By Renee Hoekstra, CVS – President, SAVE International
As your newly elected President, I begin my journey with SAVE International membership with great optimism and excitement. This opportunity allows me to continue on my personal value journey where I have met, befriended and worked with many of you in the organization. This has included individuals from the U.S. and throughout the world, and I’m looking forward to continuing with all of you, as well as making new friends and acquaintances and, more importantly, looking for your support over the next two years.
My goal and the goal of the Board is to see SAVE become a stronger organization by being recognized as the “go to” organization when people want to know about value, innovation, creativity and whatever the heck “function” has to do with anything. Have you ever noticed the strange looks you get when you first tell people about function? They get a perplexed look on their face and wrinkle their forehead, and then, when the “ah ha” moment occurs, it is fun to watch. I’m still excited to be a part of all of this and I want to help others get excited as well. What I’m also hoping is that I can get each and every one of you re-energized and excited about SAVE and to take an active role in helping the Board and your local chapters to accomplish some very exciting things over the next two years. Our Board and I cannot do this without you.
Our focus over the next two years is based on the Board’s Strategic Planning session that occurred in September. We spent two days together with the Board, and some additional government and industry members to talk about the future of SAVE. We have identified some very specific actions which fall into our short-term (1-2 years) and long-term (3-5 years) categories.
In the long-term, a few items include:
- Rebranding SAVE to help market our organization including the potential for renaming what we do
- Developing a career path for students and others in VM
- Building more recognition for Certified Value Specialists and our certification process
Over the-short term, to share a few:
- We have a strong focus on marketing the value methodology to owners including government and industry
- Inter-organizational agreements with sister-professional organizations
- Developing a tool kit for government to use to market and educate management and individuals about VM
- Increasing and retaining membership: U.S., students and government
- Help to support chapters with marketing and programs
- Identifying and understanding training and PDUs for certification
- Developing an Ethics Review Committee
- A strong focus on finishing the Value Methodology Body of Knowledge (VMBoK)
The next two years are going to include a focus for all of us. I know that there is much to do and it will take some time and dedication to help SAVE members, chapters and international affiliates to continue to improve and be the best professional organization we can be with your help. Please reach out to your Board members: Mike Pearsall, George Obaranec, Martyn Phillips, Tammy Dow, Anthony Dunams, Jacqueline Fahmy, Rob Stewart, Bob Rude and our Past President Kathy Bethany. And of course, I am always available to be of service.
I presented two conferences ago and the title of the presentation was “Spreading the Word and the Word is VM” and that is my theme for the next two years. Come join us!
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