2020: The Year Ahead
by Mark R. Evans, ASEP, President-2020 INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter
In the early part of each year, the Board of Directors enters a strategic and operational planning phase. I was recently reflecting upon the purpose and effectiveness of the Chesapeake Chapter and wondering whether we should change our focus in any way for 2020 or continue the same successful course we’ve followed for several years. The Chesapeake Chapter is after all, a highly successful chapter with a continuing record of success using the various INCOSE metrics to assess our success. The Chapter achieved the ‘Platinum’ Chapter award in 2019 for an unprecedented fourth year in a row. Do we really need to change anything? Change for the sake of change is rarely a good policy, but refusal to change, or inability to change where change is needed can be the death knell of an otherwise healthy organization. Running a non-profit engineering society is not easy. For it to have any viability, it must be beneficial to the membership and the engineering community at large. These advertised benefits to the membership must be continually assessed for their viability: (1) access to the best engineering information available, (2) continuing education and training for skills enhancement, (3) enabling career growth, (4) professional enrichment through networking and association with experts, (5) establishing and certifying a recognized credential set, and (6) and assisting job search.
How are we doing? Based upon last year’s survey of our membership: we don’t really know! Last year’s survey was disappointing; 6 people bothered to respond from a membership polling of 320+. Expect another survey this year but expect a different approach with an appeal for new ideas and new activities for better serving the needs of our members and community.
Last year, while compiling the many accomplishments of the Chesapeake Chapter, I sent out a data call for help! I received an email response that just blew me away. Members came out of the woodworks to share their systems engineering accomplishments during the year. The 2019 accomplishments and achievements of the Chapter membership are impressive, and they are probably largely unknown. If they are as unknown to the membership as they were to the board, we want to change this situation, because there can be a significant benefit to the membership by increasing the access to the state of the engineering art that is being advanced by our own membership. To that end, I am proposing a new blog that will focus on capturing and sharing all the noteworthy information produced by our Chapter members. As an example, in case you missed it, there were 7 papers presented at the 2019 INCOSE International Symposium that enriched the discipline of systems engineering: https://www.incose-cc.org/blog/is2019-aar?rq=papers .
Two papers impressed me as papers that significantly advance the state of the art:
Speaking in Tongues: The Systems Engineering Challenge by Zane Scott
Appreciative Methods Applied to the Assessment of Complex Systems by Watson, M, Anway, R, McKinney, D, Rosser, L, and MacCarthy, J.
So, for 2020, we plan to keep doing the things that work and put renewed emphasis on these three items:
Make the membership more aware of the information and achievements produced by the membership and encourage the membership to report their fine achievements.
Increase our community membership. To that end, just one of the methods we will be initiating is a membership drive asking each member to tryout increasing our membership by recruiting one engineering friend. A 10% success rate would be a big boost.
Increase the organizational outreach and sponsorship. Corporations and agencies are the bedrock, fundamental support of the Chapter. In addition to much needed financial support, they bring an experienced and professional group of people that is foundation of our membership.
We are always open to great ideas, but we are also limited by resources in what we can undertake during a year’s operation. The time to plan and decide is right now! Don’t wait for our survey; send your good ideas in. Our end goal is: Systems Engineering--Making the world a better place, one project at a time!