From the Desk of the ASEM President, Dr. Geert Letens, PEM 

As the summer is approaching and a yet another academic year is coming to an end, many of us are getting ready to take a short break with their family: a deep breath that will allow us to pick up our plans for the future again when August arrives. For me this is a period of the year that I always very much look forward to. It generally allows me more time for family, friends, creativity and reflection. The big question that I would like you to reflect on is simple, yet perhaps not trivial. Have you been able to get the full value of your ASEM membership benefits?

We definitely hope so, but as we realize that there is such an overflow of information that hits us all nowadays, I thought it may not be a bad idea to point you to some benefits available to all our members on our website.

ASEM provides you a wealth of publications. I would like to start with the Engineering Management Journal (EMJ), our top-tier refereed journal with technical papers spanning the entire spectrum of engineering management, designed to provide practical, pertinent knowledge on the management of technology, technical professionals, and technical organizations. Since our partnership with Taylor and Francis (T&F) in 2015, submissions and visibility of EMJ have continued to increase. Members of ASEM have access to the full suite of articles that EMJ has published since its early years. Make sure you have tried the full-text search functions provided by T&F that allow you to easily filter on specific topics that you are looking for.

I already mentioned our archive of webinars in the previous newsletter. Members can easily watch our recorded webinars at a time of their convenience. Today, I can announce to you however that our Chrysalis team (Bill Sabados, Patrick Kush, Trish Simo Kush, Gana Natarajan, Angie Cornelius and Paul Kauffmann) also has been able to add 10 years of archive of conference CDs to our website: another treasure of information that can inspire both research and state of the art applications of engineering management. And last but not least (let the drums beat!)…we have added the EM Handbook and the The Guide to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge for members to download on our website. We will provide specific instructions to access these documents to all our members in a separate email next week. I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of this new exciting membership benefit.

And there is more to be found on the website of course: two years of practice periodicals, all our newsletters, Blogs, job announcements, forum discussions, etc. As a member, you have free access to all these sources related to the latest challenges of socio-technical management in engineering.

Sometimes we only realize what we've got, when it’s gone. I just wanted to make sure that doesn’t happen to you with your ASEM membership. In fact, I would rather ask you to help us promote the society. Especially towards young engineers that may be eager to understand the language of business to develop their careers. ASEM membership will put them in a position to prepare for professional AEM/PEM certification, allowing them to seek the recognition that they deserve.

Enjoy your time off with your family and friends over the summer – but when you can, also shine a light on the benefits of our society!

Geert Letens, PhD PEM

ASEM President 2015-2016

Please send your thoughts and comments directly to Geert at: President@asem.org.