In early 2023, ACEC Wisconsin was going full throttle on getting “duty to defend” legislation passed at the statehouse. “It’s by far our biggest issue, and it was the first bill in quite a long time that we had drafted, introduced, and pushed through the whole process,” says Chris Klein, president and CEO of ACEC Wisconsin. Klein began his current role in 2016 with a background in government affairs in both the public and private sectors that included a stint as the assistant deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).
Because February is the beginning of the state budget process, which occurs every two years, the Member Organization holds a lobbying day that month. “We had our largest-ever attendance scheduled,” Klein says. “More than 100 members were signed up and ready to hit the Capitol on this issue.” The group had worked for nearly seven months with “every organization out there that we felt could possibly support or oppose our legislation. And we spent a good amount of time getting everyone to stand down and not fight it,” he adds.
This sense of a closely knit group characterizes the Member Organization. “The grassroots side of our organization, overall strong membership participation, and the way we collaborate together is pretty unique,” says Chair Josh Straka, project manager at Strand Associates.
ACEC Wisconsin connected with local professional organizations for architects, interior designers, landscape architects, and land surveyors. In addition, it received funding from ACEC’s Minuteman Fund, which it used to create two 20-second videos: one defining duty to defend and the other explaining indemnification. “I think we are one of the first states to actually put these videos into use with both our members and the legislature in the way we did,” Klein says. Part of the plan included sending out a fact sheet with QR codes linking to the videos.
“One of the biggest benefits of the videos was helping our members—many of whom may not work on contracts every day— understand these complicated issues and see why they’re important for their profession,” Klein explains. He recognizes the work and energy it takes for members to contact a legislator, whether with a phone call, email, or personal visit. “But it’s an even deeper task when you ask a member to do that for an issue whose importance they don’t understand. Those videos did a great job.”
With everyone champing at the bit, Mother Nature threw a curveball: a snowstorm bad enough for the legislature to cancel the session. But the Member Organization was able to pivot quickly by scheduling a virtual lobbying effort for March. The bill passed the Assembly.
A focus on education filters through the entire organization. Case in point: The popular Leadership Institute, which offers employees at member firms six day-and-a-half sessions over the course of six months. Programs focus on firm leadership, running a business, financial and risk management, marketing and business development, work-life balance, and government affairs.
“At our firm, we have a waiting list of staff we’d like to move through the Leadership Institute,” says Past Chair Steve Wurster, senior vice president and COO at Ruekert & Mielke. “It’s prestigious, and we have employees requesting to be considered for the program.”
Even member firms from other states want their people to participate. Wurster attended 12 years ago and says the experience “was instrumental in my personal career as far as getting me thinking differently. It helped me shift from project- and technical-based thinking to asking questions such as ‘How do I want to lead?’ ‘What does it take to keep the doors open and the lights on?’ ‘How do politics come into play?’ ‘How does writing a good contract come into play?’—all of those other things that they don’t teach you in engineering school.”
That program has been a pipeline for leaders in the larger organization as well. “We’re coming full circle, where we now have nominating committee members picking people to come on the board of directors who went through the Leadership Institute, and they also were the mentors of those programs,” Klein says. They now have a more diverse board in terms of firm size, geographic location, gender, and disadvantaged business enterprises. “It’s an amazing testament not just to the association and how we keep everyone involved, but also, it’s a testament to the firms who participate and those they choose to participate in the Leadership Institute. They see something in them, and they end up being on our board of directors,” Klein says.
“As an association, we are doing more events, getting higher attendance, creating more committees, and having more members join our committees than we ever have,” Klein says. But he acknowledges that he, his staff, and dedicated volunteers must choose their battles strategically, to know when to go all out and when to act in a supporting role. Sometimes “our voice is best used to amplify the message of others and help connect the dots,” he says.
As with many other parts of the nation, Wisconsin needs engineers. “I’m a little worried about it,” Straka says. “Civil engineering programs are struggling to find students more than some of the other engineering majors in our state. At the same time, our industry has a large national infrastructure bill to deliver. Many firms are excited about the high backlog of work but are also concerned with finding staff to help complete it.”
“We are doing more events, getting higher attendance, creating more committees, and having more members join our committees than we ever have.”
CHRIS KLEINPRESIDENT AND CEOACEC WISCONSIN
Understanding this need, ACEC Wisconsin waded a bit outside its purview in an effort to help the University of Wisconsin–Madison get a much-needed new engineering building. “We typically don’t get involved in advocating for specific projects; we advocate for overall funding,” Klein says.
Currently, the College of Engineering can only accept fewer than 20 percent of applicants. With a new building, undergraduate enrollment would increase to 5,500 students and graduate enrollment to 2,000 students.
This “engineering building effort is different because of the workforce issues that our engineering firms are seeing,” Klein says. “We felt it was totally appropriate for us to take a position to advocate for a specific project. If we can graduate 1,000 more engineers a year in Madison, we’re all for it.”
The Member Organization signed coalition letters, met with the legislators early on, and advocated for a new building. However, the issue turned partisan when Republican legislators denied funding for the engineering school unless university-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs were cut. ACEC Wisconsin bowed out at that point. “We’d done our part, convincing legislators on the value of the engineering building. We were not going to get in the middle of a battle between the legislature and university on DEI initiatives,” Klein says.
This year, ACEC Wisconsin is ramping up to find a solution to a major financial concern: Because of the increase in electric vehicle use, gas taxes might not be able to fully fund transportation projects.
The Member Organization also has several initiatives in conjunction with WisDOT. So, the governmental agency and ACEC Wisconsin held their first-ever partnership meeting. The all-day event addressed concerns that members and WisDOT staff had about delivering the program most efficiently. ACEC Wisconsin’s transportation leadership committee “worked on issues ranging from the fixed fee all the way to scope of services, contracting, and negotiating. And we’ve already had some great outcomes from that meeting,” Klein says. One victory: WisDOT increased the fixed fee by a percentage point.
“Our industry has a large national infrastructure bill to deliver. Many firms are excited about the high backlog of work but are also concerned with finding staff to help complete it.”
JOSH STRAKACHAIRACEC WISCONSIN
The two organizations identified other issues to work on and plan to meet three times a year going forward. In addition, WisDOT has agreed to a partnership event every other year. “That’s going to be a huge asset that ACEC can offer to its members,” Klein says.
The indemnification legislation passed the Assembly in 2023 and the Senate unanimously in January 2024. ACEC Wisconsin applied for a Minuteman Fund grant to cover some of the legal work necessary to develop the complicated legislation, “which is different from state to state,” Klein says.
“[The Leadership Institute] was instrumental in my personal career as far as getting me thinking differently. It helped me shift from project- and technical-based thinking to asking questions such as ‘How do I want to lead?’ ‘What does it take to keep the doors open and the lights on?’ ‘How do politics come into play?’”
STEVE WURSTERPAST CHAIRACEC WISCONSIN
Their legislative sponsors are two Republican and two Democratic senators. “You can’t get any more bipartisan,” Klein says. “And support carried over on the floor.” Members put the advocacy alerts into action. “Our members did an amazing job reaching out to their Assembly reps and Senators.”
The bill awaits the governor’s signature.
Stacey Freed is a writer based in Pittsford, New York, who has contributed to This Old House, Professional Builder, and USA Today.