Welcome to the second edition of the Region 8 newsletter. We are putting this newsletter out on a bi-monthly basis to help keep our regional contacts and members up to date on what we are doing.
AFE Region 8 News
• The next regional board meeting will be on January 21st from 4:00 – 5:00 PM. It is a call-in meeting.
• Advertising on the AFE Region 8 website is $300 per year. Please reach out to me at aferegion8@gmail.com.
• The $300 sponsorship provides companies with exposure to hundreds of facilities professionals in New England. The logos are live links to the sponsoring companies website. In addition to their logo being on the website, their logos will also be displayed in our newsletter. Also for our sponsors, we will gladly post any special events or classes they are planning and will post any job opening they have on our website.
What are the roles and responsibilities of the Regional board is a question I hear from time to time. Why are we divided into regions? There are nine regions in AFE. The purpose of the regional construct is to organize the chapters into geographic groups in order to provide those chapters more local resources of the National office. Unlike the chapters, which have their own 501c6 IRS certifications, the regions are part of the National office and run under the AFE national IRS tax ID. The following are the different positions on the board of the region.
Vice President – Region (RVP)
• Represents his/her region's chapters on the Committee of Representatives (CoR), which consists of the other AFE Vice President-Region leaders throughout AFE.
• Maintains a close working relationship with the AFE Executive Director and AFE National Board President.
• Maintains an active interface with all chapters and individual members within a respective region.
• Is thoroughly familiar with the current bylaws and all AFE operating policies and procedures.
• Ensures that each chapter meets its responsibilities (i.e., report/tax form submissions, member retention programs, chapter officer listings, financial reports, meeting minutes, etc.).
• Sees that all chapters have elected their required officers and that a current list is sent to:
Greetings to everyone in AFE Region 8.
This is the first newsletter of our new outreach program. The intent is to reach out to all AFE members and key industry supporters of our organization with news on what is going on with AFE at the Regional level, the National level and what the chapters in our region are doing. Our plan is to put this newsletter out every two months as a direct email and also post it to our Region 8 website at http://www.afe8.org/.
AFE Region 8 news
AFE Region 8 (R8) has five active chapters. They are Chapter 85 in Springfield MA, Chapter 74 in Worcester MA, Chapter 63 in Rhode Island, Chapter 33 in Boston, MA and Chapter 140 in New Hampshire. We are excited that there is interest to reactivate Chapter 119 in Maine. The R8 board will be working with Maine to set up a tour and meeting over the next month. We are also going to work on trying to get a chapter in Connecticut going again.
The executive committee for the R8 board met on October 21st and set a budget for 2020 and also set the dates for the regional board meetings thru the end of 2020. As far as the R8 budget is concerned, we have taken steps to control our spending to stay within our means. One step we took on October 21st was to open a bank account with Eastern Bank and begin the process of closing our bank account with Bank of America. Banking fees with BOA have reached $753 YTD at the end of September. Eastern Bank does not have any fees. We are also soliciting advertisers to post on our website at a bargain price of $300 per year. In addition, R8 will begin receiving a portion of member dues from the National office beginning in 2020. Our plan is with these revenue streams, R8 will be able to pay for the bulk of the maintenance of the R8 and chapter websites with each chapter only having to pay $500 a year for website support. The website fee to a chapter will be waived if the secure two advertisers to the Region 8 website for $300 each.
R8 is also going to begin soliciting nominations for the R8 Board of Directors (BOD). There are a variety of purposes for AFE to set up these regions. One is to provide a link between the AFE National office and the chapters. The second purpose is the region can provide continuity between the chapters and help with such things as chapter officer training, becoming and staying registered with the IRS, chapter startup financial support, assisting anyone who wishes to start a chapter and certification training. There are other secondary purposes for the region, but these are the big bullet points. Like the individual chapter BOD, the R8 BOD relies on members who are committed to helping AFE succeed and meet AFE’s mission. Within the next month, we will be putting out calls for nominations for the BOD. In addition to the R8 BOD members, each chapter is to have at least one, preferably two, chapter delegates who attend the R8 board meeting and report back the regional activities back to their chapter members. The region will not be doing a general solicitation for chapter delegates. We leave that task up to the individual chapters.
It's official! AFE Region 8 Website is up and running.
Posted: 04/19/2019
Welcome to the AFE Region 8 website. This is your portal to the region’s local chapters, where you have the best opportunity to connect with other facility Engineers, Directors, Managers and Operators, and to the vendors and suppliers who have solutions to your facility problems.
AFE membership has been enormously useful to me over the years. Through chapter and regional events, local facility tours and technical presentations, AFE can help you keep up to date and informed about the latest developments and tools being used at major facilities in the New England region. Our local chapter tours and meetings allow you to meet with peers, gain insights from local experts and create lasting relationships with others who share a passion for our industry.
Please find information on your Local Chapter by exploring the links below. I also encourage you to explore our website for news about Region 8 activities. We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming event.