Greetings to our ACEC Hawaii member firms. As we start our 2021-2022 fiscal year, I am cautiously optimistic that we are nearing a return to “normalcy” and we will finally be able to meet in person again. The start of the fiscal year also marks the end of my term as President and I would like to thank all of you and all of our member firms for allowing me the privilege and honor of leading this great organization over the past year. I would also like to recognize the following members who will be leaving the board of directors at the end of the month: Past President – Ken Kawahara; Director – Glenn Miyasato. Thank you to Ken and Glenn for your service and contributions to ACEC Hawaii. At this time, I would also like to welcome Charles Jury and Ross Kaneko who will be joining the board of directors effective July 1st.
Locally, we continue to defend the Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) procurement process and our Legislative and Risk Management Committees will be scheduling meetings with the State Procurement Office (SPO) and the
legislators to educate them on QBS and, hopefully, prevent bills with questionable procurement language from being introduced next year. In addition, our Risk Management Committee is also working with our City &
County of Honolulu Committee, Board of Water Supply Committee, National Risk Management Committee members, insurance providers and local attorneys to develop a position paper in response to the recently released
Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Director’s Policy Regarding Change Orders from Errors on the Design Plans. We know this matter is of great interest to a lot of you so we will continue to keep you posted.
Nationally, ACEC is continuing their efforts with government agencies and with Congress to resolve problems related to the FAR credits clause and its impact on firms with PPP loans. We were also notified that an applicant from Hawaii was selected to receive the 2021 College of Fellows Scholarship from ACEC. They are going to be recognized at the upcoming Fall Conference in October so be on the lookout for an official announcement.
A special informative meeting was held last month for our member firms and industry partners on “What You Need to Know About National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)”. We are planning on pursuing a joint effort with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the General Contractors Association (GCA) to further address the CMMC requirements that many of our member firms are currently dealing with on their government contracts.
This month’s general membership meeting (GMM) speaker was Jennifer R. Moore, PMP, who is the Deputy District Engineer for Programs & Project Management (DPM) at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Honolulu District. She provided our member firms with a great overview of upcoming projects, programs and potential work opportunities. If you have not already done so, please go to www.acechawaii.org to view the information that was presented at the GMM, which is posted under the news tab, and while there you can also read the latest edition of “Wiliki O Hawaii”.
Please feel free to reach out to me or any of our board members if you have any suggestions, requests or would like to be more involved in ACEC Hawaii and our committees.