By Ayoub Talhami, PE
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the early steps that led to what became AAAEA, and I was asked to write this article as a small token celebrating our early beginnings. While gladly accepting the task, I am choosing to write as an observer taking a broad view free from the shackles of details and thus free to roam. I am more concerned with the long-term future rather the past but share a deep commitment for the survival of AAAEA over the foreseeable decades. I will therefore reflect not only on our successes but, more importantly, on the underlying factors that will continue to affect our future. In doing so, I have talked to and sought the views of those who served in elected offices, but what follows reflects only my own views, some of which may be provocative.
Those who took the initiative ten years ago are the pioneers who made it all happen. They deserve our deep gratitude. Their accomplishment will speak on their behalf for years to come. All of you, who participated in those early meetings, please stand up and take a bow without being called by name, because no records were kept and memories have faded. By design or divine guidance, you devised a successful formula to serve you in the design of the foundation, the frame and the superstructure. Your formula was the epitome of simplicity and common sense: an organization with a clear purpose and narrowly defined focus whose membership qualifications are two: a learned profession and ethnicity. The learned profession is engineering which is dedicated to serve the health, safety and welfare of mankind. The ethnicity is broadly defined as ancestry which hails from an Arab country, with the term "Arab" understood to mean culture rather than pure ethnicity. The organization you created transcends nationality, politics, religion, sects, dialects and hometowns, regardless of whatever coloration may fit the majority of the membership at any given time. For the last ten years, we were fortunate by having had at the helm of the organization successive leaderships that continued to sanctify the focus and the vision without deviations or detours, despite occasional pull and push. Each administration continued to follow the course and build on the accomplishments of the previous administration. Each was motivated by commitment to public service, not power, ego, glory or personal agenda . Bill Masri, Ahmad Hammed, Soliman Khudeira and Abder Rahman Ghouleh, please take a bow. Clear and narrowly defined focus has been the underlying factor that distinguishes AAAEA and keeping this focus in sight has enabled us to be where we are now.
By design or divine guidance also, the bylaws created an advisory Board, which has no enumerated duties or powers. Ultimately, the Board will consist of ten past presidents and five appointed members. I am discussing this matter here only because of what the Board has become to signify and the subtle influence it has acquired. The initial members of the Board were all appointed by the Executive Committee and consisted of members deemed to be committed to the goals and success of the organization, or who by virtue of professional experience or stature, organizational experience or involvement, were deemed to possess the expertise, ability and willingness to give of themselves for the good of the organization. The Board has now been enriched by the four past presidents with the hands-on experience they bring and will be further enriched by future past presidents. We need not know if this was an underhanded way to ensnare the past presidents and keep them around, involved and available or it was simply divine guidance. What matters is that the Board has become a repository of talent, expertise and commitment standing by to be called upon for special tasks or assignments, provide input or consultation, serve on committees, and has become also a thread of stability and continuity. The composition of the Board and the working relationship with the Executive Committee have, subtly and imperceptibly, transformed the Board into a symbolic beacon whose flickering light is a constant reminder of the focus, direction, values and traditions, and at times a symbolic compass to point the way, all without becoming intrusive and without forgetting that it is only advisory.
Organizations are distinguished by the services they offer to their membership and these services become the magnet for new members to join and the current members to renew. Thus the cycle goes on and the organization earns added credibility and a new lease on life. For a good summary of the cumulative accomplishments over the years, I strongly recommend visiting the May 2006 issue of our Newsletter, where immediate Past President Abder Rahman Ghouleh gave an excellent and very readable report. Here I would only highlight some areas of what was well done and what else we need to address. AAAEA earns a medal for its services to the members at large as well as the community in general in these areas: EIT and PE review courses, technical seminars, field trips, math counts, bridge competition, WYSE, ACT tutoring for high school students, involvement in other engineering organizations, particularly the Illinois Engineering Council where four of our members have served or are currently serving as officers: Hani Miri as President, Soliman Khudeira as Vice President, Ahmad Hammad as Director and Moosa Matariyeh as Secretary. Another medal goes to the efforts invested in career enhancement, assistance in the preparation of resumes and coaching for job interviews. Many a member secured employment, relocation or advancement through these efforts and more importantly through the informal networking and referrals. Our web site and Forum have become valuable links amongst our members and between them and others nationally and internationally to share views, seek help, solve problems and offer advice for sticky situations that engineers all over face daily. These endeavors should certainly be sustained and expanded.
Kudos to our successive membership committees over the years for having done a credible job without being hampered by the fact that they functioned as a
"committee of one" for the most part. Our membership has oscillated around 200 and at times reached 300. New blood has come in and old workhorses are still around. It should be said however that membership retention and expansion are not the responsibility of the membership chairman or committee alone, although the membership committee must continue to shoulder the load. For that, it does need a chairman plus working members.
In this connection, a general observation should be noted about committees in general. They are the backbone of any organization and the training ground for future leaders. They are where the real work is done and where loyal and dedicated members deliver accomplishments while, for the most part, they remain nameless and faceless, the unknown soldiers whose work speaks on their behalf. In our case however, a disproportionate portion of the load continues to be borne by the President and a few elected officers. This should not be the case. We need to strive to reach a stage where each Committee Chairman recruits members to serve on the committee, identifies goals for the year, prepares a timeline for the execution and presents periodic status reports. The President delegates, monitors and follows up. When we reach that stage, we will then, and only then, have become an institution that can perpetuate itself, regardless of who the president and the elected officers may be. Probably one of the early tasks that a future president should look into is to hold a training session for all committee volunteers and the elected officers to address this issue and embark on a course of action.
There are two other areas that we need to pursue and nurture further. The Business Owners group could be nudged and encouraged to develop into an autonomous division with its own elected chairman and AAAEA V.P. as its liaison. Considering the increasing number of student members, we can begin exploring the establishment of campus chapters. Part of the student membership fees can be diverted to this effort. AAAEA V.P. may be designated to lead the effort with members of the Advisory Board drafted to serve as campus mentors/counselors.
Our organization has been on a gradually ascending curve and from all indications we can look forward for many more years of continuity. The seeds that were sown in Chicago have grown, flowered and matured and the pollen has traveled to other locations. Saplings have begun to grow in Milwaukee, Detroit and Houston with signs of growth in Ohio. Where do we want to be in 2025 and how do we get there? Time may have come to begin thinking about developing a Strategic Plan in the next two years. All well-established organizations have developed their own plans to meet their own goals and continue to update the plan periodically as a guide for the future. The expertise and systematic methodology necessary to develop such a plan can be learned or developed with the help of others. I like to look for 2008 as a milepost for a preliminary plan tentatively called HORIZON 2025.
