Committees

ACEC Alaska includes several committees coordinating local entities to advocate for the engineering community. Descriptions of the various committees are included below. If you’re interested in getting involved, please contact us. We’re always looking for members for our committees and task forces.

CONTACT THE CHAIR AND JOIN A COMMITTEE TODAY

•  ACEC/DOT Steering Committee (Chair: Len Story, R&M Consultants)

  • ACEC Alaska has formed a Steering Committee with DOT&PF that consists of the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, all three Regional Directors, the Chief of Change Management, and four members from ACEC Alaska. This is truly a once-in-a-career opportunity to affect cultural change between the DOT&PF and the private consultant, building a strong relationship that will make a difference for future generations.  

  • UPDATES:

    • October 4, 2024 - Last Correspondence from the Commissioner:

      • "As the leaders of your respective organizations (AGC and ACEC), I wanted to forward you the Federal Planning Findings and STIP AMD #1 Partial Approval we received today.  It wasn’t completely unexpected, as we seem to be codifying our differences with the FHWA and FTA through written findings and responses.

        I’d like to note we have resolved 10 of our 14 Federally Planning findings from the STIP.  Also, the majority of project denials are tribal discretionary grant projects that we were led to believe needed to be included.  We are also still working on our MPO /State of Alaska jurisdiction questions, although we are getting closer there.

        We don’t anticipate this partial approval of the Amendment to disrupt project delivery.  We will work this latest round of findings with a quick turnaround on Amendment #2. 

        Also – I’m happy to report we have completed obligations and grants this year.  Overall our numbers are solid – we have obligated approx. $680M in FHWA/FTA programs, and over $300M in FAA programs.  Alicia we will have detailed numbers at our meeting next week.

        Ryan”

• Business Education Committee (Chair: Aaron Christi, DOWL)

  • Identify, host, and promote programs that provide training, resources, and other tools to aid in best business practices for consulting firms. Potential topics and focus areas include contracts, project management, and health and professional liability insurance through ACEC. 

  • UPDATES: 

    • October 8, 2024
      • Stay tuned for more information on this fall’s quarterly education session.

• Government Advocacy Committee (Chair: Mike Rabe, RESPEC)

  • Legislative Affairs—Promote ACEC-Alaska's legislative interests through a legislative program designed to assist members in meeting their legislators, review, monitor, and propose legislation pertaining to the business of consulting and/or the various disciplines relating to the field of engineering, and inform committees and members of legislation that affects the Council.

  • UPDATES:

    • The new legislative session will start January 2024

• QBS Committee (Chair: Andrea Story, R&M Consultants)

  • Procurement of Professional Services/Quality-Based Selection—We regularly notify clients who bid A/E services that there are alternative means to securing professional services other than cost-based services. In several situations, we have successfully had the Owner modify selection criteria to remove cost as a criterion for award.
  • UPDATES:
    • October 7, 2024
      • ACEC Alaska was successful in our request to eliminate price from the Alaska Railroad RFP#24-53-212332, Denali Depot 0-15% Design Services. The Alaska Railroad retracted the RFP and re-issued their request without cost.
      • We also successfully requested to eliminate cost from the Alaska Aerospace RFP for the Architecture and Engineering Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract. The evaluation criteria had 40 points assigned to a “Cost Proposal”. Alaska Aerospace ensured they would educate their team on compliance with the federal Brooks Act (Public Law 92-582) and Alaska Statute 36.30.270, which states that professional services must be selected based on qualifications, not cost.