President’s Message – July/August 2023

By Robert Stewart, CVS-Life, FSAVE, PMP, PMI-RMP – President, SAVE International

I am honored to assume the role of President of SAVE International for the next two years. It has been a pleasure serving on the Board of Directors and I am very enthusiastic about working closely with them as we continue to follow the path that Mike Pearsall pointed us toward.

I would like to discuss a few areas that will be the Board’s focus for the next biennium. These include:

1. Education & Certification – We will be completing the ongoing updates to the VMF 1 training curriculum and develop a new VMF 2 curriculum. Along with this new educational content there will be a full transition of the certification and testing process that fully aligns with the VM Guide and the Function Analysis Guide.
2. Promotion & Advocacy – We will seek to establish and empower a U.S. Value Advocacy Board to focus on promoting and advocating for VM within the United States. This entity will focus on supporting both public and private sector organizations that maintain, or are seeking to establish, VM Programs.
3. Organization – Finally, we will strengthen the organizational structure of SAVE to better attune it to the needs of its members. There are some chapters that are very active and are thriving; however, many chapters continue to lie dormant, especially within the U.S. We need to consider how best to serve our members, improve networking, and provide engaging programs on a regional level.

I would like to expand on each of these topics and share with you some additional details.

1. Education & Certification

SAVE had been on a path to fully leverage the VM Guide by creating new curriculum to support it before the pandemic struck. Over the past two years, work has been ongoing to develop a new educational structure that aligns with the VM Guide and Function Analysis Guide. Working with both David Wilson, who has chaired the Education Committee, and Bob Rude, who is Director of Certification, we have made significant progress. Here are the highlights:

• We have created a new set of Core Competencies for both the VMF 1 and VMF 2 courses. This new list directly ties into specific chapters and sections of the VM Guide and will provide people pursuing certification with a clear set of expectations related to what they need to know. These updated Core Competencies clearly delineate the areas of knowledge required for both the VMF 1 and VMF 2 training curriculum and people will know where to find this information in the VM Guide and Function Analysis Guide.
• We have created a new structure for the VMF 1 training. There will be two parts, Part A and Part B. Part A will consist of an online training seminar provided through SAVE. This eLearning seminar will be hosted on SAVE’s new Learning Management System and will be a pre-requisite for those wishing to take the VMA exam. The online seminar will walk learners through the related Core Competencies and the supporting content in the VM Guide. It has been professionally developed and narrated throughout, and leverages HTML 5.0 technology to facilitate a variety of interactive lessons.
• Part B will consist of an instructor led VM applications seminar. The curriculum for this “live” course is currently under development and will likely be three-days in duration. Instructors will be required to attend a “train-the-trainer” course to become familiar with the curriculum and supporting case studies which will include examples for projects, products, and processes. Information will be released in the coming weeks providing more information on release dates and the transition plan to the new educational and certification structure. Once learners have completed both Part A and Part B of the VMF 1 training, they will be eligible to take the VMA exam.
• Once the new VMF 1 curriculum is completed and rolled out to instructors, work will begin on the revised VMF 2 curriculum. It is anticipated that a similar two-part structure will be adopted, in addition to the facilitation training requirement.
• These improvements will address many of the current challenges related to delivering educational content that is consistent with the VM Guide and Function Analysis Guide while providing greater continuity and uniformity of the content between different instructors.

2. Promotion & Advocacy

For those that are a bit rusty on their history of SAVE, the society was originally founded as the “Society of American Value Engineers.” As the name suggests, SAVE was originally focused primarily on promoting VE within the U.S. Over the years, the proliferation of the Value Methodology led to retiring the original meaning of this acronym to embrace a global role for the organization. Over the ensuing decades, SAVE has grown to become a truly international organization. In fact, many countries maintain their own value societies which focuses on their own domestic agendas. It must be recognized that without a strong and vibrant VM community in the U.S., the viability of SAVE would suffer. One solution to address this deficiency is the creation of a U.S. Value Advocacy Board. Renee Hoekstra, our former Immediate Past President, has been chairing a committee to explore establishing such an entity that has put together an excellent proposal to accomplish this. We will be looking to refine and implement some version of this concept in the coming months.

3. Organization

Much has changed since SAVE was established in 1959! We are more diverse than ever before in terms of our membership. Further, like most organizations, SAVE changed with the onset of the pandemic. Many chapters continued to hold virtual meetings and continue to do so. Some chapters did not weather these changes as well. Regardless, it is time that SAVE revisit the current chapter system and consider alternatives to better meet the needs of its members. Hussien Al-Battaineh, our new Vice President / President-Elect, has been reviewing our membership patterns and has developed a proposal to help improve our organizational structure. The SAVE Board of Directors will be reviewing this proposal and discussing it with our active Chapters and Affiliates in the weeks and months ahead. One thing is certain, there are many members that are part of inactive chapters that are being under-served by SAVE. We need to deliver value to all our members in an equitable way.

I hope the information I have shared on these focus areas has been helpful. The Board is very excited about these initiatives, and we look forward to working with our members to implement meaningful change that will increase the value that SAVE provides to its members.

I want to again thank my colleagues on the Board and appreciate the trust you, our members, have placed in me in executing my responsibilities as President of SAVE. I will work hard to live up to the expectations placed on me.

Rob Stewart, Closing Remarks – SAVE International 2023 Value Summit
Wednesday, June 14, 2023

I hope everyone was able to take away something valuable from the Value Summit – something they can actively put into practice. I think virtual conferences certainly have their merits; however, I know many of you would have preferred to have had the opportunity to meet with your colleagues in person and socialize. One of the focus areas I mentioned in my opening remarks was the need to establish a stronger U.S. presence for promoting and advocating VM to domestic public and private sector organizations.

To that end, the SAVE International Board has agreed to hold a gathering this coming November to promote VM in support of U.S. interests. This one-day event will be called U.S. Advocacy for Value (USAV) Day.

This event will be held on November 16, 2023^h in Louisville, Kentucky and will have a specific day dedicated to private sector and another for public sector VM interests. This will be an “in-person” event and may be attended by anyone. Format for USAV Days will consist of forums focusing on specific topics interspersed with networking breaks. There will be a special awards lunch during the public sector program to recognize excellence in VM for public agencies. Also, their will be an optional evening event which we hope everyone will attend.  Professional Development Units (PDUs) will be awarded to members who attend the event. SAVE members will receive a discount on registration.

Additional details on this event will be coming soon – look for communications in your inbox and on the SAVE website. We are excited to present this offering as the inaugural event in support of the U.S. Value Advocacy Board.

As the President of SAVE I am excited to work on the three areas with the Board and our members I outlined on Monday. These are:

1. Education & Certification – We will be completing the ongoing updates to the VMF 1 training curriculum and develop a new VMF 2 curriculum. Along with this new educational content there will be a full transition of the certification and testing process that fully aligns with the VM Guide and the Function Analysis Guide.
2. Promotion & Advocacy – We will seek to establish and empower a U.S. Value Advocacy Board to focus on promoting and advocating for VM within the United States. This entity will focus on supporting both public and private sector organizations maintaining, or seeking to establish, VM Programs.
3. Organization – Finally, we will strengthen the organizational structure of SAVE to better attune it to the needs of its members. There are some chapters that are very active and are thriving; however, many chapters continue to lie dormant, especially within the U.S. We need to consider how best to serve our members, improve networking, and provide engaging programs on a regional level.

I hope you all have had an excellent Value Summit and I look forward to seeing you this fall in Louisville!