SAME Weekly Digest: 6.5.09

The SAME Weekly Digest is a brief compendium of the goings on at SAME headquarters during the past week. The digest is posted each Friday and provides a concise debriefing on the happenings of the week that was. To read past editions of the Weekly Digest, click here.

• Among the numerous events held recently at the 2009 Joint Engineer Training Conference & Expo was the introduction of this year’s SAME President, Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, P.E., F.SAME, USA, Chief Engineer and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gen. Van laid out his strategic objectives during a meeting of SAME leaders earlier this year, and this week he released this letter to SAME Post Presidents and Regional Vice Presidents detailing his goals for the upcoming year in one significant focus area: Membership. Please join the staff of SAME HQ in welcoming Gen. Van to his post!
• A meeting of the SAME Senior Executive Team was held Thursday at Century House to brief the team members, including committee and council chairs and service liaison officers, on topics relating to Web/communications and workshop and conference planning/scheduling. An additional meeting will be held Tuesday, July 28, to brief Brig. Gen. Timothy Byers, USAF, the new Air Force Civil Engineer, on 2009-2010 work plans in support of the SAME Strategic Plan.
• By this time next week, SAME HQ will have a new voice! Kim Rupkalvis, who has served as Century House’s Executive Assistant for the past two years, will be relocating with her family to the Dallas, Texas, area. Kim’s husband, Maj. Gregg Rupkalvis, has been restationed from Fort Belvoir, Va. If you happen to speak to Kim early next week, be sure to wish her well!
• The inaugural SAME University will be held next week in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature top-class workshops hosted by SAME and strategic partners the Construction Management Association of America and the International Facility Management Association. Registration for the event has been extended to Sunday, so it’s not too late!