Dear members of the ASME Grassroots Committee,

Grassroots Committee Goals
1) Institute formal channels of communications between grassroots members and our leadership.
2) Engage as many ASME members and staff as possible in order to be an inclusive, diverse committee.
3) Strive to be an active part of the solution during the re-engineering of our society and beyond.

Update and Feedback
Thank you for your feedback, support, and hard work. Our first letter was sent to the Board of Governors on 3 March 2004 and it, in conjunction with other letters, helped to secure the continuing need for local section and regions. The Board of Governors also rejected the need to change the nominating process as well as other issues that we expressed concern over.

Our second letter was distributed on 2 April 2004 and we’ve already received support from some of the Board of Governors, Sr. Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents as well as members of the Committee on Past Presidents.

Moving Forward
Our next challenge is to divide the issues outlined in our 2 April 2004 letter and bring together a team to formulate a written solution for each issue by 31 May 2004. The goal is to compile our solutions into a single report that is sent out to the ASME prior to the beginning of the ASME Summer Annual Meeting on 2 June 2004.

I understand and appreciate the fact that we’re all busy and that the time schedule is tight. However, in order for our feedback to make a positive impact, here’s what we need to accomplish in short amount of time:
1) Volunteers or suggested leaders for each of the seven issue teams (issues are listed below).
2) Each leader needs to recruit their own diverse team (age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location, etc.)
3) A written solution with supporting documents:
a. Summary of bullet points should be no longer than one page. An example MS-Word document is attached.
b. Please use graphs, charts, and bullet points as much as possible.
c. No content will be edited from the final reports received from each team.
d. Please send all of your documents in MS-Word or E-mail text formats
e. It’s up to each team to determine the methods of communications and details of the report.
4) Please E-mail the information to me no later than 31 May 2004 so that I can compile it and distribute it prior to the Summer Annual Meeting on 2 June 2004

Here is a list of the folks who are either members of the ASME Grassroots Committee, consultants, or have otherwise shown an interest in participating with us:

Tom Libertiny, ASME Board on Government Relations
Jill C. Anderson, ASME Early Career Committee
Howard Berkof, ASME Early Career Committee
Doug Brown, Incoming Vice President, ASME Region X
Susan Ipri Brown, ASME Board on Government Relations
Aureen Currin, Leadership Development Intern (LDI 2002-2003), ASME Board of Governors
Larry Dickinson, Vice President, ASME Board on Member Interests & Development
Brian Dietz, Vice President, ASME Region X
Brian Erbstoesser, Vice President, ASME Region VII
Chip Glisson, Vice President of Human Resources, Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA)
Steve Johnson, CEO, Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)
Rebecca King, Chair, ASME Southeastern Michigan Section
Dan Koenig, ASME Past President
Dave Kramer, ASME Southeastern Michigan Section
Larry Luna, Leadership Development Intern (LDI 1997-1998), ASME Board of Governors
Monica Moman-Saunders, Past Vice President, ASME Board on Minorities &Women
Diane Peters, Chair, ASME Chicago Section
Bob Simmons, Vice President, ASME Engineering & Technology Management Group
Cindy Stong, Vice President, ASME Board on Professional Development
Keith Thayer, ASME Life Fellow
Todd Thomas, President, IMPACT Consulting and Development
Judith Todd, Vice President, ASME Manufacturing Division
Jonn Wesner, Past Vice President, ASME Systems & Design Group
Sam Zamriuk, ASME Board of Governors

Moving Forward
Things to Keep in Mind

In developing your written solutions, please keep the following in mind:
Ø Overriding principle--All plans, and programs must address the issue: “What is the benefit for our members?”
Ø Methods of plan development and analysis that need to be used in the future:
a. What is the problem(s) and root cause of the problem(s) that we’re trying to solve?
b. Risk analysis
c. Robust contingency plans with go/no-go dates
d. Realistic, measurable goals
e. Are the timetable(s) achievable?
f. Any reorganization plan of this magnitude needs to include specific dates where we review our metrics to determine if we’re on track. Since no one can foresee all of the potential benefits and pitfalls that we’ll face, we need to have predetermined contingency plans based on likely scenarios. This will allow us to focus our resources on fixing future problems that are truly unforeseen.


The Seven Issues
1) Global growth--As a society we need to decide if we are an American society or a Global society. At present, our society remains uncommitted to either philosophy. This is a challenging decision that we need to explicitly make since it will be a key factor in our future plans and has serious financial consequences for our society. The process used for making this decision needs to be a democratic one and inclusive of all our members.
2) Finance--The financial plan to move forward does not exist and our society is not willing to write a blank check. Financial issues that need to be addressed:
a. Financial plan development concurrently with other activities during the next 15 months.
b. Plan implementation and post-implementation cost analysis.
c. Our system for fund allocation is far too complicated and not transparent to our members.
d. Are our operating expenses and headquarter location comparable to other successful businesses and societies of similar size?
3) Simplicity (KISS)--We need a solid, simple operating structure.
4) People:
a. Do we have the right people in staff AND volunteer positions? What is the plan to draw from our membership’s depth of knowledge
b. Does the staffing size make sense?
5) Inclusiveness:
a. Build a formal mechanism for all feedback to the Board of Governors, Vice Presidents, Project Management Task Force and Project Management Review Team
b. Actively pursue feedback from our membership including:
Ø Early Career Committee (ECC)
Ø Leadership Development Interns (LDI)
Ø Minorities & Women
Ø Local section members
Ø Technical committee members
Ø Student section members
Ø ASME staff
6) Communications--We need more frequent face-to-face communication with our membership by senior staff members, particularly during the onset of the plan development activities. Decisions made at all levels of the society need to be easily available to our members.
7) Council on Education--The Council on Engineering (COE) and Council on Member Affairs (CMA) are joining forces; we need to formally bring the Council on Education (COEd) into that team.


Best regards,
Tom Libertiny
E-mail: Libertinyt@asme.org