INCOSE WMA Newsletter

October 2010

Presidents Word
Upcoming Events
Greetings INCOSE WMA Members!

This year is almost over and elections are coming

up. I hope that many of you will throw your
preverbal hats into the ring and join the INCOSE November
WMA Board. If you are interested, please contact
Join us on November 9th @ 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Stephen.Mosier@incose.org. Nominations will be @ the Brio Tuscan Grille, Tysons Corner I for a
accepted until November 9th (see page 2). presentation by Ken Kepchar (Chief System
Engineer) on NextGen at the FAA.
We had wonderful attendance at the October
Dinner Meeting with Steve Welby, and I hope to
see everyone back again for our November
meeting with Ken Kepchar on NextGen.

Sincerely, December
Steven H. Dam
Join us on December 7th @ 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
INCOSE WMA President @ McCormick & Schmick’s, McLean, VA for the
New Program Announcement - 2010 INCOSE WMA Holiday Party. Members and
INCOSE-WMA Awards guests are welcome—bring a spouse, significant-
other or colleague.
by Director, Laurie Nasta Early registration ends on November 7th.
Some of our more long-standing members may
know that for a number of years now the INCOSE-
WMA Chapter has been awarded the INCOSE
Circle Award. Continued on page 4
Enter the iPad Raffle

INSIDE THIS ISSUE At each of our remaining dinner meetings,

INCOSE WMA will be collecting raffle tickets for
1 Presidents Word & Upcoming Events
our iPad Raffle at the INCOSE WMA Holiday Party
1, 4 New Program Announcement in December.* There is no cost to enter, and all
attendees will be given a raffle ticket.
2 Nomination Date Extended: Election for Chapter Officers

3 Farwell Letter from Barclay Brown *Remember you must attend the December
Holiday Party (December 7th) to win the prize.
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Nomination Date Extended:

Elections for Chapter Officers for 2011
Nominations are now being accepted for officers for the Washington Metropolitan Area
Chapter of INCOSE for 2011. Nominations are open for the following positions:

 Chapter President. This position is open because the current Vice President/President
Elect has notified the Board of Directors that he will not be able to continue on as
President in 2011. The person elected to this position will serve as President for 2011,
and on the Board of Directors as Past President for 2012. Duties: The President shall
have general supervision of CHAPTER affairs. The President shall preside at Chapter
events and at meetings of the Board. The President shall represent the Chapter with
INCOSE.
 Vice President/President-Elect. The person elected to this position will serve as Vice
President/President Elect for 2011, then President in 2012 and on the Board of
Directors as Past President for 2013. Duties: The Vice President/President-Elect shall
assist the President and shall assume the duties of the President when the President is
unable to perform these duties. The Vice President/President-Elect shall succeed to the
position of the President upon completion of his/her term of office or if the President
resigns.
 Treasurer. The person elected to this position will serve a two-year term (2011, 2012)
as chapter Treasurer. Duties: The Treasurer shall be responsible for the financial affairs
of the Chapter. The Treasurer shall receive all funds paid to the Chapter and shall
approve payment of all bills incurred by the Chapter, as approved by the Board. The
Treasurer shall make an annual report on the financial affairs of the Chapter as required
by the financial reporting requirements of the national organization.
 Programs Committee Chairperson. The person elected to this position will serve a two-
year term (2011, 2012) as chapter Programs Committee Chairperson. Duties: The
Programs Committee Chairperson shall manage all chapter program activities, including
monthly chapter meetings, tutorials, and all other program activities of special,
technical, and social nature not specifically assigned to other committees.
 At-Large Director. The person elected to this position will serve a two-year term (2011,
2012) as an At-Large Director on the Board of Directors.

Nominations are being accepted until November 9th. Current WMA chapter members in good
standing may nominate themselves or others for a position. Nominations will be accepted by
email to Stephen.Mosier@incose.org. The board will verify acceptance of nominations before
approving the slate of candidates.

In addition to these elected positions, we are also seeking additional volunteers for pour
Programs Committee and Communications Committee, and for a Membership Chairperson.
Please consider serving as an officer in your INCOSE chapter. CSEPs earn PDUs toward re-
certification for time spent working on chapter affairs.
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Dear fellow INCOSE WMA member,

As you may have heard, it was necessary for me to resign as President-Elect for the WMA chapter for 2011 due
to a change in my job responsibilities which required completing my work in the Washington DC area and also
extensive worldwide travel, making it impossible to provide what the chapter needs in local leadership. As this
was happening an opportunity arose to serve in a regional capacity for INCOSE, and thus I’m writing to let you
know about this and also, frankly, to ask for your vote when INCOSE election time comes this Fall!

In case we haven’t met personally through WMA events, let me tell you a little of my background and let you
know what I have in mind for Region V if I am chosen to represent the Region on the Member Board in 2011.
After graduating from Virginia Tech in Electrical Engineering, I’ve been doing systems engineering work in the
computer, software and systems world for a bit over 25 years. I’ve worked with air traffic control systems,
computer systems and networks, home automation systems and aerospace and defense systems. For the past
seven years, I’ve been with IBM, and am currently the Global Solution Executive for Systems Engineering in the
Rational Software part of IBM. There, I work with aerospace and defense companies worldwide to improve their
systems engineering processes and methods using IBM tools and technologies. Inside IBM, I work on ensuring
that the company creates products that meet the needs of systems engineers across all industries.

After Virginia Tech, I went on to get a Master’s degree in Psychology, an MBA and now I’m working on a PhD in
systems engineering along with my ESEP application. I’ve also been active in teaching systems engineering both
within IBM and for IBM client companies, and also at the graduate level in a university setting. My background
in psychology, business, promotion and marketing, along with a long career in engineering, give me a diverse set
of tools to apply to a technical organization such as INCOSE. My involvement with INCOSE includes being on the
core team for IBM’s Corporate Advisory Board relationship, and being on the board for the WMA chapter as
secretary and VP in 2009-2010.

In terms of my vision for the Region, I believe that Region V has incredibly rich resources that can be leveraged
to enhance our members’ experience of INCOSE. If elected, I would work to enhance or create new kinds of
communication and cooperation among the chapters in our region, to provide more value to our chapter
members, enhance participation levels and make chapter officers’ jobs easier! It seems to me that most of our
chapters are brilliant at producing quality programs and content but may struggle at times with program
promotion, participation levels, volunteerism, finding and developing new officers and maintaining a vital
organization—so this would be a primary focus. The more effective we are at these things, the more value we
can deliver to our members, our careers and our profession.

I look forward to serving the Region and INCOSE

in this new capacity!

Sincerely,
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Continued from page 1, Laurie Nasta’s 1. Best Tutorial: $100 gift card-measure:
Announcement on INCOSE WMA cumulative satisfaction scores across tutorials
Awards per surveys taken after each tutorial

2. INCOSE-WMA SE of the Year: Award

The circle award is based on criteria
(Trophy $50-100) & $500 gift card-measure:
established by the INCOSE organization to
accept nominations from other WMA
encourage chapters to actively engage their
members based on criteria (TBD) and BOD
membership in learning, mentoring, and
votes
sponsorship activities to further the practice of
Systems Engineering. In reviewing the criteria
(Criteria could include: examples of ‘game
after we won the award this year, we noted
changing’ work experience; best paper; adding
that one method for gaining credit for the
new ideas to SE practice) (We will finalize
Circle Award was to give awards to members
criteria before Jan 2011; suggestions are
for their contributions. We really liked the
encouraged.)
idea of rewarding members for their
contribution, so I took on the challenge to try
3. INCOSE WMA Best Mentor: Award (Trophy
and define specific awards categories for the
$50-100) & $250 gift card-measure: accept
rest of the board to consider.
nominations and BOD will vote on nominees
I developed several categories and through a
INCOSE-WMA members write a paragraph that
series of reviews and board meetings, we
describes how nominee inspired them
decided on a program for implementation
professionally or as a SE and/or provided
starting in 2011. One award we figured we
support/assistance relative to job/career
could do at the beginning of 2011 is the award
for Best Monthly Presentation. We will take a
If you have suggestions or ideas that might
survey at the end of the year on all of the
make these proposals better before we
monthly presentations from 2010, and allow
actually begin implementation in January 2011,
all members to vote on their choice. The
we are open to making modifications. We
presenter for the winning presentation will be
hope you find that this new awards program
awarded a recognition certificate, and $250
incentivizes our members to share with their
gift card!
peers their knowledge and experience for the
benefit of the group by either engaging in the
Beginning in 2011, we will repeat this award
activities which are being judged or in
category for the 2011 presentations, and we
recognizing their colleagues as nominees.
will add three more award categories for
evaluation/consideration. These include:

For more information on INCOSE WMA, please visit www.incose-wma.org