Leadership Dynamics

About one-tenth of ASME's membership resides outside the United States (in 138 countries), and ASME's global initiatives continue to push that growth both in professional and student participation. ASME has established ASME Asia Pacific, a limited liability company, which will enable the Society to further its global outreach in codes and standards, conformity assessment, continuing education, and other programs. It was operational in February 2007 and we're planning to open an office in Shanghai in the near future. In addition to our world headquarters in New York, ASME has offices in Washington, Atlanta, Houston, Brussels, and Beijing, and we are exploring opportunities in India to better support needs and challenges in that market as well.

Terry Shoup

Focused on improving the networking opportunities that engineers need today, the global character of the Society is clearly reflected in the drive to collaborate and partner. In this way, we can increase the effectiveness of the resources we use to support programs and activities. This approach also changes the leadership needs within the Society. This year's flagship training opportunity for ASME leadership met in Houston in March to focus on "Connecting Communities." It was an opportunity for us to look closely at how members are best served and what is working well among all the units-sections, divisions, institutes, and centers.

The Leadership Training Conference (LTC) 2007 built on the suggestions from last year to devise workshops and group activities that create solutions or action plans to solve real-time membership challenges. It provided leaders an opportunity to share best practices, form partnerships with other units, and focus on critical issues important to the Society's success. To be sure, ASME leaders must be committed to build on these leadership challenges, to be accountable for program plans, and must continue to seek suitable partners for fruitful collaborations.

Because of our leadership, ASME's future has never looked better. The LTC is key to enabling our leadership to be the best in the profession. At our leadership conference, we had excellent representation of our intended volunteer leadership team. Nearly half of the 249 delegates were new officers, and they represented 100 (of 219) sections, 32 (of 34) divisions, and representatives from all five sectors. Ninety percent had never been to an ASME leadership training conference before. Particularly successful this year were the poster presentations by each of the five ASME sectors, 25 (of 34) divisions, 2 (of 4) institutes, the research center, all 10 districts, the VOLT (Volunteer Orientation and Leadership Training) Academy, and the Young Engineers Correspondents.

What added a special dynamic to this year's meeting was that 27 students and 13 members from the Young Engineers Community were invited, each selected from qualifying essays. With all this new energy, the group discussions were exciting. Definite progress was made in developing a sense of teamwork to facilitate communication and collaboration. For example, Drexel student Frank Barmes, one of the attendees, has contributed his comments to ASME Connections (www.asme.org/About/Connections/), sharing a brainstorming exercise on how to retain graduating engineering students. He challenges us to broaden the exercise, and I suggest using our Communities of Practice (http://cop.asme.org/) as a forum to do this, either in the Student Section Operations CoP or in one your own communities.

Online volunteer resources continue to support the progress begun at the LTC and extend even to those officers who could not attend. The online leadership toolbox, ASME's career development series, and other VOLT Academy training resources are also augmented by Webcasts for individuals or groups. Watch for announcements on upcoming Webcasts on merit funding changes, for example, which are planned in the near future.

The true test of our success is in how well we serve the needs of our members, the needs of the profession, and the needs of society in general. The single most important ingredient in meeting these needs is good leadership. The key to good leadership continues to be training and the connections we make. These dynamics of leadership and the changing nature of our profession challenge us to collaborate across ASME communities worldwide.

— Terry Shoup
ASME President 2006–2007

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