Several years ago, the Nesma Board has created a vision for the future of the association, labeled “Nesma 2020”. In a sequence of meetings this vison has been shared with the Nesma members and its content has been developed more in depth. The Nesma Board now believes that the time has come to adapt the structure of the association according to this vision. In this text the plans of the Board are explained. In the General Members Meeting (ALV), in April 2017, Nesma members can give their opinion. After that meeting the new structure will be set in place.

Practice Leads

Recently, the Board has concluded that there is not enough time available for both handling current affairs and sharpening the Nesma 2020 vision. Organizing the ALV, the spring meeting and the autumn conference, the contact with the workgroups, regularly publishing a newsletter, answering incoming questions  – all these subjects take so much time that there is no time left in Board meetings for in-depth discussions about topics as benchmarking, cost estimation, automatic sizing.

Therefore, the Board proposes to transfer a number of tasks from the Board to “Practice Leads”. A Practice Lead is a new role in the structure of Nesma. A Practice Lead takes over a number of practical and organizational tasks from the Board. The Board will concentrate itself on strategic topics. The Board proposes to appoint four Practice Leads, for the following areas: Sizing/Cost Drivers, Cost Engineering, Metrics/Benchmarking and Support.

Three Practice Leads will operate on a well-defined area. They coordinate the working groups in their area, manage the budget for the working groups, organize a yearly theme-session for all Nesma members and function as an intermediary between working groups and the Board. The fourth Practice Lead (Support) has an organizational task: organizing the yearly events, updating the website, publishing the newsletter, stay in contact with the administrative back office (MOS).

Reducing the number of Board members

The Board aims at reducing the number of Board members to five. As a number of organizational tasks are transferred to the Practice Leads, less manpower is needed. Besides, the Board expects that a smaller Board can operate more effectively.

At this moment the Board has six members: Ton Dekkers (chair), Willem Naber (secretary), Jacob Brunekreef (treasurer), Eric van der Vliet, Harold van Heeringen, Bert Veening (member). Over the past months, Eddy Schooneveld has participated as a candidate member. In April 2017, Willem, Harold and Jacob are at the end of their three-year term. Harold is re-electable. Willem and Jacob are not. As a consequence, from April on the Board will consist of Eric, Ton and Bert (ongoing term), with Harold and Eddy as candidate members. Of course, every Nesma member can be a candidate. At the ALV meeting in April, the new Board will be elected.

New: theme sessions; ALV in the autumn

In the new structure, besides the well-known autumn conference, three theme sessions will be organized for all Nesma members. This makes the annual spring meeting more or less superfluous. The Board proposes to skip the spring meeting and to move the General Members Meeting (ALV) to the autumn, preceding the autumn conference. This has the practical advantage that the annual budget can be discussed before the beginning of the year, and not during the year, in April. The Board proposes to start with this change during this year: after the ALV in April 2017 the next ALV will be organized in November 2017.

Decision process

The Board will ask the General Members Meeting in April to agree with the changes in Nesma’s structure, as described above. In line with the wish to make a quick start, the Board has asked a few Nesma members to accept the role of Practice Lead: Frank Vogelezang (Sizing/Cost Drivers), Ton Dekkers (Cost Engineering), Hans Bernink (Metrics/Benchmarking) en Jacob Brunekreef (Support). The Board is happy that all persons mentioned above have answered positively and proposes to appoint them in their new role.