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MINUTES OF THE
UTAH ENGINEERS COUNCIL
November 5, 2003 - 12:00 Noon
Van Boerum & Frank
330 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
Members Present: Members Absent:
Jeff Watkins, Chair ASHRAE Wendy Grosvenor, Treasurer ASHRAE
Linda Bachmeier, Vice-Chair SWE Kiran Bhayani AAEE
Sarah Winkler, 2nd Past Chair SEAU Bob Davis ACEC
Paul C. Oestreich IEEE Rick Campagna ASCE
Brent Maxfield SEAU Mike Costello ASME
Dan Bergenthal ITE Bill Cochran ASQ
Ken Randle AIAA Chad Walker IESNA
Susan Merrill Executive Secretary Mike Norrie SAME
Ron Roser SAMPE
Dale Bennett UCLS
Dan Church USPE
1. WELCOME
Jeff Watkins, UEC Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - October 1, 2003
Motion: Ken Randle moved to approve the minutes. Paul Oestreich seconded the motion. The
minutes were unanimously approved.
3. FINANCIAL REPORT - WENDY GROSVENOR
Wendy was not in attendance and no financial report was submitted to discuss. Susan did mention that
four societies have paid their dues and Journal assessment. They are AIAA, ITE, SWE and USPE.
All other societies still need to pay their dues and Journal assessments.
4. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. E-Week - Linda Bachmeier: Linda is waiting to hear back from Joe McBride about a
date the for the proclamation signing. Now that Olene Walker has been put in as the new governor,
things should settle down enough to get a date with the governor. For those who are not familiar with
it, every year we have the governor sign a proclamation declaring the week in February for E-Week as
Engineers Week in Utah. The signing usually takes place in December. Linda did get the artwork
from the National E-Week organization. She has given that to Sarah for the Journal. They do not
have a new overall theme out yet. They are still working on updating their web page.
Linda has left messages with Dave Bradshaw regarding the insurance. She is trying to
confirm with Gateway exactly what the insurance requirements are. We are going with Utah Foods
and are on their schedule. Gateway provides the tables. She needs to find out how big they are still.
The Union Pacific facility does not have a piano, so Linda decided to go with Jeff from Hill AFB again.
Rick Campagna is going to help out with banquet tickets. Mike Norrie is going to handle the
MESA teacher coordination effort. Jeff Watkins is going to coordinate with the universities. Sarah
Winkler is handling the flowers. Linda still needs to decide what to do with signs and banners. We
can seat up to 400 in the new banquet space.
The Journal should go out early enough to provide some advertising for the banquet.
We still need to obtain another half sponsor for the banquet. CH2MHills has committed for
half.
B. Publication Committee - Sarah Winkler: The deadlines for all Journal articles is our next
meeting which will be December 3, 2003.
Sarah passed around three sample cover pages submitted by the designer. We are going to
highlight 100 years of powered flight and the Wright Flyer in the Journal. We will probably go with the
cover that has the plane that looks like the Wright Flyer. Linda was concerned about the quality of the
photo. Sarah will check on it before a final decision is made.
The graphic designer is working on an artwork theme to use throughout the Journal.
We need advertising money to help pay for the Journal. Sarah is hoping that everyone in
UEC will at least do a business card ad. If anyone knows of someone who would be interested in
buying an ad in the Journal, please let Sarah know. Sarah passed out an advertising rate and
information packet. She would be happy to give one to anyone who is interested. The back cover is
only $600. Last time it was $2,000, so it is really a bargain.
Sarah asked Susan Merrill to talk about an option for next year. Susan has a neighbor who is
in the publishing business. Her name is Robin Sheppick. She works with Wasatch Mountain
Publishing, but does work on the side as well. She indicated to Susan that she would be doing this
job on the side out of her home. She said that she could provide a service like what Mills was
supposed to do for us, but didn’t. The Journal should not cost us anything. They would sell the
advertising, do the graphics, printing, etc. She works with a couple of gals who would sell the
advertising. They work with a lot of different printers, and Hudson, who we are using this year, is one
of them. It sounded like a great deal if they can make it work out. It wouldn’t cost us anything.
Linda said Wasatch was willing to do it two years ago with no cost from us, but they couldn’t
meet our publication timing because of the Olympics. When she contacted them last year, they weren’
t interested.
This option would be great for next year if we can make it work out.
C. Fund-raising - Paul Oestreich: The letters went out October 26, 2003. We have a
few more contacts on the database than we did last year. Now we just need to follow-up.
D. Membership - Jay Nelson: Nothing to report.
E. Legislative - Wendy Grosvenor/Dale Bennett: Paul Oestreich talked about IEEE’s
concerns about H-1 visas. There is a rumor that Senator Hatch is interested in raising the cap. A lot
of electrical engineers are looking for jobs, so it is a hot issue for electrical engineers. It probably has
an effect on other engineers as well. IEEE-USA has some lobbyists who are trying to find out what
Senator Hatch’s position is. There have been some discussions, but there is no real decision to put
something in legislation, yet. IEEE is trying to keep the limits where they are. The numbers that were
mentioned were 115,000 up from 65,000, so it would almost double.
Linda Bachmeier mentioned that her perception based on her experience is that a number of
U.S. graduates do not have job offers coming out of school. She suggested that someone contact the
universities in the state and get their hiring numbers from last year and also this year’s projected
numbers from them. The number of companies on campus has dropped significantly. Many students
have to go to graduate school or do something else because they haven’t been able to find jobs. There
are a lot of experienced engineers looking for jobs right now, so that makes it harder for graduating
students to find jobs - a lot of companies are going for the experience. If the number of visas is
increased, it will just make the problem worse.
IEEE is trying to set up a meeting with Senator Hatch when he comes to Utah. It might
happen in December. Paul thought that other engineering societies might be interested in participating.
He will let us know when that meeting is set up.
If you bring someone in on a visa and train and develop them for three years, and then can’t
retain them long-term, those are lost resources for the company.
F. Awards Committee - Carl Cook: Carl could not attend today. He told Jeff that he
needs names and pictures for Engineering Educator of the Year nominees and Engineer of the Year
nominees. He also needs Fresh Faces nominee pictures by December 1 for the Journal. Sarah has
received pictures so far from AIAA and SWE.
G. Scholarship Committee - Wendy Grosvenor: Wendy was not in attendance.
5. OTHER BUSINESS
Sarah mention the request from the University of Utah for someone from UEC to attend the
accreditation process. That occurred a week and a half ago and spanned a period of three days.
Sarah attended six to eight hours of meetings in the process. Stan Postma also attended some of the
meetings as a representative of the Licensing Board. They acted as observers. As a whole Sarah feels
the University did well. Sarah was specifically in the civil engineering department. She said that they
have come a long way from almost being closed down in 1991. This process happens every six
years. There are new guidelines this time.
Brent Maxfield asked if UEC sponsors any activities for Engineers Week on the college campuses.
UEC does not due to the fact that putting on the Banquet takes all of our current resources. UEC
would be interested in doing so in the future, but we would need to have more volunteer help. Jeff
Watkins will be acting as University Coordinator this year so we can be aware of what they are doing.
We will again have the universities with their displays at the banquet, as we do every year. Brent
suggested that maybe UEC could send out a letter to the university engineering departments giving
them contact information for the different societies and encouraging them to contact the organizations
and request their support and help in their various E-Week activities.
Linda mentioned that she will not be able to attend the December meeting. She will get the information
to Jeff that needs to be discussed at that time. Linda will get the scholarship information to Wendy
Grosvenor as soon as possible.
6. ADJOURNMENT
Motion: Sarah Winkler moved to adjourn.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:46 p.m.
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