As I prepared this message, my last as President of AACE, I began to reflect on the past year of life in the pandemic era.  When we had last year’s virtual Conference & Expo, I think few of us anticipated that we would still be dealing with the pandemic to the level we are. I think few also anticipated the profound long-term impact it would have on our professional lives and the industries we support. I believe we have not yet realized all the impacts it will have on our daily lives, both at work and home, as it will take some time before all these effects are evident. 

As I have discussed in previous messages, the pandemic has emphasized the need for our restructuring initiative and helped shaped our actions.  Our focus for the past year has been one of retrospection of what AACE means to its members and the overall industry.  We needed to ensure that any changes we made to the Association’s infrastructure preserved our values while evolving how we deliver that value.  In the past year, we have been working to adapt our organization with new Bylaws that were approved by the members and the update of our organization manual policies and procedures which will be posted for our members to access.

Now we are ready to turn our focus more outwards as we move forward.  We have engaged external consultants to help with two specific initiatives in our overall strategic plan: one to help us update our approach to member engagement and one to help develop a strategic marketing plan.  I’m tired of AACE being “one of the best kept secrets” in the industry, as I am sure many of you are.  We are already taking steps to make that statement a thing of the past. Our recent series of webinars to present some of the key Recommended Practices have drawn in thousands of non-member attendees. This type of activity will help expose many new professionals to what AACE has to offer.  We are also working on collaborations with other organizations to both enhance our technical offerings and raise AACE’s visibility in the industry. AACE is embracing the need for change and has positioned itself for a continued positive direction for years to come with enhancements that have been developed and are in process. 

Our upcoming Conference & Expo and Boston Retreat is another example of this adaptation.  We have built on our successful virtual conference last year to offer more sessions this year through a dual track and an in-person event that is focusing on the specific topic of change management.  Registering for the C&E will also provide individuals with access to video records of all the presentations for papers in our Transactions publication, providing attendees with a trove of “on-demand” technical sessions to help you stay on the leading edge of industry practices. If you have not registered already, I hope you will try to attend.

I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to serve AACE as president over the past year and look forward to continuing to support the Association in the years to come.  I want to encourage all our members to get more involved in contributing where you can and spreading the word about AACE throughout the industry.  Take care.

Chris Caddell

AACE International President, 2020-2021