By Michael Pearsall, P.Eng., CVS, FEC – President, SAVE International
All Good Things Come to an End, However There are Always New VM Applications
I have been dreading writing this column and put it off as long as I could. Why is that? Well, the astute readers will have noted that this is my last Value World submission as President of SAVE International. From here I go on to join the esteemed ranks of Past Presidents.
The time has flown by much too fast. When I embarked on this journey, I certainly didn’t expect that much of my term would be clouded by a global pandemic. As such, there has been drastically far less travel than I expected. I dreamed that I would get to represent SAVE at conferences in Europe (I was hoping for Hungary), Asia and Japan. Alas, none of that came to be.
However, it has still been a rewarding and satisfying experience. The only in-person conference available for me during my term was the SAVE 2022 Value Summit in Arizona. I thoroughly enjoyed last-year’s Value Summit and had a great time seeing old friends and getting back together with my SAVE friends for the first time in three years!
I may have had an optimism bias on some of the work we could accomplish for the society. However, when I look back, I see some great things the Board has accomplished in the past two years. In particular, I can’t wait for everyone to see the new eLearning course. Many thanks to the team for what has been completed and what is to come in the near future.
Similarly, we are on the verge of some exciting developments on the advocacy front at the chapter level. Stay tuned to Value World to see what is in the works.
Through it all, I need to thank Mary Ann Lewis, Kathy Bethany and Renee Hoekstra for encouraging and mentoring me as I followed the path from Board member to President-Elect and finally President. They were all amazing and hard acts to follow. I must also thank Rob Stewart for stepping up to be my Vice President / President Elect and all he brings to the role. I’m sure I may end up a forgotten footnote in history between these four titans of the methodology – there are far much worse fates.
Of course, I also need to thank so many people from the SAVE global membership who have been supportive and encouraging as well. I have benefited the last couple of years from a great Board of hard workers – thank you to all the current Board members and the ones who were there at the start of my term, many friends and solid volunteers with the best interest of SAVE always in mind.
That all said, I am certainly not riding off into the sunset. I am encouraged by the amount of studies on-going these days. As well, I had the opportunity recently to train a bunch of new people in my organization who wish to get more involved in Value Analysis. This is a great sign, as I saw sparks in some young people much like I personally experienced over 25 years ago. I am also encouraged by some of the companies and governments who have contacted me recently wanting advice on how to get a VM program started. We are definitely in a post-pandemic period of new growth.
I have many duties still to carry out over the next couple of years as Immediate Past President, then I plan on continuing to volunteer for SAVE as opportunities arise.
I can’t wait until the next time we see each other to get caught up. In the interim, I wish you all the best in your workshops!
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