Engineering Inc - November/December 2017 - 37

leagues and peers from other firms always
yields good information," he says.
Other tech topics have included the
need for coordinated document tools that
members can use to define the level of
design for MEP projects being developed
on a BIM or Revit platform. CAMEE
responded by developing a document tool
to define level of design for MEP projects. Some CAMEE Member Firms also
reported a 150 percent increase in the
number of contractor-led design-build
projects in the last year. The CAMEE
executive committee developed a white
paper on the topic that will provide
guidance to members. "We're trying to
let people know that these tools are out
there," McBride says.

DATA OVERLOAD
There's no shortage of publicly available
geospatial data
on utilities
and government websites
that engineers
can potentially
pluck and
use in their
designs, but
firms are discovering that
geospatial data
gathered from John Schneider
unknown or
unqualified sources can wreak havoc on
projects. According to John Schneider,
chair of the Council of Professional
Surveyors (COPS), the coalition has

launched educational programs to help
firms understand the intended purpose of
data collected by these groups.
"A utility company, for instance, might
have an in-house GIS system to locate all
of their utilities, using in-house staff, that
may identify an asset with plus or minus
10 feet of accuracy, which is fine for them,"
says Schneider, vice president of Vaughn &
Melton Consulting Engineers, Inc. "That
information is out there and gets pulled
into a design project and interpreted as
accurate. In reality, it's off by as much as
10 feet." Property data commonly found
on tax maps, as well as survey data collected by some drones, can have similar
inconsistencies, Schneider adds. "As the
volumes of available geospatial data grows

and drones and new technologies advance,
fully understanding why and how accuracy
is obtained is more vital than the systems
used to obtain it," he says.
COPS Member Firms held a summer
joint roundtable meeting with Land Development Coalition firms on understanding
data, where it comes from, how it was
obtained and "making sure firms don't
misuse it if it wasn't gathered by a qualified
person for the intended purpose," Schneider says. These educational efforts will continue in 2018, he adds.

"Being able to
converse with
your colleagues
and peers
from other
firms always
yields good
information."

MENTORS NEEDED

JEFF MCBRIDE, CHAIR, COUNCIL OF
AMERICAN MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL
ENGINEERS
EBL ENGINEERS, LLC

Member Firms continue to feel the effects
of the recession a decade ago that left many
of them with a shortage of skilled engineers. "We're still challenged with retention
and hiring, especially the experienced midlevel people," Matsuoka says.
The lack of mid-level managers to serve
as mentors will hurt engineering businesses
in the long run, Reidling says. "Without
a large, well-mentored workforce, the
consulting industry suffers with a talent
base whose next steps will be difficult,
more time consuming and painful," says
Reidling. "This dilemma places consulting
firms in hunt mode, stealing from their
competition for the future managers they
need so badly. Mentoring will be the next
Y2K for our industry."
Surveyors are feeling the same pinch
with fewer young professionals taking the
surveyor path. In response, COPS is developing a mentoring guide that will help
Member Firms cultivate young technical
crew members into licensed or certified
professionals. "We want to put them on
the path to becoming licensed or certified
and grow within their firm," Schneider
says. "It's an attractive field, and the pay is
now comparable to other professionals in
the engineering field."

MORE GROWING PAINS
Tricia Ruby, chair of the Small Firm
Council (SFC), says one of her biggest

challenges is to educate the 201 SFC Member Firms on how to successfully outgrow
their small-firm status. Some 20 percent of
the SFC's Member Firms have at least 35
employees, just shy of its 50-employee-orless definition of a small firm.
When you get to 40 people, you have
to run your business differently with

more attention to human resources, IT
and marketing, says Ruby, president
and CEO of Ruby + Associates. "As you
get bigger you don't have enough time
to do it all, and you have to change the
way you treat those business needs. They
might not be your core business, but
they're core business functions," she says.
SFC will focus its Winter Meeting,
February 1-3, in Austin, Texas, on firms
with 40-plus employees and provide
insights on how they can either remain
healthy and successful at their current
size or grow
into a midsize
firm with the
services that
they need, she
says.
There are
plenty of
small firms
that want to
stay small,
Ruby adds.
Tricia Ruby
"There's
always internal and external pressure to grow-but
it's not always better being bigger." SFC
has launched a Joint Coalition Committee that combines helpful documentation
on small-firm success from CASE, COPS
and other groups, she says. "These small
firms can find significant value from their
membership through these documents,"
Ruby says. n
Stacy Collett is a business and technology
writer based in Chicago.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017

ENGINEERING INC.

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