The SPE Board meets four times a year. Our most recent meeting was late February in Doha. The Board and Board Committee meetings span 3 days and cover a lot of business. Here are some highlights from that meeting.

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget. We spent a lot of time discussing the budget proposed for FY 2010, which runs 1 April 2009 through 31 March 2010. SPE is budgeting a positive result of USD 127,000. This will be a challenging financial year for SPE, just as for others in this economic downturn. While we intend to keep the quality of our programs high and to continue to provide the services our members need, we will be very attentive to our operating costs. Read more »

We are a bit further into the year since I wrote my last column, and unfortunately the global economic crisis deepens. Companies have already tightened such things as travel budgets and will certainly be watching cash flow very carefully. I maintain, however, that this is the time we should focus on preparing for the next upturn by retaining capacity and developing or improving the relevant technology.In an ideal world, R&D and training would be anti-cyclic to the economic cycle: use a lower demand on staff in a downturn to train them for the next phase and allow this human capital to develop new ideas/R&D when there is time for it. Now, more than ever, companies should be seeking innovative ideas and technology to reduce their operating costs and produce better results.

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