PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By YuTeck Chuong, PE, CCE, PMP

It was so good to see many of you at our October 14th monthly meeting, especially after Hurricane Ike. Michael Mathews, co-founder of Blue Marble Risk Solutions discussed how to lead change efforts utilizing the concepts of project controls and project management to ensure their success. Even though many of us do not lead organizational change in our day-to-day job, we are all affected by changes in our organization. Mike reminded us of the critical success factors for project success. These are
1) understand the elements of change,
2) Manage expectations,
3) Plan, plan, plan,
4) Manage resources,
5) Project controls, and
6) Manage organizational change.

In October, we also completed the 8 sessions of the Examination Review Course/Study Group on Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) certification. Our board members, Ord Limbrick spent many hours in preparing and conducting these training classes, while Valerie Venters and Martin Darley gave their support and help to those taking the training. Thank you and all the success in your PSP examination. The Houston Gulf Coast Section will host the AACE certification exams on December 6, currently we have 12 people sitting for the various exams.

For our November 11th meeting, we are very pleased to have Robert Brown from IPA presenting the challenges of Cost Engineering and Estimating in the current EPC marketplace. For most regions and industries, market volatility and escalation have increased substantially. But with the recent drop in crude oil price from a high of $150/bbl to $70/bbl, there may be slow down in market escalation. Please invite your colleagues, friends and clients to our next meeting and hear this interesting topic.

I look forward to meeting many of you at our monthly meetings.

Best regards,

YuTeck Chuong, PE, CCE, PMP
President
AACEI-HGCS 2008-2009