Progressive Elaboration in 2023!

• By: Keith Foxx, P.E.
• On: 01/06/2023 11:36:14
• In: ACEC/MW Board Chair's Comments
• Comments: 0

Happy New Year!  2023 is here and I trust that everyone had a happy, peaceful, and joyous holiday season. I know my family wants to keep the Christmas lights on for one more month! 

As we enter into the new year, we reflect on the past year's successes and look forward eagerly to the coming year ahead. My theme for 2023 is continuous improvement or progressive elaboration.  This past year we have had some exciting developments within ACEC/MW which have provided personal development opportunities and have helped elevate our industry. This past summer we restarted our ACEC/MW Annual Conference, where we were joined by our clients from local, state and federals agencies.  It is exciting to bring together neighboring agencies so that they can fellowship and learn from each other's best practices. We had the kick-off of our DEIB Task Force, which is transitioning to a full committee this year and will help our empathetic membership better understand the overall value of inclusion and belonging. We continue to engage our Young Professionals, including our Emerging Leadership Institute members, deliberately cultivating the next generation of talent. 2022 culminated with our successful Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) Gala, where we hosted over 300 attendees and more than 60 clients! Next year, we look to expand this annual gala and welcome even more of our members and their clients as we continue the mission of our Strategic Plan:  Educate. Engage. Advocate.

Looking ahead, in the coming year we are excited and buzzing about the roll out of the projects expected from the $1.7 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 as we build back better.  Some of our clients now have new leadership, and this is a great opportunity for our active membership to educate, engage and advocate with them.  

You may have noticed the new ACEC/MW website! The new website is simply a refresh of the look with some added functionality providing more value to our members.

Many of our member firms are already engaged in STEM Initiatives to introduce young people in non-connected communities to the science of engineering. ACEC/MW is excited to join in these efforts and is actively planning STEM initiatives to engage and educate within the new year! Please inquire if you are interested in joining a committee or task force.

We continue to promote Qualifications-based selection (QBS), as a part of the Brooks Act, with our clients. QBS is a procurement process in which an organization evaluates and selects a vendor based on the vendor's qualifications, rather than on the price of the vendor's bid. QBS is often used in the selection process for professional engineering services.

As we are ACEC and we represent the business of engineering, we have set up Procurement Task Forces to actively partner with procurement leaders from different organizations within our region. One of the goals of the partnerships is to better understand the objectives of the agencies and then share our best practices to help them meet their performance indicators.

We will continue to push our membership to be active in legislative matters supported by our Legislative Committee and our recently stood up DC Engineers Political Action Committee (DCEPAC). Throughout the year, we make sure our legislators hear our voices via emails, office visits, fundraisers and sometimes at ACEC/MW scholarship golf events!

There are a few more exciting additions coming in 2023! Stay tuned.  Make sure you follow us on LinkedIn for updates.

In closing, I'm optimistic about 2023. Our association is strong! We represent more than 100 firms and more than 5200 employees.  Our all-volunteer Board of Directors and Committee leadership are committed and working hard to advance our industry and provide consistent opportunities to our membership. I hope you continue to build healthy and strong relationships within ACEC.  Our 2023-2024 ACEC National Chair-elect and 2024-2025 Chair, Gary Raba, told me one of his “ambitions is that if someone were to ask any member of ACEC who their 3 best friends are, one of them would be an ACEC peer.“  

I wish you and your firms well and hope to see some new relationships and partnerships in the new year! Please check our calendar for upcoming events. 
 
Signed Your 2022-23 ACEC/MW Board Chair,
Keith Foxx, PE