elect of the coalitions and then also taking on the tax and regulatory committee. So there's a lot going on. But today really focusing in on coalitions. You were just a couple of minutes ago in our large conference room talking to the staff together about the importance of coalitions. Um, take a moment and kind of describe what the coalitions at ACEC do, why are they important? And really what are you trying to get across coming in as the chairman of the coalitions committee. Matt Murello: (01:40)Thanks. Um, so the coalitions for people that aren't aware, are groups within ACEC, many of which are practice centered, uh, whether it's land development or professional surveyors, mechanical electrical engineers or structural engineers, that provide additional information and resources to those practice centered firms. The other of those two are based upon the, the size of the firms who have small firms in the DPC, the larger firms, the small firms counsel that I got involved with as chair in 2012. And the value of the coalitions is, as we were just explaining to staff of ACEC is to provide a pool of information and resources, whether it's peer to peer, I have a question about something I want to do or, or tried to do, or it's just the ability to have access to documents. Matt Murello: (02:35)Right now, the number of documents that any coalition member would have access to if they were to purchase them all would be over $5,000. And that's a, that's a significant investment to affirm. If a firm is starting or growing or merging or adding onto the ability to go and tap into those resources of, um, just the documents or being able to talk, um, in a peer to peer environment and say, look, I want to open a new business or I want to open a new office or I want to develop my next generation of leaders, or how valuable is my firm? Um, at some point somebody's already done it. And within the coalitions you're gonna find that person, probably one that's done it right and one that hasn't. The ability to tap into the information is going to make your firm better off in the end because you have the ability to say, okay, does this, is this method of growing my next generation of leaders? Matt Murello: (03:36)Is it going to work for me or is it not? When we all started to get together in 2011 and 2012 where the different chairs got together and said, okay, each one of our groups, instead of trying to be all things to all members concentrated on what did we do best? And at the Small Firm Council, we decided we were gonna try to be the best at helping you run your business. How can we make you more profitable, grow or maintain your client base, diverse your client your client base while the other coalitions we're making you better surveyors or better land development or better structural engineers or better mechanical electrical engineers, engineering firms. And when we did that, when we got together and said, okay, let's each one of us coalitions do the best we can at what we want to provide our members, that's when the membership of the coalitions in general started to grow rapidly. Matt Murello: (04:33)I've always believed that if we can get anybody who automatically joins ACEC for whatever reasons they do, if you want to be engaged and you want to get the most you can out of ACEC, the advocacy side and the coalition side, although they are completely opposite in terms of what you need to put into them, um, they're going to make your firm stronger, make you a better leader and help you grow your business and develop those next generation of leaders. Host: (05:00)And it's really a little barrier to entry. Matt Murello: (05:02)It really is. I mean, uh, obviously there's a, a significant monetary expense to join ACEC, but to join a coalition is only $250. And if you're a member of the insurance trust they reimburse you part of that. And then if you're a member of a coalition, you want to join another coalition, it's even less expensive. So the cost to join a coalition versus what you get out of it, if nothing else, just the documents themselves is an order of magnitude over what you pay. Host: (05:34)But like you said, it's that information sharing. It's that best practices. Having a center for excellence for firms to learn how best to, I guess grow or change their management structure or whatever they want to do to be more successful in their industry. Not so much professionally, but in their specialization. Even though there's information about that available it's more how can you grow your firm, get it ready to go into M&A if you want to do that or if it's going to be just, you know, a training the next generation coming up, that's really where you can learn. Matt Murello: (06:07)Yeah, you're right. And to be honest with you, Jeff I've been going to the Small Firm Counsel round tables for almost 20 years now. Um, and one of the questions I got asked by staff was, you know, what are the typical topics you discuss on at these approximately two and a half hours of sitting in a room. Um, and what you had mentioned with, uh, with mergers and acquisitions and growing leadership development and from valuation and benchmark performance metrics. Um, we talk about over and over and over again and we're always finding new ways to try to come up with what works best for my firm. I have a very small firm in New Jersey, in the New York City area. Uh, we've, uh, been between five people and 12 people in the 17 years I've owned the business. But the coalitions have always helped me when I want to figure out whether I'm doing well or not doing well. Matt Murello: (06:59)Is this a good time to open a new office? How do I quantify whether it's a good time and whether it's performing well or not. All of that information is readily accessible because people have done it. Um, and there's nothing easier than asking somebody who's done it and not done well at it. Okay. What do, what pitfalls do I avoid so that I can concentrate on being the best acoustical engineer I can offer in this area? Um, and at the same time, because I'm a small firm, I don't have a CFO and HR director. How do I get around or how do I deal with those topics? In my business, which will come up. Um, and what's the best way to deal with it. And I think that that pool of information, that pool of resources is something that's invaluable. Host: (07:40)And something else that was mentioned during your, during your talk was the fact that at the conferences that ACEC holds, it's an open door policy that if you're an ACEC member and you want to just test out a coalition or see if it's something that you're interested in, you can come in and sit in see if it's right for you. Matt Murello: (07:57)Right. The, the, the round tables that exist on the Sunday of the national meetings are where we get, um, it's an open door. Uh, people come in. And I've always found that if someone joins a one of the round tables and find some value in innovation if it's one topic we discussed that it makes their lives easier, um, that's a perspective member that we more often than not can get to join a coalition. Host: (08:21)So Matt, really, what's your elevator pitch for membership coming in and you have some, you know, you're talking to a bunch of new ACEC members and they don't know about coalitions, you know, what's, what's your, what's your pitch to them? Matt Murello: (08:34)I think any firm that decides to be involved with ACEC has already made the decision for the expense of joining and they've determined whatever their need is. If that firm really wants to be actively involved in the industry, have a say, or at least be in the know and to what's changing in our industry from a tax and regulatory standpoint, infrastructure, what bills are coming or not coming, ACEC is the place to be. If you're gonna make that jump into, be actively involved with the organization, losing out on the opportunity for a very small investment in a coalitions of $250 to be involved and get access to that pool of information to grow your business, to manage your business effectively, to grow the next generation of leaders and to become a better engineering firm and a principal is really something that you need to take. And taken into consideration. Otherwise it's an opportunity lost. Um, we all spend most of our time of being responsive as business owners. And if you have an opportunity to tap into information to make you a better leader, to make your firm stronger, more resilient in downturn times as you are in growth. I think it's a resource that everyone should take advantage of. Coalitions is the place to get that. Host: (09:50)Well, that's fantastic. And Matt, thank you for coming down to Washington. Thank you for speaking to our group and I know you have a busy schedule, so I'm not going to hold you up, but thank you so much again, check out our coalitions on www.acec.org Um, and uh, thanks again for coming on.Matt Murello: (10:06)Thanks Jeff. As always.
Tuesday Jul 02, 2019
The Chairman's Corner with Mitch Simpler
Tuesday Jul 02, 2019
Tuesday Jul 02, 2019
Jeff Urbanchuk sits down with ACEC Board Chairman, Mitch Simpler, for the first in a series of quarterly interviews that we like to call the Chairman's Corner.
Transcript:
Host: 00:18 We are pleased to be joined by Mitch Simpler, ACC board chair, in what we hope will be the first of many appearances on our podcast as the chairman's report or the chairman's corner. Kind of figuring out what we're going to call it, but a on a quarterly basis hopefully we can get a Mitch on to talk about what's happening at ACEC and in the engineering industry. Mitch, welcome to the show and happy 4th of July week.
Mitch Simpler: 00:55 Jeff, my pleasure to be here and the problem you're going to have in the future is not getting me on. It's getting me off.
Host: 01:01 That's fine. I'd rather have more content than less. Um we were just kind of talking before we went on a that were coming off of a series of leadership orientations here at headquarters where we had staff from our member organizations who got some one on one time with the DC staff to learn more about the organization and what we can offer. And then of course, what they can offer us. And there seemed to be a good deal of positivity and energy coming after those meetings. What was your take?
Mitch Simpler: 01:29 Well, my take was exactly the same thing. The energy was, was amazing. I've been to probably to at least a half a dozen of these orientations, uh, retreats as it were over the past half a dozen years or so. Clearly the energy level was significantly different and better. Um, and I attribute that certainly a lot of it to Linda and her team, which are just highly engaged and very engaging to the, to the participants. But probably the big difference was that it was not a monologue. It was a dialogue. The fundamental change that was made is that instead of lecturing in front of a room full of 50 people, Linda and her team broke it up into small groups of seven or eight and each of the group leaders from ACEC now had an opportunity to sit one on one with the various leadership, uh, people from the from the MOs. And they had a chance to have a dialogue. And that was really impressive to see how much the, the leaders were engaged in the process. And, uh, and the positive feedback that we got has been significant. And the clearly a home run for Linda and her team,
Host: 02:41 It was definitely a different dynamic sitting around with the table and just talking to everyone and just getting feedback. And especially in the media side, you know, talking about how people engage at the state level and, and how we can help them. And then of course the policy guys, then membership and all the different segments of ACEC Washington being able to interact was, was great and it did provide that back and forth and energy and it kind of goes into the idea of, of of what we have to offer and ACEC's strengths, um, you know, coming in as, as chairman, what do you see as ACEC's greatest strengths that we can leverage?
Mitch Simpler: 03:21 Our strengths has been and will continue to be certainly in the DC area is our advocacy program. But one of the things that we've changed this year, um, and Steve Hall leads an amazing group of lobbyists and policymakers, but the big change was we've added another team member who was really part of our outward facing, uh, group. And that's, Mr Dave Bender, who was the exec out of Illinois. Dave comes with 20 years plus experience in dealing with members of Congress, uh, understands what makes them tick. And he may be a party of one at this point that does, but, but he certainly does. And I think his addition to the team has been absolutely a monumental and I think will significantly change not only how we are able to interface with, with Capitol Hill, but also, um, how they will view us. They being Capitol Hill will now look to ACEC because they will have a face literally, at their disposal. Um, and I think that we'll have again, a significant impact on what already is one of our greatest strengths, which is our advocacy programs.
Host: 04:31 Yeah. Dave coming on the team has been a seamless transition. He's come on board and hit the ground running. And of course he's coming to us after a massive victory in Illinois. The governor, of course on Friday signed in the largest infrastructure investment in the state's history for about, 30 years. Um, they have not touched user fees and this the first time in 30 years they've actually taken a proactive step to invest. And that was largely due to Dave's hard work at the state level. And if, you know, the picture of the bill signing, there's some hard hats. And on those hard hats there was an ACEC logo at the bill signing so that shows that we had an impact. So that's, that's a really good point with Dave coming on board. Um, and the fact that it will help with the national footprint. Um, you know, you mentioned advocacy, that's still one of our main, focus points. And you know, we have the debate over infrastructure, you know, the work that's being done in Washington. But we have to think about beyond the beltway and how much does, our work here kind of translate to your world in New York, of course, in the private marketplace? And does it have that much penetration of people's attention elsewhere?
Mitch Simpler: 05:45 Well, so this kind of put it in a, in a bigger picture. So what ACEC is doing in, in the Metro area, particularly on Capitol Hill, is continuing beat the drum as to how important infrastructure is to the country, not just to ACEC and the members of ACEC, we implement the policies that get executed. The key is to get the policies executed in the first place and and we're there to remind all of the legislators at this is an important component to what makes our country great. And if we want to continue the growth that we're having, we need to invest in infrastructure. It doesn't just impact, um, you know, the, the horizontal and the, and the transportation people. It impacts all businesses at all levels. And so even though I am a private sector predominant proponent, because that's the business I'm in, my, my businesses, the people that I work for will all benefit by improved infrastructure, whether it's highways, bridges, tunnels, rails in a modal, transportation, sea ports, airports, all those things improve business.
Mitch Simpler: 06:56 And that's what we need to do as a country. We need to do as an industry and what ACEC needs to promote or certainly continue to promote how important all that infrastructure is. Um, and New York City is not exempt by any means. Then in fact, we have the same issues that the country has as a whole. New York City and all the metro areas have the same issues and that they have not been investing in infrastructure on a continuous basis. It has fallen behind. The disrepair is costing all of us time and money. So investment in our infrastructure will help everybody, private sector, public sector across the board. And uh, and so that message has gotten through loud and clear. Uh, not only is it loud and clear from the federal level and from ACEC national level, but at the local level, both the state MOs and then those states that have regional MOs, that message is being driven right down to the grassroots because it is that important. And, uh, and thank God ACEC is continuing to wave the flag as to how important it is for all of us in order for our businesses to succeed, for our country to be successful.
Host: 08:03 Absolutely. And you did mention the fact that you come from predominantly from the private marketplace and I know that one of your, key focuses is broadening ACEC's membership. Of course, you know, we have a lot of focus on firms that do work in the public sector. Um, a lot of, you know, the work in advocacy has a direct impact on state DOT's, and agencies like that. But who do you think is underrepresented and, how can we bring them into the ACEC family?
Mitch Simpler: 08:36 Well, as I said at the last podcast, certainly, uh, my focus is to raise the awareness of what the private sector can do. And I say private sectors, it's anybody in the engineering industry outside of the horizontal transportation, Intermodal Transportation Industry, which ACC has done a spectacular job of bringing to our table. But, but as I said previously, that represents only 20% of the built environment in the u s the other 80% is the private sector. Um, what we hope to do, what certainly my mission is, is to raise the awareness of private sector firms and that ACEC exists and what can we do for them and as much as what we can do for them, can they do for us as an industry to help raise our overall voice. Um, and I've mentioned this previously that certainly in New York, Metro New York in particular has a very, very strong, upwards of 50% of our membership is private sector.
Mitch Simpler: 09:39 Um, what we refer to as the vertical component. These are people that design buildings, hospitals, hotels, residential towers, um, and the university work institutional. Uh, hospitals and those, those kinds of of projects. Uh, and what is the value that we bring? Well, the fact is that we all have so much in common with all other engineering firms. ACEC becomes sort of the, the, the, uh, the common denominator for all of us to be able to communicate to network. Uh, in addition to the traditional value added, um, programs that ACEC brings to its members, whether it's access to the trust, uh, but the single biggest thing for the private sector is the networking component. And where firms can have an opportunity to meet, discuss, uh, joint ventures and combining team efforts, uh, to become, you know, a greater industry representative. And it has been hugely successful.
Mitch Simpler: 10:41 Um, the other big thing that the private sector brings to the table is other means by which you can do project work, particularly doing lump sum. And I know lump sum and a lot of conversations with our traditional membership is like a dirty word. But the fact of the matter is that lump sum does now give you an opportunity to be more innovative, more ingenious, and, and, and come up with better, more efficient ways to bring a project to to bear and to the marketplace for your client and make money at the same time. It's a win win for all sides, but it's a different way to approach a project. What we hope the private sector can do is to bring that experience to the table so that both the public sector and the private sector can benefit.
Host: 11:27 You've also mentioned, um, ACEC New York's success in becoming really the go-to organization for, uh, the city, uh, when looking at building codes and looking at new standards for construction in the city. Um, and how really the expertise of ACEC membership is brought to bear and is reflected in construction that the city. Do you find that in speaking to your peers and ACEC, do you see that as unique, or is that something that is, replicated or, or could it be a model for other MOs to follow?
Mitch Simpler: 12:07 It's certainly a model. Um, and, and if you, uh, go back and my sort of, my opening statement at the last pod conversation was, you know, what are my goals, my goal? And one of the reasons that we, we liked Linda and her team and, but Linda particularly when we brought her on board as our new CEO, was that one of our goals is to become the voice of the engineering industry. We've accomplished that in New York, in New York City in particular. The reason that the city comes to us is because they know that the members of ACEC are, singularly, the most knowledgeable and unbiased voices to provide technical expertise to the city. So the key example that we use is that the chairs of all of the major code committees, I'm chair of the Mechanical Committee, the structural, the fire alarm, the plumbing and fire protection, the elevator, all those committees are chaired by members of ACEC.
Mitch Simpler: 13:05 Why? Because the the city came to ACEC and said, who should we use to chair these committees? Um, and it's because of their experience over the past 20 plus years that the ACEC team brings the best, most experienced, uh, people to the table to provide what needs to be provided to get this, in this particular case, a code rewrite completed. It would certainly be my hope that we can take that model and share that with all of the MOs so that at the end of the day, ACEC does become the voice of the engineering industry. That would be the ultimate end game. And, and then what it does for the membership is give them, um, insight in terms of the mechanisms and the thought processes for why things get done the way they do, whether it's in government, uh, whether it's for code purposes and just industry leadership in general from a business perspective. Um, and I think it is a absolutely realistic and doable goal. Um, it is something that, that we know will work. And the key is to be able to take what was done in New York and model that and get that out to the mos so that we can use that as an exemplar of what can be done.
Host: 14:23 And do you find there's a receptive audience among the MO executives to that kind of a message?
Mitch Simpler: 14:28 Oh, absolutely. And again, anecdotally, when we have conversations, we tell them this is the, this is what we do. And the Metro area, they said, boy, we would love to be able to do that. How do we do it? And the key is, and this is the beauty of the Federation of ACEC, is that we are able to share knowledge. Um, the NACE right, was just a national association executive, uh, directors for ACEC, the group of executive directors from all 51 MOs meet regularly. And the next focus is going to be what can we do in terms of best practices to be able to attract, the, the other, the non traditional, uh, ACEC firms and how do we leverage that to become a more vocal and respected member of our community so that the community then turns to ACEC as the voice of the industry and say, look, this is the issue. What do you think? Who Do you have on your, on your, on your Rolodex to be able to help us get to a solution? And that's, that's the place we want to be. And that's an enviable position to be sure. But something that is well within our reach.
Host: 15:41 And that goes right to Linda's idea that, you know, really it's not a question of being part of the conversation. It's to lead the conversation that we have the opportunity to do that. And it kind of goes back to the the leadership orientations that we've had, because we want to make sure that our membership, um, really takes advantage of all the tools that we have at our disposal between, um, the webinar educational series. Um, the advocacy of course, um, and just all of the different resources that are available to them to assist them in kind of developing themselves into being these, you know, being able to carry this message, uh, to their local governments, to, you know, their into their economies, uh, in their states.
Mitch Simpler: 16:25 Right. And again, we'll go back to where we started this conversation. And that was the issue of the leadership orientation. The big difference was now each of the, the MO leadership had an opportunity to meet with the various department heads on firstly a one to one basis and the veil of, you know, who is really the right person to talk to and who's, you know, what's the, what's the right conversation to take place? They were able to do that on a one to one basis. And, and, and because of that, the, the, the, uh, relationships started to develop between ACEC national and the MOs literally at the first meeting. And as the day went on, it became abundantly clear that there was clearly dialogues happening, that there was the MO leadership was less inhibited to ask questions. And one of the things that we mentioned that certainly, and, and, and, and I, and Charlie G who is the incoming chair and, and Linda, we were floaters. We just popped literally butterflies hopping from table to table to purpose to which we thought originally was to sort of be catalyst to help the conversation get started. And I will tell you with no exception, we walked into the middle of very active conversations and it was really, really rewarding to see how everybody was engaged. And my hope is as a result of that, that the mos will feel less inhibited about reaching out to national for information to, uh, to make sure they're not repeating a mistake that's already been made and for fresh ideas. And that I think was all the the takeaways from this orientation, which was all really positive and that will be a benefit to both sides.
Host: 18:05 Absolutely. Um, I do want to kind of pivot to another issue, which is also another hot topic. Um, both Linda and, and for yourself and really for the industry in general. And that's the commoditization of engineering. Uh, which is something, you know, we talk about internally, our members of course, talk a lot about, um, whether, whether or not that's actually seen as much by policymakers on the Hill. That's an open question which we have to work on. But you know, if you were meeting with, you know, let's say the chairman of the Transportation Committee in the house, you know, how would you put, how would you encapsulate the danger of commoditization for them to understand and what it means for, for just, you know, the economy for public safety, for everything?
Mitch Simpler: 18:51 Well, in the commoditization of professional services is probably singularly the one of the greatest threats to our industry. Because what it does, it does not reward innovation. Does not reward access and use of best available technology. It just lowers the quality of service and the performance and the product down to the lowest common denominator. Part of our job, our advocacy program is to educate not only the people on the Hill that make the decisions, but to raise the awareness of our own industry, of what we're doing to ourselves. We need to be sure that people understand that engineering is not a commodity in any way, shape or form. So treating professional services of engineering like a commodity is a huge mistake. Um, what we want to do is have them understand that we want, we want owners, we want, uh, uh, policymakers to appreciate that there are differences.
Mitch Simpler: 19:54 That's why QBS is so important because quality is a difference between firm to firm and we want them to pick the most qualified people. And what qualifies one firm over another? A, they're experienced certainly, but B, the way they do project works, how they approach it, what technology, what technology do they employ? Both internal for producing the documents but more employee. What technology do they employ in the actual design itself. If you want our infrastructure to proceed and a forward and upward way, you've got to, you've got to welcome technology, you've got to welcome innovation and commoditizing the fees is exactly the way not to do that. So part of our argument would be to explain to them, these are the types of differences that happen. This is why these differences exist and this is why you need to do QBS. And we are, we are, we are then the fact of the matter is we are the best people to have that conversation. Absolutely. I want to say the only people, but we're certainly the best.
Host: 20:58 I mean, well you are. Yeah. I mean, the best thing is that the member firms who are engaged with ACEC are the, uh, they are the people who are creating the innovation, who are breaking new grounds as we see in the engineering excellence awards every year of new standards of doing things, new ways of approaching problems. And uh, it's that work demonstrates the importance of engineers as the thought leaders and as professionals. And not just as, um, you know, providers of a service that can be just boxed up and replicated. And the idea that you can just easily just say, oh, let's in-source the work completely ignores the diversity, the innovation and the creativity of consulting engineers.
Mitch Simpler: 21:53 Absolutely. Right. And by the way, I'll kind of circle back to what can, what can the private industry bring to the table for the, for the, for the more traditional ACEC member firms and the private sector, because we do work for lump sum, the vast majority of the time we are rewarded for being innovative, for being ingenious, for being efficient. And those techniques ultimately do work their way down the food chain and over into other aspects of the consulting industry. But by welcoming the private sector firms enter the faults sooner rather than later. That that technology transfer can happen a lot quicker. And I think, again, that would be hugely helpful for ACEC to act as that, I'll use that conduit to get that, uh, that, uh, education process in terms of getting the, what the private sector does every day into the hands of the people that do the more traditional transportation, horizontal work.
Host: 22:57 Absolutely. Technology in general is an issue which is always out there, but you think that, um, ACEC could be doing more to position itself as a recognized voice on technology, um, both, you know, as its own subject, but then also to kind of reach some of the younger professionals coming up.
Mitch Simpler: 23:21 The answer is yes. Um, technology is the buzz word and will be for the next probably a hundred years. Technology today is changing at a rate faster than ever before in history. And, uh, and I'm getting to be sort of an older dog and I am absolutely amazed at how rapidly technology is changing. Um, and it's not limited just to engineering, not limited to infrastructure. It's across the board in every aspect of life. It's how we train our staff. I mean, that is incredible. Um, the amount of technology that's being literally showered on us every day. Uh, what is ACEC's role in my mind, our role is to be out there and we don't have to become the experts in the, and the, uh, technology market, but we'll, we need to do is be aware of what's happening and act as the, I'll call it the clearing house to make sure that the information regarding technology, where it's being used, how it's being used, where innovation is being, uh, taking advantage of the best available technology and get that information through ACEC out to the Mos and ultimately out to the member firms, not on how to use it, but to be aware of that this is where it exists and this is how it's being applied, that point the, the engineers need to be the engineers and determine whether or not that technology is appropriate for them and how can they best leverage it for their business or their client's business.
Mitch Simpler: 24:53 But certainly ACEC's role is to be the clearing house to get that information flowing from those firms that are, that are on the, on the, oh, I'll call it the bleeding edge of technology for the firms that are on the, on the following edge so that everyone can learn and take advantage of the technology, uh, and the quickest possible way.
Host: 25:14 Absolutely. And that's again, kind of underscores the importance of ACEC membership both at the state level of course, because we can have a better pulse on what's happening closer to you. But then also the national level because we can serve as that clearing house and help get that best practice information spread as far and wide as possible. And that we can kind of hopefully, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats and more people take advantage of best practices, for these technologies, you know, technology and its implementation. Um, you're able to raise the prominence of the industry and, and, and show that it's not a commodity.
Mitch Simpler: 25:49 No, but you know, engineering in general, the general public looks to engineers as the people that are the innovative, creative problem solvers. And if ACC wants to be the voice of the industry, we have to be out there getting the information to our members before they go and just find it out through the more traditional, you know, read about it in the paper, read about it, the magazine. Um, we really need to be out there, sort of, you know, plowing and, and pushing the technology up at, back to our members as soon as it becomes available. At that point they become industry leaders. And I think that's something that we as an organization can be. We can be, thought of as our members, as the people that do help them become better businesses because we are availing them of whatever technology is, emerging and we need to do that. Uh, we've done it, we continued to do it. Um, and I think we can do it on a bigger scale going forward.
Host: 26:50 Very well put. Um, I guess that's, that kind of wraps up, um, you know, really what we have. I just wanted to see if you had anything else that you wanted to add at the end here. Um, really just kind of like your perspective as a board chair. Um, and of course we're getting ready, we're gearing up in October for our fall conference in Chicago. Um, you know, what do you see on the horizon? What are you excited about coming up in the next couple of months?
Mitch Simpler: 27:18 Well, just in general, what I'm most excited about is this, the level of enthusiasm and the feedback that we're getting at both the grassroots level and up to the MOs. Uh, there's clearly a perception that ACEC is, I'll use my term lifting the veil, uh, that, that national is, uh, open from business and we are there to support all of our mos in any way that we can in any way that we, we are able to. And I think that message is getting through. Uh, and it's really exciting for me when I meet with our MOs, with MO leadership. And member firms, um, that, that perception is really getting down to the grassroots. And I think that's very exciting. Um, I, I am looking forward to, and I have a number of trips planned, the most recent will be next week I'm going to be down in the deep south and have an opportunity to meet with their leadership and, and to get their feedback. But certainly the reviews that I got at the leadership orientation, we had over 50 people at the, at the the one last week. It was all very positive and it's very exciting to see that people do recognize that the change in leadership at ACEC has been for the, for the better and they are looking forward to and moving this thing even and do a greater clarity and more transparency. And that's really what our goal is.
Host: 28:50 Well, we definitely have something to say. We've got great messengers to say it and we have the energy to really get the message out. So I think that we're well poised and energized to get this done. So I really appreciate your time again on a holiday week and look forward to doing this on a regular basis. Like I said, we want to try to get a regular quarterly show that is set up for you to come on and talk about really the issues that you care about and really appreciate you being part of the kickoff.
Mitch Simpler: 29:23 Terrific. And it is my pleasure and I wish everybody a very happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July.
Host: 29:31 Wonderful. Thank you very much.