February 8, 2013
 The AACE International Board of Directors voted October 20,
2012, to recommend that members approve provisions to provide more direct representation in the Association’s decision-making process by its three associate boards. The Board approved the Governance Task Force recommendations to make the changes. Members of the task force include Steve Revay, CCC CFCC, Pete Griesmyer, John Livengood, CFCC PSP, Alexia Nalewaik, CCE FACCE, and Dennis Stork. The proposed bylaws changes recommend adding several new positions to the board to increase its representative nature. In addition, the Governance Task Force recommended the creation of an Executive Committee to handle routine administrative and executive functions requiring Board of Directors attention. If approved by the membership
at the 2013 election, the net effect will be to expand the AACE International Board of Directors by three members in 2014-15.The recommended amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws, that will be presented to the membership to vote upon in the 2013 election cycle that begins February 1 and concludes
at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, March 15, includes as noted above, a provision for direct representation by the three associate boards, Technical, Education and Certification on the Board of Directors. Currently, those entities are represented by a single officer,
the Vice President-TEC (Technical, Education and Certification).
According to Revay, the consensus of the current Board of Directors emerged that these three associate boards are crucial to the continued success of AACE
International in advancing the practice of Total Cost Management and
that direct representation of their concerns and issues was essential in
creating an effective organizational structure to move the Association
to the next level of achievement. As a result of direct representation on the Board of Directors, the current position of Vice President-TEC would be phased out. Each associate board’s representative to the Board of Directors would be nominated by each associate board’s respective nominating committee and approved by two-thirds of the respective associate board. The new positions would be entitled Vice President-Technical Board, Vice President-Education Board and Vice-President-Certification Board. All would serve as ex-officio members of their respective associate boards and these positions could be filled by the current associate chair, if desired by the associate board.
A second recommended change in the Board of Directors structure would be splitting the current Vice President-Regions into two positions, Vice President-North American Regions and Vice President-International Regions. Consistent with the direction of the current strategic direction to pursue international growth, this structural change will assure that there will always be international representation on the Board of Directors, while also assuring adequate attention is provided for the sections in North America. “By dividing this responsibility for our nine regions between these two positions, we believe we can provide better representation and services to sections and members in all categories,” Revay commented. The two vice presidents for regions will be elected on alternate years for continuity purposes. Regional representatives to the Board of Directors will remain unaffected.
A third recommended change is the creation of an Executive Committee comprised of the officers of the Association. The Executive Committee will be empowered to recommend actions for consideration of the entire Board of Directors on routine administrative and executive matters that eventually require Board approval. The entire Board of Directors will be notified in advance of all topics to be considered by the Executive Committee in advance and any actions recommended will require a subsequent two-thirds approval by the entire Board of Directors by electronic ballot.
“The creation of an Executive Committee will allow us to address certain administrative and routine executive issues at that level and let the entire Board of Directors focus on strategic and policy issues when we are deliberating as a Board of Directors. Our research suggests that most professional associations have an executive committee to facilitate these processes and we believe that AACE International would be well served by creating a standing executive committee to leverage the limited time available for the entire board to consider strategic direction and policy questions,” Revay commented.
“Our task force firmly believes that these recommended amendments are in the best interests of the Association in achieving our mission and vision,” Revay stated. Revay noted that the Association had conducted an open forum on the recommendations at the Annual Meeting in San Antonio, had conducted two online webinars in September and November
of 2012 and has had a PowerPoint presentation and discussion forum available on our website for members to familiarize themselves with the issues for the past nine months.
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