VERMONT SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
Meeting Minutes
March 29, 2000
ATTENDEES:
Brad Aldrich, National Director
John Forcier, Treasurer
Mark Bannon, President
Peter Hack, President Elect
Tom Labombard, Secretary
Joe Duncan, Member
Michael Laurent, Member
Jean-Guy Beliveu, PEE Governor
Jill Marsano, Society Administrator
The following narrative is a written record of those items discussed.
1. Introductions
2. Treasurer's Report was reviewed
The Treasurer's Report for the fiscal year was presented by John Forcier, Treasurer. Dues for the year are good. We ended up with a $450.00 loss from the Northeast Regional Meeting held in the fall of 1999. Mathcounts is in full swing and the account is in need of more donations and some reimbursements to be sent in to national. It should cost about $3,500.00 for the year and we are almost able to cover that now with more donations expected to come. It was decided that we should start the Mathcounts Contribution Drive for 2001 around November this year.
3. Legislative "Day Under the Dome"
Overall the day went well. Faces were put to the names of the lawmakers. Approximately 20 engineers were in attendance. The ACEC award posters on display were enjoyed by all who attended. It was discussed that next year more engineers need to get involved with different committees. Overall there was a desire to tie together the timing of the joint meeting with ACEC and all of the facets of Engineers Week.
4. Bylaw Update
Brad Aldrich, National Director, spoke about the Bylaws. They are very out-dated and in need of some changes. He and Jeff Padgett will begin by making a first cut at some edits to the bylaws. Some of the issues that need to be edited are length of terms of office, membership grades to coincide with NSPE grades, overall organization of what is a bylaw and what should be part of the constitution, what should constitute a quorum, who can and shall attend meetings, who can hold what office etc. This will be further discussed at the next meeting.
5. Mathcounts
Jean-Guy Beliveu informed us of the status of the program. 37 schools attended the State Finals, consisting of 200 students. Each school brings in teams of 4 students and is allowed a team of alternates. This year an exception was made and one school brought in 26 alternates. This resulted in 75 more people than planned for, and overcrowded the event. In the future the number of alternates will be limited, and or eliminated. The math scores were much lower this year than in the past years. At least three factors account for that.
(1) They made the tests harder.
(2) The two star math students from the past three years are gone.
(3) With as many alternates as there were the average was not as high. Additionally, some funding to encourage the math teachers to instill superior math skills in the students would help raise the scores.
Results of the State Competition are as follows: Middlebury Union Middle School placed first, Shelburne Community School second, and Gailer School third. Chanel 3 News was at the competition and aired parts of the event and some interviews at the end of their 11pm news cast.
Mathcounts will be facilitated again in 2001 by VSPE. Jean Guy will continue to do much of the work along with many other volunteers. The school fees for 2001 are going to be increased. All kids below 9th grade will be allowed to participate. Each school will be allowed up to two teams with at least one official team. Kids can compete as individuals. There will be no alternates, only additional teams at a fixed cost per team.
A motion was made to appoint John Bilotta as chaperon to go to Washington, D.C. with the Vermont Team for the National competition and to decide what his budget would be. It was voted unanimous that he would go and his allotted budget would be $700.00. (This takes into consideration that he will stay with his daughter in D.C. to cut some of the expense).
6. Legislative Committee Update
Each year the committee takes on different issues. They are making some good progress, and hope to continue this progress. The next meeting is Wednesday April 5, 2000 at National Life 5th floor starting at 4:30pm.
7. New Business
The Stamp is continuing to be improved as far as layout and content go. Members like that future meetings are being tentatively listed in the VSPE calendar for future planning. They also like the letters and articles from local authors, ie. Karen Moran our Regional V.P. It was pointed out that readers would like to see more current events in the Stamp. Articles and facts that would quickly get the readers attention and allow them some interest in the topics. A suggestion was made to include mathcounts events and results along with the awards and fun of engineers week.
John Forcier, Peter Hack, and Mike Quaid participated in a radio talk show last week on WDEV 96.1 FM. The general conversation was on engineering and proposed changes to Act 250. The DJ was pleased and would like to have them back in 6 months or so.
The ballot was discussed. It was decided to place positions of President-Elect - Jeff Padgett, Vice President - Tom Labombard, Secretary & Treasurer - John Forcier, and two Directors - Joe Duncan & Michael Laurent, on the ballot, which will be included in the next addition of the Stamp. A motion was made to place those names on the ballot and was unanimously passed. It was noted that Brad Aldrich - National Director would finish out the last year of his two-year term, and as directed in the bylaws, Peter Hack would move from President-Elect to be the new President.
The annual meeting will probably be held at the Three Stallion Inn in Randolph. This year there is hope to make the meeting a little less formal. The desired speaker will be Karen Moran, the Northeast Region V.P. She has been involved in the Treatment Plant project in Washington and will hopefully prepare a speech on the topic. The date was potentially set for June 1st, 2000.
With no other business the meeting was adjourned.
The above narrative is a record of those items discussed at this meeting. Any discrepancies, errors or omissions shall be brought to the attention of the preparer, in writing, within five working days of the receipt of these meeting minutes or they will be assumed to be accurate in all detail.
Respectfully submitted,
Vermont Society of Professional Engineers
Jill M. Marsano, Society Administrator
VSPE has organized a joint legislative affairs committee. The mission of the Joint Legislative Affairs Committee will be to:
1) Identify legislative initiatives which affect Vermont's engineering community;
2) Maintain communication between the participating engineering societies;
3) Formulate responses and suggest courses of action on legislative initiatives;
4) Identify areas where legislation, policies, and rules are lacking;
5) Propose new initiatives which will promote the engineering profession in Vermont.
Call Mark Bannon, P.E. at 802-828-2629 for more information.
Brad Aldrich, P.E., Past-President
Mark Bannon, P.E., President
Peter Hack, P.E., President-Elect
John Forcier, P.E., Treasurer
Thomas LaBombard, P.E., Secretary
Jeff Padgett, P.E., Vice President
Brad Aldrich, P.E., National Director
Volunteers are needed to fill the following committees: Nominating; Scholarship; Legislative Response; Membership; Public Relations; & EWeek. If your interested, contact Brad at 879-7733.
