January Letter from the President

It’s a new year and that means it’s time to move forward! MSPE is moving forward by focusing our efforts on improvements to services for our members. In particular, we are focusing on increasing membership and increasing member engagement. Increasing membership: Our membership committee and Board will be working on increasing our membership at the state and local levels. Our state and local officers discuss how to go about this task often. A common question being asked in those discussions is “why do you belong to MSPE?” Maybe some of you haven’t asked yourself this question. This topic reminds of a recent TED talk by motivational speaker, Simon Sinek, who speaks of “starting with your why“. Great leaders inspire action by understanding their why. Once you know your answer the task is simple, ask an engineer that is not a member, share your why, invite them to become a member. Invite them to a chapter event or to the Annual Conference. Increasing member engagement: Over the last year, we have been working to increase member engagement on the local and state levels as well. We encourage members to attend events such as Legislative Day, educational events, MATHCOUNTS and golf outings. Recognizing that not everyone has the time to participate in those events, we have been working to improve our online presence by increasing our use of social media and keeping the website fresh and up-to-date. We have added section to the website for our fellows and updated the MATHCOUNTS page for donations. Recently, we hosted our first virtual chapter meeting. This is something new that we are trying in Northern Michigan because the geography makes it difficult to have regular lunch meetings. I hope that each of you will take a few minutes and think about how you want to engage with MSPE. MSPE does a great many things with our great members. We have a talented membership base with extremely diverse backgrounds. But we can do better! There is strength in numbers so increasing membership and having an active membership will make our organization stronger and help us achieve our vision. I would love to hear your ideas or success stories for membership. If you have any ideas or comments regarding membership and member engagement, please feel free to contact me (robert.wheeler@cmsenergy.com) or our Executive Director, Shada Biabani (sbiabani@michiganspe.org) MSPE Vision: To proMote licenSure within the Profession of Engineering and elevate the awareness of the continued service by licensed professionals in the public sphere. Sincerely, Robert T. Wheeler, PE President