January 2007 ISSUE
EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Sustaining Our Professions:
The Responsible Thing to Do
BY DAVID DEVENNY, P.ENG., P.GEOL.
Board Member
APEGGA Education Foundation & APEGGA Past President
Albertans benefit from the services of APEGGA members. In my view we have a professional responsibility to sustain those services. That includes encouraging and developing the next generation of engineers, geologists and geophysicists.
Scholarships — and therefore the APEGGA Education Foundation — are an important part of the encouragement.
The foundation was established as an independent group to administer APEGGA scholarships. As a registered charitable organization, it is well positioned to receive funds for scholarships. The foundation took over existing APEGGA scholarships, added to them, and built a modest endowment fund to support future scholarships.
Last year the foundation granted $93,000 in scholarships, mostly to students at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. Considering the number of engineers, geologists and geophysicists in Alberta, the level of funding is rather modest.
APEGGA Council members say that they fully support the activities of the foundation. They recently approved funds to continue the current scholarships for four years. Then, in an act of tough love, Council will reduce support to the foundation to zero over the next four years.
That puts the foundation in charge of funding and dispensing APEGGA scholarships to our future members. Funding scholarships is not a core function of APEGGA.
The foundation business plan includes a fundraising campaign. The plan is to establish an endowment to assure continued funding for scholarships. A fund of $2 million will support scholarships at the current level. A larger amount will be needed to support more or larger scholarships.
The foundation seeks the help of all engineering, geology and geophysics professionals.
We will seek donations from individual members. If each member donates an amount equal to one per cent of his or her APEGGA dues, the total will fund the current scholarships. That’s not too much, considering that professional fees are five times greater for medical doctors and seven times greater for lawyers.
Let your employers know that donations to the foundation will help sustain
the services that you provide. If they value you and your services, they should
support the foundation. If your employer automatically pays your professional
fees for you, you can afford to support the foundation.
Let your customers know that donations to the foundation will help sustain the
services that they now enjoy and benefit from.
Let your government know that fund matching for scholarships will help sustain professional services in Alberta. They were quick to match the funds donated by one individual to the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. They should do the same for Alberta’s 40,000 voting professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists.
Lets act as professionals. Donate and support the funding of scholarships that will help sustain our professions. It’s a professional obligation.