Concepts - Discussions

HOFEST - Discussions on the Subject

Topic: NEHOF

RBJ: Dr Tuba. You might want to check out the following: www.engineer.org Looks a little familiar.

IST: Why do you want to reinvent the wheel? Why not just join www.hofest.org

NN: To be honest, it is because hofest does not embody the same values and purpose. We investigated it, asking the same question you raised, before going on our own. Thanks for asking!

IST: Thank you for an honest answer. This is Dr I Stephen Tuba. May I have your name, for future dialogs. If we have the same goals, we should not compete but cooperate.

DAV: Certainly. My name is David A. Violette, and I am on the Board of Directors and the one who has created the very preliminary draft web site.

RBJ: Dear Dr Tuba: Thanx for copying me on these messages. Hopefully you (HOFEST) and Engineers Hall of Fame can merge efforts. What is needed to is spread the word of the existence of these efforts. I'm trying.

RBJ: Please enlighten me. I'm confused? What are the different values that you two groups embody? What are your different goals? Please send some light on your different objectives.

DAV: Thanks for your inquiry, Bob. here's a brief intro; more details can be gained by visiting the links given later.

History : The National Engineering Hall of Fame was started by Bill Grenier, PE, now deceased but formerly of Laramie WY, with the idea of honoring engineers and engineering achievements. While originally oriented toward PROFESSIONAL engineers, it has since been opened up to any engineers. The organization originally wanted to build a physical museum devoted to engineers and engineering achievements and a building and tract of land in Cheyenne WY was donated to the organization by Cheyenne Power and Light. The building, a former generating station, turned out to have too many asbestos problems to make it practical to develop, and the organization sold the building. Things languished for several years until the idea of a virtual hall of fame was proposed. The domain name Engineer.org was acquired and the group has started planning for the development of the concept. A first newsletter was mailed in April 2000 to the members of the ACEC "All Principals" mailing list, about 17000 names.

Membership: No one will ever have to pay to be honored by and included in the National Engineering Hall of Fame. A committee is developing standards and processes for selecting honorees. NEHOF plans to be supported by membership dues and donations, paid by individuals, companies, or others in support of the Hall of Fame program. NEHOF is primarily focused on US engineers and engineering.

Sponsorship: The ACEC College of Fellows has voted to help NEHOF get off the ground. There is no financial support provided by ACEC or the College of Fellows, however. Several of the NEHOF Board members are ACEC Fellows, but not all.

Links: You can get more details about the organization and structure of NEHOF at http://Plan.Engineer.org This site contains a draft Strategic Plan for NEHOF. A very early draft of one concept is given at http://Concept.Engineer.org Please remember that neither of these have been discussed or adopted by the Board of Directors.

IST: Your approach is a direct response to our invitation above . We will include a link to your sites, first at the USA National Level of HOFEST , and elsewhere as appropriate. We see no conflict of interest. We invite all other countries of the world to follow your positive response.

IST: Dear Bob and Dave: Great! We will consider it as a very "positive response" to our Open Invitation covered in the Introduction of www.hofest.org Good luck to all of us. We need lot more organizations to join forces and do their own thing. HOFEST is a "Frame work" for the whole world. We must achieve a "Critical Mass" on the Internet, before Society will notice us. They must realize that Engineers, Scientists and Technologists are the only segment of Society, which not only use existing resources to create new wealth, but create New Resources for the purpose. They should be recognized. (See Universal Ideology of Economics) HOFEST acted very constrained with elections and inductions until now, until other organizations become involved.

NOTE: In the above discussion the parties where:

RBJ – Robert B Johnson of SEAOI and NCSEA, Chicago, IL.

DAV - David A. Violette, see the text above.

IST – Dr I S Tuba, Founder and Executive Director of International Technology
Institute, the Secretariat of HOFEST . He initiated the HOFEST Concept in the mid 70-s. First inductions begun in 1982. See: www.itiworld.org/interview.html