If You Have An Umbrella Use It
Authors: Kraemer M. Scott 
Published: December 2007

A historic development has occurred in the engineering profession during the past four years. The development has been and is the formation of the American Association of Engineering Societies, a new umbrella organization for the engineering profession. My purpose here is to briefly review the background for the organization and to present some thoughts on how all of us as engineers might effectively use it to the benefit of the nation, the profession and ourselves.

We all know the great increase during the past thirty years of the impact of technology on our national life. Engineers (and scientists) perform work and bring about the development of new equipment, processes, and economics which dramatically affect large segments of our population and activities of Our government and our industrial companies. Consequently, all of us as engineers must make a greater contribution to our nation and our industries and companies in helping to present and implement a better understanding of technology and how it impacts on all of us. To accomplish this we need an umbrella or overall organization of engineers to work together effectively and we have it now in the new American Association of Engineering Societies.

Although the major work of the new association--which is abbreviated as AAES--will be accomplished largely through the organization structure and management functions of our national engineering societies, it is important for you as individual engineers to be involved. First it is important that you know something about the organization and have some understanding of it. Second it is important that you support the organization both with financial assistance and with your time and talents when called upon to do some of the work of the AAES. I

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The concept of a single organization which would be an effective instrument of professional unity was first put forth by Mr. Herbert Hoover, who as 1920 AIME President, called for an "association for public service to give voice to the thoughts of engineers". It was under Hoover's leadership that the first "unity organization" the American Engineering Council, was formed in late 1920 with Mr. Hoover as President. The Council was an effective group but was disbanded some twenty years later when a number of the member societies were unable to provide financial support.

During this period the Engineers Council for Professional Development was established in 1932, but it functioned largely in the field of engineering education and professional development. Another effort at forming a unity organization came in 1945 with the establishment of a new organization known as the Engineers Joint Council. This became known as the EJC and it performed various excellent services but had serious handicaps. It was not always able to respond to the different needs of individual societies at different times, and as a result a number of significantly large engineering organizations were not members of EJC. Further, among the existing organizations there was both duplication and overlapping of effort. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that the profession really needed an effective umbrella organization which could embrace all of the best parts of several engineering groups. This would be an organization in which various engineering societies could act on a unified basis in those areas of primary interest to them--even on an ad hoc basis. This resulted in the concept of establishing an organization with several "councils" instead of having a single engineers joint council, and the new AAES is the result and is designed to provide the needed flexibility.

From the beginning AIME has been in the forefront in developing the new organization. In 1976 AIME President Julius J. Harwood and Executive Director Joe B. Alford submittee a proposal to consolidate the Engineers Joint Council with other organizations and proposed the original concept of a structure with multiple councils as we have today. In 1977 AIME President H. Arther Nedom was named Chairman of an Organizing Committee along with the Presidents of four other major societies. The Organizing Committee held numerous meetings in 1978 and 1979, culminating in the formal action in December 1979 of the Engineers Joint Council being converted into the AAES and the new association was officially launched in January 1980. Our Institute continues to be active as H. Arther Nedom, who was President of SPE-AIME in 1967 and President of AIME in 1977, is Chairman of the Board of Governors of AAES during this year of 1981. In addition the AIME President and Executive Director serves on the Board of Governors each year and at the present time AIME has a total of 37 members appointed to the Councils and their operating committees, commissions, and panels.