L. D. Miles Value Foundation Board Activities

By Sara Lenzer – Secretary, Miles Value Foundation

The Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation (MVF) held its Annual Business Meeting followed by the Board of Directors Meeting in Philadelphia, PA on August 27, 2017, the first day of the SAVE International Value Summit. Prior to the meetings, Director Jim Rains announced his retirement from the Board effective following the meetings. A Past President of SAVE, Rains has served on the MVF Board for 21 years as Director, Treasurer and Chairman. His contributions to MVF, SAVE and promoting the Value Methodology are numerous and significant. He and his lovely wife, Debby, will be sorely missed by all the Foundation members.

During the Business Meeting, the Board conducted elections for Director. Drew Algase, Jay Mandelbaum, Javier Masini, Robert Stewart and Jim Vickers were re-elected for three-year terms. The Board also elected Tammy Dow, M.Sc.Eng., P.Eng., CVS, with AECOM, as a new Director. Ms. Dow is a member of both SAVE and Value Analysis Canada (VAC), formerly the Canadian Society of Value Analysis. She has served on the VAC Board of Directors since 2007. She is a Professor of Value Engineering for Conestoga College, and will work closely with Dr. Stephen Kirk, MVF Vice-President Education, to further the MVF’s educational outreach.

The MVF is a non-profit organization, and the Directors are non-paid volunteers from the fields of government, academia, construction, industry and management. To ensure mutual support and agreement between the MVF and the professional society of SAVE, the MVF Board requires at least one of its Directors to be a Fellow of SAVE, in addition to the current SAVE President serving as one of its Directors.

The Directors of the MVF Board are:

  • Ginger Adams, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Drew Algase, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • James Bolton, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Tammy Dow, CVS
  • Richard Harrington, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Stephen Kirk, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Bruce Lenzer, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Jay Mandelbaum
  • Javier Masini, CVS
  • Donald Parker, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • Robert Stewart, CVS-Life, FSAVE
  • István Tarjáni, CVS
  • James Vickers
  • Katherine Bethany, SAVE President

At the MVF Board Meeting, the Board conducted elections for MVF Officers and the Executive Committee. The MVF officers of 2017/2018 are:

  • Chairman – Drew Algase
  • Executive Director – James Bolton
  • President – Bruce Lenzer
  • Vice-President Operations – TBD
  • Vice-President Education – Stephen Kirk
  • Treasurer – James Vickers
  • Secretary – Sara Lenzer

The members of the 2017/2018 Executive Committee are:

  • Chairman – Drew Algase
  • Executive Director – James Bolton
  • President (voting Director) – Bruce Lenzer
  • Vice-President Operations – Open
  • Treasurer (voting Director) – James Vickers
  • Vice-President Education – Stephen Kirk

At the annual business meeting, Bruce Lenzer, President, expressed appreciation to Jim Rains for his years of service on the Board. Lenzer then presented his annual President’s report that included the MVF efforts and accomplishments of the past year, some of which are noted below. The report can be found on the Lawrence D. Miles Value Foundation website at www.valuefoundation.org.

Current Activities

  • One of the primary objectives of the Foundation is to advance the state of the art and application of the Value Methodology. To encourage this endeavor, MVF presented an award of $250 for the Paper of the Year to the applicant who wrote the best paper on successfully applying the VM in a “real world setting.” Out of 61 papers submitted and reviewed by Directors Stephen Kirk and Don Parker, this year’s award went to Chandan Sinha, of Tata Steel Limited, for writing “Electrical and IT Requirements for a Central Warehouse.”
  • MVF Director Javier Masini, recently relocated from Mexico to Goodyear, AZ, has overseen the conversion to digital book form of several of the MVF’s books by King, Fallon, and Parker, and also The Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering by Larry Miles. These eBooks are for sale on the MVF website and Amazon.com.
  • István Tarjáni, MVF Director from Hungary, created the Hungarian translation with English subtitles for the video, A Tribute to Larry Miles – Larry Miles Legacy, featuring interviews of people who worked or associated with Miles. This original English version of the video is offered at no cost on both the MVF and SAVE websites, and the Hungarian translation is offered at no cost on the SHVA and MVF
  • István Tarjáni also produced the Value USB Pen Drive to be given as a gift in exchange for a $20 minimum tax-deductible donation to the MVF. The memory sticks were available at the MVF booth during the SAVE Value Summit in Philadelphia.
  • In addition to these projects, the MVF offers an educational forum each year at the SAVE Value Summit. At this year’s Forum, Dr. Kirk expounded upon the new VM Fundamentals I and II training programs that are replacing the Module I and II. He also introduced a training video, the Function Analysis Knowledge Nugget. Then Bruce Lenzer demonstrated “Facilitating the Function Analysis Phase of the Job Plan” with participation from the attendees.
  • MVF is working on the latest revision of its popular Value Methodology Pocket Guide published by Goal QPC. The information contained in this book is part of the SAVE Body of Knowledge, along with the Function Analysis Guide and the VM Standard.
  • MVF also continues to improve its website to promote the Value Methodology. We encourage you to check it out at valuefoundation.org.