Message from Linda Bauer Darr, ACEC National President & CEO

To the ACEC Community, 

This past Sunday marked the beginning of Engineers Week. For more than six decades, E-Week has been a celebration of the innovation, ingenuity, and imagination of our industry and our colleagues. We all know that every week is Engineers Week, but this week is an opportunity to spotlight what it means to be an engineer – and, conversely, to spotlight what engineering means to the world. To that end, I will do one last push to encourage you to participate this year. If you haven’t already checked out our E-Week resources page, there is still time!

A bit of pertinent trivia about the timing of E-Week: mid-February was chosen to coincide with George Washington’s birthday. Because of his survey work and his innate gift for design, President Washington is considered our nation’s first engineer. Fitting that the father of our country is also one of the fathers of our industry. Just another example of America as we know it not being possible without engineering.

That’s the case we’re making in this changed environment. For those of you who are finding the new political terrain difficult to navigate, the most important thing to remember is that we must think long term and not be distracted by sensational headlines driven by a relentless 24-hour news cycle. Our posture with this administration is the same as it's been with every other: “Let’s work together to get important things done.” The journey may look different, but the destination remains the same. More than 650 members attended our Advocacy team briefing on the Trump EOs. The session is available on demand if you missed it. There will be another virtual session next Tuesday, this one focused on EOs related to DEI.  

Last week, we hosted in our DC offices the winter meeting of the Federal Agencies and Procurement Advocacy (FAPA) Committee, our open committee composed of firms that hold direct contracts with the federal government. It was a very successful session, notwithstanding our last-minute shift to virtual because of a DC snowstorm. The Small Business Administration discussed how many of their recent rule changes will affect business strategies and teaming relationships going forward. We were excited to hear from the top civilian leadership with the Tri-Services: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), and the U.S. Air Force. Thankfully, our Defense agencies have more stability and are continuing projects with the exception of wind projects.

With so much disruption and uncertainty in the federal marketplace, the FAPA Committee has established a task force to develop acquisition improvement recommendations for the new administration and Congress. Thanks to Liz Collins from Collins Engineers and Chris Anderson from DJ&A for their leadership on this committee. If you have any questions or would like to become involved, please contact Bradley Saull 

ACEC recently entered a partnership with Informed Infrastructure magazine under which we would take ownership of the magazine’s monthly Future Forward column. Our first column – authored by ACEC Research Institute Chair Mike Carragher – has just been published. You can read it here. If you have any suggestions for future column topics, pass those along to Jeff Urbanchuk  

Finally, this coming weekend is our (ACEC National) Engineering Excellence Awards judging process. Nearly 200 projects have been submitted for consideration. Our judges will evaluate these projects and winnow them down to 24 winners: 16 Honor Awards and eight Grand Awards. The big prize – the Grand Conceptor – will be chosen from those eight Grand Awards. Who will succeed Grand Central Madison as this year’s big winner? Find out at the EEA Gala on May 20 in Washington!  

Have a great week,