President’s Message – January 2020

By Renee Hoekstra, CVS – President, SAVE International

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The SAVE International Board of Directors and myself would like to share in our excitement for the things we will be accomplishing for our Society and members in 2020, with your help of course. We’ve already been working on initiatives and this includes developing a stronger working relationship with Talley Management Group (TMG), our association management company.

So, let me begin by saying, I value each and every one of you and I know how busy we have been, and based on the current economy, will continue to be busy throughout 2020. I need you to ask yourselves the following questions: How important is value to you and what you do?; How important is SAVE to you and the things we must accomplish as a society?; and How important is our network of value leaders to you? These are very important questions.

SAVE provides ALL of us with the structure, the network, education and certification we need to grow and succeed as individuals and within each of our organizations. My article is going to focus on our membership and what SAVE needs from each of you.

Over the past six months, I have asked in every newsletter that you reach out to your SAVE Board members and volunteer your time and your energy to help us accomplish our strategic goals and action items. I would like to thank those of you who are currently serving on the various boards and committees and those of you who worked diligently to complete the Value Methodology Body of Knowledge (VMBoK). This plea is to the rest of you, and you know who you are. We have so much that we need to accomplish regarding certification, education, membership and marketing. We need your help!

You have all recently received an email from the SAVE business office – we only need a few of you, but we need you to help to serve on one of the two Tiger Teams. We need many of our younger members to join the Membership Tiger Team. We need to start thinking into the future and get out of our past of ‘how we used to do things’. In order for our Society to be viable, we must start thinking about how we move into the next decade. This Tiger Team will help us to accomplish this end.

The second Tiger Team is about growing the Value Methodology with marketing and outreach. Many of you, over the years, have made the following statement, “You know what we really need to do…” Now is the opportunity for you to step forward and help us to figure out exactly how and what we need to do to make our Society viable and one that individuals and organizations reach out to when they want to understand and entertain the adoption of value into everything they do. It is about growing the industry, sharing our knowledge and expanding the definition of value, including value enhancing methodologies.

So, I have just provided you with two opportunities. Now I’m going to provide you with several more. We need the excitement and the passion that many of you have to help steer our Society. In 2020, we have several Director positions coming available and I would like to see more of you reach out and ask to be included on the ballot. Please be aware that there is much work that needs to be accomplished within the U.S., I need locals to help us to focus on these issues. On the international front, we also need to figure out what you need from our Society, and this may be different than what we need within the U.S. Kathy Bethany, as our Past President, is responsible for our 2020 slate of officers and directors. We are looking for three Directors to serve on the SAVE Board. The positions are interchangeable, and we will engage you in different strategic action items to lead and support our goals over the next two years. This may include activities in marketing, communications, global affairs, education, membership, outreach, chapters, etc. The goal is to have individuals with, as I mentioned, the passion to do whatever it will take to help us grow and more importantly succeed in everything that we do. Please reach out to the SAVE business office at info@value-eng.org and volunteer to be on the slate for one of these Board of Directors positions. More information will be sent to members in January.

The best quote I can use comes from one of our U.S. Presidents, only changed to meet my needs, “Ask not what SAVE can do for you, but what you can do for SAVE”. If you want a changed society, be a part of the change.

We’ve had some great submissions for our Value Summit in New Orleans this June 6-10. You’re going to receive many of your PDUs at this event and then again at our 2021 Summit which will be in Arizona. The pre- and post-Summit workshops will be a great opportunity for expanding educational opportunities and the Summit is going to have some great knowledge nuggets as well. We are very excited about the entire program this year. Make sure to mark your calendar and join us.

Let’s all get excited about a new decade of value and welcome in 2020 with a year of change, growth and building new relationships and friendships!