Bylaws

2018 Revision – July 9, 2018

CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS

Article I. NAME

The name of this Division of the American Society for Engineering Education shall be the Engineering Economy Division.

Article II. OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this Division are:

1. To foster increased knowledge of the principles of engineering economy and to promote increased competence in the application of these principles on the part of engineering educators and, through them, on the part of their students.

2. To promote more effective use of the principles of engineering economy throughout the entire engineering profession.

3. To strive for those objectives which are peculiar to our Division with the full support of, and in a manner consistent with, the purposes of the Society.

Article III. MEMBERSHIP

The membership of the Division shall consist of members of the Society who indicate on the Society’s Annual dues notice (check the box), or in writing to the Executive Director of the Society, that they wish to affiliate with the Division. No annual membership dues shall be assessed for the division over and above the Society’s annual dues.

Article IV. ORGANIZATION AND OFFICERS

1. The business of the Division shall be administered by elected division officers. The Officers shall be a Division Chair, a Program Chair, a Treasurer, and a Secretary-Newsletter Editor, and the Past Chair, all of whom shall be members of the Division. The Secretary-Newsletter Editor will be elected annually. There shall be an automatic succession from Secretary-Newsletter Editor, to Treasurer, to Program Chair to Division Chair, to Past Chair. If the succession is broken for any reason, additional officer(s) to fill vacancies shall be elected at the annual meeting, or appointed by joint approval of the rest of the Officers until the next election.

2. Terms of the Officers shall be one year. Newly elected officers shall assume office at the same time as the President of the Society.

3. The Division Chair and the Program Chair shall constitute the representatives of the Division on Professional Interest Council I.

Article V. ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

The specified Officers of the Division shall be elected according to the following procedure:

1. Individuals interested in the position of Secretary-Newsletter editor may self-nominate by contacting the Division Chair or the Program Chair and the current Officers can solicit potential candidates for the position.

It will normally be assumed that the retiring Division Chair will be one of the three annual nominees to the Division’s Grant Award Committee (see Article VIII.4).

2. The election shall be by secret ballot by the registered members of the Division present at the annual business meeting, except that in such instances where there is only one candidate for each vacancy, a motion will be in order to elect the candidate(s) by acclamation as long as there is a quorum of at least 10 members.

3. The candidate(s) receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. In case of a tie vote, the Officers shall cast the deciding vote.

Article VI. MEETINGS AND ACTIVITIES

1. A meeting of the Division shall be held during the annual meeting of the Society. A quorum to conduct business shall consist of ten (10) members of the Division. The business of the annual meeting shall include reports by the Officers and chairs of standing and ad hoc committees. Additional Officer meetings can be called by the Division Chair, or by a jointly signed request by any three (3) members of the Officers, at times and places other than those of the annual meeting.

2. The Officers shall administer any other activities that are deemed desirable for the promotion of the purposes of the Division.

3. Members of the Society and other interested persons shall be eligible to attend all meetings of the Division. However, voting privileges shall be extended only to those who are registered as members of the Division with Executive Secretary of the American Society for Engineering Education. A majority of those voting shall be sufficient for any decisions unless otherwise specified in these Bylaws.

4. The Division may conduct its business by e-mail providing all provisions of the bylaws are observed and that such business is reported at the next annual meeting of the division. A minimum of thirty (30) days shall be allowed between the emailing of any ballot, motion, or resolution and the date for its return. A majority of those voting shall be sufficient for any decisions unless otherwise specified in these Bylaws.

5. Any action of this Division shall be invalid if it is in conflict with the Constitution or Bylaws of the American Society for Engineering Education, or of Professional Interest Council I of ASEE.

Article VII. PUBLICATIONS

1. In order to promote the aims of the Division, the Division shall actively support the publication of the quarterly journal, The Engineering Economist, in accordance with the “Joint Publication Agreement” executed between the Engineering Economy Divisions of ASEE and IIE.

2. The Division shall, by election, provide three members, or such other number as may be required under the “Joint Publication Agreement” with the Engineering Economy Division of IIE, to serve on the Editorial Board of The Engineering Economist. Members of the Editorial Board shall serve for three year staggered terms such that one new member is elected each year. Nominees may be current active Division officers or members of the Grant Award Committee.

3. It shall be the responsibility of the ASEE-EED elected members of the Editorial Board Members to review publication policies and practices associated with The Engineering Economist and to inform the division of any proposed changes. Any changes to the “Joint Publication Agreement” will require a two-thirds affirmative vote of those members present at the annual meeting.

4. The Division shall maintain an endowment trust fund, to be known as the ASEE-EED Grant Award Fund, to support the annual award for the best paper in The Engineering Economist (see Article VIII.4). This fund is to be conservatively invested, and management of the fund shall normally be the responsibility of the Editor of The Engineering Economist and one other Trustee. The Editor and Trustee are separately and jointly empowered to make operational decisions concerning the fund. The Trustee shall be a member of the Division, who shall be elected as needed and whose name shall appear in The Engineering Economist.

Article VIII. COMMITTEES

Each year the Division Chair, with the advice and consent of the Officers, shall constitute such committees as are necessary to promote the purposes of the Division. It shall be the responsibility of each committee Chair to keep the Division officers informed of the activities being performed by any committees, which will be subject to review and approval by the Division Officers. In addition to the Nominating Committee, the Division will have the following standing committees: Program Committee and Grant Award Committee.

1. Program Committee: The Program Chair may appoint and chair a committee for organization of technical paper sessions, workshops, and seminars sponsored or co-sponsored by the Division at the Society’s Annual Conference and Exposition.

1.1 The Program Chair will be responsible for selecting reviewers of abstracts/papers submitted to sessions. All members of the Division are available to serve as reviewers. Each paper will be reviewed by at least two (2) reviewers using a two-way blind process. The criteria and procedures for selection of papers is as follows:

a. Topics shall be appropriate to the missions of ASEE, the theme of the conference, and the interests of the Division.

b. The papers shall be substantive in nature, consisting of a conceptual, experimental, or applied treatment of the topic. Papers shall be a complete, self-contained treatment of the topic or aspects of the topic. The availability of a more complete treatment should be stated in the paper.

c. Papers shall conform to commonly accepted scholarly standards relative to references, citations, and rules of evidence. The purpose of the paper, methodologies employed, representative data, hypotheses, conclusions, and relationships to other published work should be clearly stated.

d. Illustrations and figures will be legible, properly labeled, referenced in the text, and of sufficient size that may be reduced to approximately one-third for final publication and still retain effectiveness.

e. Papers shall adhere to the guidelines and time schedule imposed by the conference, including page length.

1.2 In addition, the Program Committee (or, in the absence of a committee, Program Chair) will be responsible for determining the annual best paper award under the following guidelines.

Best Paper Award – The Division will recognize the best paper accepted for presentation in a session sponsored by the Division at the Society’s Annual Conference and Exposition.

To be considered for this award the paper must be published in the conference proceedings in the year awarded. The paper must have been peer-reviewed and the final version must have been accepted for publication through the Division review process.

The standards for this award are meant to be dynamic and to evolve over time. To this end only a loose minimum set of standards are specified in this document. To be considered for this award a paper must meet the following:

The paper’s author(s) must demonstrate an appreciation for and understanding of engineering economy education.
The paper must advance the engineering education literature in the field of engineering economy.
The paper must be well written and as such reflect credit on the Division and the Society.

The Program Chair, in consultation with the peer-reviewers, will identify a pool of three to five papers that best meet the criteria for this award, and shall provide copies of the papers in the pool to each of the Best Paper Award Committee, which consists of all EED officers with the exception that those that have submitted papers must find a replacement. All committee members, including the Program Chair, shall constitute voting members of the award committee. The Program Chair shall supply the copies of the papers in the pool to the award committee within two weeks of the close of paper acceptance. The committee will be allowed fifteen (15) days to read the papers. Voting shall be by email and will be done by each member of the committee ranking their top three choices. The Program Chair will tally the votes (e.g., 3 for top, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd). In the case of a tie, the Program Chair will cast the deciding vote. The decision of the Best Paper Award Committee should be provided to Division Chair by May 1.

The award for the best paper is a suitably engraved plaque for each of the authors of the paper, which will be presented at the Society’s Annual Conference.

2. Grant Award Committee: The Grant Award Committee will annually elect a Chair, who will coordinate activities between the committee and the Division Chair. This election will take place at the annual ASEE meeting, after the annual election of the new Committee members. The Chair of the Committee will also be responsible for selection of the Grant Award Winner, as outlined in the Grant Award Procedures.

The Chair of the Committee will be responsible for selection of the Grant Award Winner, as outlined in the Grant Award Procedures. The decision of the Grant Award Committee should be provided to Division Chair by May 1, so that the Division Chair may notify the winner(s) and provide adequate time to make arrangements for the winner(s) to attend the conference.

2.1 Eligibility – All papers published in the last complete volume of The Engineering Economist that closed immediately preceding ASEE-EED Annual Meeting are eligible. The following are not eligible: book reviews, technical notes, readers forums, and papers that have been published elsewhere before publication in The Engineering Economist.

2.2 Criteria – In selecting the best paper, the committee members shall consider:

Originality – freshness, newness, or uniqueness of the approach.
Importance of the Problem – likelihood of having considerable influence on the theory and/or practice of engineering economy.
Logic and Clarity – arguments based on sound reasoning and well-explained.
Adequacy of Proposed Solution – sufficiency of the result to support the argument.

2.3 Review and Voting Procedure

a. Any member of the Grant Award Committee who is an author or coauthor of a paper being judged is automatically disqualified from voting.

b. Each member of the committee shall read all eligible papers and shall notify the Grant Award Committee Chair of his/her choices for first place (3 points), second place (2 points), and third place (1 point). Only three (3) papers must be rated and a total of exactly six (6) points awarded as a result of each member’s ratings. It is permissible for a member to rate two papers of equal merit; in this case, the points of two consecutively placed shall be divided equally between the two papers.

c. Reports shall be made by the members of the committee by February 15. The Grant Award Committee Chair will total the point scores for each paper and report the recommended winner to the Division Chair. In the event of a tie, each paper will be designated as an award winner and the cash award will be equally divided.

The award is a suitably engraved plaque for each of the authors of the paper, as well as a monetary award.

Article IX. AMENDMENTS TO BYLAWS

1. Proposed amendments to these bylaws may be proposed by a petition signed by not less than ten (10) individual members of this Division and submitted to the Chair, or

2. The Officers, by a two-thirds majority, can propose amendments to these bylaws.

3. Proposed amendments shall be announced by email to each member of the Division at least thirty (30) days before the date of the annual meeting at which the proposed amendments are to be considered.

4. Amendments shall become effective upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members present at the annual business meeting and ratification by the ASEE Board of Directors.

Article X. DIVERSITY STATEMENT

The Engineering Economy Division is also committed to promoting the inclusion and education of diverse individuals and embracing diverse ideas in the professions of engineering and engineering technology. The Engineering Economy Division recognizes that diversity is strength in creativity, broadness of new ideas, and embracing new perspectives to arrive at the most truly innovative, resource-smart solutions possible.