Previous reorganization offers lessons for the current one

Emily M. Smith
ASME NEWS

The budget process was difficult. Communications among ASME's operating units needed improvement. And the process of establishing goals for the Society needed to be more balanced.

The year was 1978. And after much discussion and consideration, ASME initiated a method for arriving at a solution that will sound familiar to ASME members of today: Hire the consulting firm Arthur D. Little to study the problems and help form a plan to fix them.

From that reorganization of ASME — the implementation of which began in 1979 with changes to the organization's constitution and bylaws being made — the Society's Board of Governors and five governing councils were born.

"I think the process [of reorganization] is evolutionary as well as revolutionary," said Don Zwiep, who served as president of ASME from 1979-80 and was part of the committee that recommended the Society's first major restructuring.

One of the biggest factors that led to the hiring of A.D. Little then, Zwiep said, was "the significant imbalance between the regional vice presidents and the technical vice presidents" when it came to setting goals for the Society.

The impartiality of the Board of Governors largely solved the consensus-building problems as well as the budgetary issues because that group was able to focus on the broader needs of the Society instead of more parochial issues, Zwiep explained. "With large groups, setting goals is always difficult."

The new areas in which ASME now needs to be involved were not part of the previous reorganization, Zwiep said. The issues in 1978 were more internal than external. And the solution "has operated quite effectively for 20 years," he explained, adding that, because ASME functions on a much greater international basis than it had in the past, the focus now needs to be on external markets.

 

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