Planning Your Work And Working Their Plan

Strategic Long-Range Planning Committee sets the course for PEI.

Since 1992, PEI has relied on its Strategic Long-Range Planning Committee to determine what goals and initiatives the association will concentrate on each year. Comprising the committee are the current year’s officers—president, vice president and treasurer—along with the three most recent past presidents.

Lanny Harer, managing director of FMI Corporation, a management consulting and investment banking firm specializing in the construction industry, has served as facilitator for the committee since 1992, when he was contacted by PEI’s then-president, Butch Everett. “Butch said that one of the legacies he wanted to leave was a process for maintaining a strategic long-range plan for the association,” Harer recalls.

Every year the six-person team meets, along with Harer, Executive Vice President Bob Renkes and Director of Administration Connie Dooley, with the primary duty of making sure the association is adhering to its mission. “Are we serving the members? Where are we doing well? Where are we not doing well?” explains J. Stephen Hieber, president of PWI, Incorporated (New Oxford, PA), a five-year committee veteran.

Prior to each year’s gathering, PEI staff and Harer prepare an agenda and assemble membership, financial, convention and other industry data for the committee to use. Relying on the results of PEI’s annual membership survey, they identify opportunities and threats to both the association and to the industry, and review membership satisfaction, financial strength and stability, image recognition and more. “Our job is to set the goals and objectives for the organization,” Hieber elaborates. “The committee is pretty much what I call a think tank. Committee members simply toss around ideas and discuss what we feel is important, which direction PEI should be aiming, and how we expect them to do it.”

After a day and a half of spirited discussion and brainstorming, the committee arrives at a list of three to five action items to submit to the Board for the year, and perhaps an item or two to consider for the following year. “It’s strictly up to the Board whether to accept our recommendations or not,” explains Kirk Mercer, president of R. W. Mercer Co. (Jackson, MI), who is serving his sixth and final year on the committee in 2008. “We have no power other than the power of suggestion.” In practice, however, proposals in recent years have been accepted without much change.

Once approved by the Board, it is up to Renkes and the PEI staff to carry out the initiatives detailed in the plan. 2008 PEI President Bruce Larson, president of Oscar W. Larson Co. (Clarkston, MI), says, “We all keep our eyes and ears open, but routinely the staff gives us feedback as different things are implemented.”

Mercer describes the committee’s role as “an advisory board to the Board of Directors.” The Committee reviews the previous year’s plan to see how their expectations compared with the actual results from those initiatives. Based on the progress toward those goals, each committee member gives a score of 1-5 to rate the PEI staff’s performance. Each score is submitted by secret ballot and tabulated. The committee is quick to point out that the staff’s performance has been excellent in that regard.

Recent Accomplishments
The 2007 meeting resulted in a proposal to amend the association’s constitution and bylaws, changes that were approved by membership at the 2007 convention. “It had been on the table for a long time, and really needed to be done to better reflect PEI’s current practices,” Mercer says.

2008 PEI Vice President Blair Shwedo, president of SouthEastern Petroleum Systems Inc. (Charlotte, NC), concurs, adding, “That’s one of those jobs that has to be done but nobody wants to do. But some of the language was obsolete; it still said mail was the proper way to communicate, which we don’t do much of anymore. The committee discussed the repercussions of changing the wording. By doing it in a forum like that, there is plenty of healthy discussion and an opportunity to bring out the pluses and the minuses of making that decision.”

As part of the bylaw changes, the Immediate Past President is now chairman of the Strategic Long-Range Planning Committee, giving four-year Committee member Calvin Bishop, president of D & H Pump Service (El Paso, TX), the title of 2008 Committee Chair. “It’s an opportunity to step back and look at the past year’s accomplishments and what still needs to be done,” Bishop says. “It’s a short term as president, and it’s good to continue that momentum.”

Other recent initatives include revising the mission statement, changing the way the association handles its investments, a proposal to create a position on the PEI Board of Directors to represent service and installation companies, greater promotion of PEI and the petroleum equipment industry overall, and continued development of Recommended Practices. Hieber, for one, is particularly proud of the committee’s development of RPs for lubrication systems (RP700), bulk plants (RP800) and inspections (RP900) that have happened during his tenure.

PEI’s Power Committee
It’s somewhat of a unique procedure, but one that has proven successful. “I’ve done work with other construction industry trade associations, and this particular process has endured as well as any I’ve ever seen,” Harer says. Committee members agree that Harer’s expertise and guidance, along with that of Renkes and Dooley, helps maintain a sense of continuity and consistency from year to year. “They are there every year and the rest of us are on a long-term rotation,” Shwedo says. “I think that’s good because there is a tremendous amount of wisdom and experience that comes from getting that type of a group together.”

Mercer goes a step further. “The Strategic Long-Range Planning Committee is really the ‘power’ committee within PEI. A lot of good industry thinkers who are very vested in keeping PEI successful have done a great job keeping us going in the right direction.”

2008’s meeting, February 28-29 in Scottsdale, Arizona, will be the first for PEI Treasurer Peter Ward, president, Glasgow Equipment Service (West Palm Beach, FL). “I’m looking forward to learning more about long-term planning. So many days are taken up by emergencies in our own businesses without concentrating as much on long-range planning as we probably should.” Committee Chair Bishop is looking to 2008 as a year to continue serving all PEI members. “It’s difficult for a U.S.-based trade organization to serve the world, but we need to continually make sure we’re serving our global members. Technology will continue to allow us to do more things for those members.”

It’s a learning experience for everyone, even the seasoned veterans. Regardless of experience on the Committee, everyone is ready for another round of meticulous, involved discussion. “We’re sequestered in that room, and we keep mulling over directives, goals and objectives until we’re finished,” Hieber says. “It’s probably the most intense thing I do all year.”

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The PEI Journal • First Quarter 2008 • Volume 2, No. 1 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
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