NSPE Western Regional Meeting in Reno NV 1998
NSPE WESTERN REGION

January 30, 1998
Pres-Elect's Conference/Forum/etc....

see list of attendees
Welcome (James L "Jim" Szatkowski, PE)
-intro guests: Ron Carducci, Natl Treasurer;
Howard Blitman, Title Task Force and Nominee for Natl Treasurer;
Ken Walch, Natl President
-into attendees:
Alaska: Colin Maynard, PE
Arizona: Jon C Schwindt, PE
California: W. Clifford Ishii, PE
Marti Kramer, Exec Dir
Hawaii: Bruce E Witcher, PE
Idaho: James A "Jim" DeShazer, PE
Montana: Bradley D Ebel, PE
Oregon: Jonathan E "Jon" Frederick, PE
Dena Nelson, Exec Dir
Utah: Gerald E "Gerry" Wheeler, PE
Washington: Robert B "Bob" MacDuff, PE
Colleen Yuhl, Exec Dir
Guam:

Announcements
-mtg on Sat evening with TX and States Supporting the TX resolution

Topics Discussed:

Oregon, Texas, etc.....
Focal Point in Organization
Trial program being considered by Sylar Task Force is probably too late,
whether it works or not, we can't wait 3-5 yrs to find out.

Membership and Meetings:
Several had used the opportunity for training courses - PE and FE Review

Pacific Rim Economy vis a vis Mainland economy.
$ crash in PacRim has forced several engineers to appear on the coast and in HI looking for work.

Open Discussion by States...
Alaska: Mandatory �mediation' legislation passed.
Arizona: "paid when paid" legislation passed. Web site up (didn't remember the URL). Gave up on monthly meetings and switched to speciality meeting with similar groups on a specialty basis - working good.
California: passed out a written report. Web site: www.cspe.org
Hawaii: working on Continuing Education legislation. Maui Prince is the site of the Western Regional Meeting �98
Idaho: financial situation has improved over the past several years from in the �red' to about $27 K in the �black' because of improved annual meeting program.
Montana: finally got Board of Registration an inspector to prosecute engineering issues and have now a lobbyist.
Nevada:
Oregon: Semi-independent Board finally obtained. Ability to require CPD also acquired. They also have a web site: www.pro-engineers-oregon.org
Utah: Web site: www.inovion.com/~jamesski/USPE/ Have a �mentoring' program where members address the senior seminar at the engineering universities.
Washington: Web page under development; Had some Membership Task Force issues; Licensing Board has been understaffed since the Gov wanted addl minorities on the Board.
Guam

Western Regional Breakfast Meeting
Silver Club Casino, Town Square Restaurant
February 1, 1998
Reno-Sparks, NV

Attendees: see list
Guests: Ken Walch, Pres, NSPE; Jo Walch

Cliff Iishi gave an update on the Calif PEG proposal.

Ken Walch was asked (Charley Vaughan) to make sure that the
constitutional requirements of a ballot (and the Texas Initiative
Ballot ) be presented to the membership clearly and entirely...so
that the members can make an informed decision.

Floyd Summers talked about making more professional development
available to members. He discussed a 2 day seminar that could be
presented at the national meeting. Would need $4-5,000 commitment,
and hopefully, cost would be around $200/person to take the training.
Discussion was that it might be better to put the seminar under a
practice division instead of the WR. PEC was mentioned.

Jim DeShazen said that NSPE was in a position to help universities
with the ABET Criterion 2000. Jim was asked to contact Clark Beck,
PhD, PE or Carl Locke, PhD, PE of PEE regarding this issue.

Jim Szatkowski recognized NV for the tour of the UNR facilities and
the reception.

Ken Walch mentioned the CA virtual student Chapter and
Ms Silvia Reynoso who was the Chapter President and present
at the meeting. She spoke about the chapter and gave us an update on
her recruiting efforts - especially the good response she received
from a direct, email campaign.

TASS software is supposed to be out (now) in Aug-Sept 1998. States
need to sign a commitment to get training (at their cost) for their
execs/staff/personnel who will be using the software. Discussion was
to possibly fund the IS trainer to the WR wherein the WR could share
the cost (or the WR states could share the cost of the training vice
paying it individually). Ken said, of course, that could be arranged
and Jim surveyed the WR to see if any states present intended _not_
to use it at this time. Five of the states present indicated that
they did not plan to use it. Jim talked about the �promise' from
NSPE when the Board approved the acquisition that the software would
be able to provide the data to the states (if they wanted it that way)
in a non- proprietary form (like comma & quote delimited) and that
NSPE would be able to receive data from the states likewise. Jim
talked with the new IS manager, Dave, and he said that there were
no plans to receive it that way. Dena, from PEO, reported that she
had been sending member information directly to NSPE Membership
Director (Thomas) via email and hadn't received confirmation on the
data consistently, but had intermittent acknowledgments and the
data, on the printouts she had received was sometimes updated and
sometimes not. Ken W asked that she forward to him concrete examples
the next time there was a problem and he'd address it specifically
at NSPE.

Discussion on whether NSPE is a member - driven or Staff-driven
entity. Bill Kilcullen said that he felt that the organization was
a member driven org when he joined and that we needed to have more
than one Board meeting a year to conduct the business as members.
Jim S noted that there is not a constitutional mandate on the
number of Board meetings possible, but simply the Board voted
to drop from 2 funded meetings to 1 to none. Ken noted that
we should spend much more money on programs and less on governance
and mentioned that we could work with a much smaller Board. Ken
also said that if we didn't cut our cost of �governance' we'd
go broke.

Bill K discussed the WR candidate for Treasurer, Ron Carducci and
passed out a brochure on Ron's candidacy.