In this update, I would like to address several significant topics:

• Value Summit
• SAVE Chapters Reorganization Status
• Tiger Teams and Volunteering Opportunities
• U.S. Advocacy for Value (USAV) Executive Director

The 2026 Value Summit is scheduled for June 8-10, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. I urge you to mark your calendars, complete your registration, and contemplate becoming a sponsor. Details regarding registration and the preliminary schedule will be disseminated shortly. Continue to visit www.value-eng.org/2026ValueSummit for more information about this event.

I am pleased to report that the reorganization of SAVE Chapters has been successfully concluded, highlighted by a year of fruitful activities and the election of chapter officers earlier this year. With this pivotal milestone, I am delighted to introduce our new Director of Membership, Dr. Jacqueline Fahmy, who will spearhead our membership initiatives. This reorganization has invigorated our chapters, and I strongly encourage all of you to attend your chapter meetings; my participation in several has proven to be exceptionally rewarding.

In the forthcoming months, we will initiate several Tiger Teams to focus on key initiatives, including the updating of the SAVE Chapters Operating Procedures and the formation of a translation team dedicated to converting educational materials into French. I invite you to engage in this movement and lend your talents to our collective efforts.

Additionally, I am thrilled to welcome Jay Bytheway as the U.S. Advocacy for Value (USAV) Executive Director. The SAVE Board of Directors is enthusiastic about Jay's appointment and anticipates the vision, leadership, and dynamism he will bring to the USAV committee.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to our mission. I look forward to the pleasure of meeting you in Milwaukee!

I was in Milwaukee from Friday to Monday and enjoyed events at American Family Field where they have a great golf simulator room with multiple simulator screens. The Milwaukee Brewers will only be in town June 2-4 and 12-14, so if you stay in Milwaukee a few days after the Summit you can get a chance to see the Philadelphia Phillies come to town.

The Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, serves as the centerpiece of the "Deer District" entertainment complex, a growing and bustling area with great architecture and dining. Visit the Lake Front of Milwaukee and drive/walk the Lincoln Memorial Drive and stop by the Milwaukee Art Museum and its unique building design described as a “stunning, bird-like, moving white steel wings (the Brise Soleil) on the Quadracci Pavilion which was designed by Santiago Calatrava.”

Milwaukee also is known as Cream City, which I originally thought was due to the dairy industry, but it is based on the widespread use of distinct yellow-cream-colored bricks in local construction. Speaking of food, be prepared to enjoy plenty of fish fry’s, cheese curds, metts and brats, custard and more at great restaurants like Tupelo Honey, Third Coast Provisions, Mamma Mia’s, Sweet Diner, Mader’s Restaurant, Doc’s Commerce Smokehouse and more!

June in Milwaukee has all the makings for a great Value Summit complemented by a great host city with plenty to do and enjoy. See you all in Cream City!

Categories open for nomination:

• Projects, Programs, and Processes
• Individual Achievement and Service
• Chapter Accomplishments
• College of Fellows

SAVE encourages nominations that highlight the value of the VM and how it has made a meaningful impact - on the nominee’s work, on the society, and on our members.

All nominations are due March 16. Each nomination must be sponsored by someone other than the nominee; self-nominations are not accepted.

The nomination forms and the SAVE Honors & Awards Program Recognition Manual can be found on the SAVE website at www.value-eng.org/HonorsandAwards.

We look forward to your nominations!

As the most comprehensive resource for Value Methodology (VM) expertise, the annual directory highlights consultants, instructors, value study team members, and a wide range of support services. Listings include SAVE members and other professionals who choose to showcase their VM capabilities.

Used globally by VM clients and practitioners, the consultant directory remains the go to source for finding trusted VM professionals and service partners.

The Summit Planning Committee has started reviewing all of the presentation submissions. If you submitted, thank you! I am looking forward to reading through the submissions and getting a preview of the topics. If you missed the deadline, please feel free to reach out to Renee Wolf, SAVE Meeting Manager, at valuesummit@value-eng.org and we can place you on the waitlist.

In other planning news, registration for this year’s Summit is open! There are pre- and post-Summit training sessions that you will be able to sign-up for, but don’t wait because spaces are limited. A link to SAVE’s hotel room block and the sponsorship prospectus are also be available. Visit www.value-eng.org/2026ValueSummit for more information.

If you have any questions or comments about the Value Summit, please send us an email to valuesummit@value-eng.org.

The annual Value Summit provides essential professional development and shares insights in the Value Methodology (VM) and conducting value studies. Attendees will enhance their capability to lead teams through optimizing their projects, processes and product development and learn how to identify and develop value through innovation.

Reserve Your Hotel Room

We’re pleased to offer a special group rate of $229 plus tax per night at the Hilton Milwaukee. Reserve your room today to secure the discounted rate within our official room block. Room block deadline is May 16. We encourage you to book early, as rooms are limited and the discounted rate will expire once the block fills or the deadline passes.

Become a Sponsor

SAVE is pleased to present various sponsorship opportunities for the 2026 Value Summit. Our offerings will allow companies and consultants to increase their visibility with SAVE’s global value community.

Visit www.value-eng.org/2026ValueSummit for more information about the 2026 Value Summit. We look forward to seeing you in person this June!

One big advantage of the online portal is that candidates can enter their studies and training courses for approval as they complete them instead of waiting until they have all materials gathered. However, candidates who wish to continue to use the legacy system and just submit one application after they assemble all of their information may still follow that route through the SAVE website.

We are now looking for the first few candidates to try out the new portal. If you are a current VMA and have completed the current VMF2 course or the new VMF2A and VMF2B courses and wish to start entering information into the new CVS Application Portal for approval, please send an email to certification@value-eng.org. The SAVE business office will help process your payment and send you a link to the portal along with an initial password and instructions.

There is a planned future iteration of the online portal to process CVS renewals; however, all CVS renewals will continue to be completed the existing way for the foreseeable future.

Recently we have seen some online posts where individuals have alluded to a CVS-Life being a higher level of certification than a CVS. We wish to clarify that CVS and CVS-Life are equivalent levels of certification and one should not be held above the other. Any individuals promoting this false discrepancy could find themselves the subject of a SAVE ethics violation.

Lastly, a gentle reminder to all existing CVS-Life holders that in 2026 you will need to identify as either “active” or “retired”. If you wish to have “retired” status, there is no need for renewal fees or any recertification. However, to maintain “active” status, action will be required. Individuals who held a CVS-Life prior to October 2025 will be receiving an email from SAVE with further instructions later this month.

In March, SAVE International will launch the new Value Methodology Fundamentals 2 (VMF2) education program which is split into two parts - VMF2A, which is a self-paced 8-hour e-learning course, and VMF2B, which is a 24-hour instructor led course. Completion of both VMF2A and VMF2B are required in preparation for the Certified Value Specialist (CVS) exam, in accordance with the updated SAVE Certification Program Manual.

The 4-hour VMF2BT instructor training course has been scheduled for April 1, 2026 as a virtual offering – click here to register. This course will prepare CVS / CVS-Life qualified instructors to teach the VMF2B materials in either virtual or in-person format courses.

The VMF1BT and VMF2BT courses will both be offered in Milwaukee, WI this June as a post-Summit training opportunity. Reminder, attendees for the VMF1BT and VMF2BT courses will not receive PDU credits. Both courses enable the attendees to become SAVE approved instructors for the VMF1B and VMF2B course content.

VM Guide Translations

As previously mentioned, the VM Guide (2020) translation into Spanish coordinated by Jacqueline Fahmy, CVS, has been completed, with the content being reviewed by an independent editor team. Additional translations of the VM Guide are either currently in progress or planned to commence in the near future.

Jay retired from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) in 2022, where he served for several years as the CVS VE Team Leader. During his tenure, he provided VE training for both USBR and U.S. Bureau of Land Management personnel and collaborated regularly with other federal agencies, including the National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Jay is also a licensed structural engineer.

As USAV Executive Director, Jay will guide and manage the strategic direction of the USAV committee. His responsibilities will include leading the development of a formal committee charter, defining roles and responsibilities, and spearheading advocacy initiatives. Jay will also represent USAV at key events such as the USAV Symposium and the SAVE Value Summit.

Please join us in congratulating Jay on his appointment as USAV Executive Director.

Also, SAVE has been seeking volunteers to refresh the USAV committee. Many of the current committee members have been engaged with this effort since at least 2023, so it is time to let them step back. The SAVE Board greatly appreciates their collective efforts to date.

The motto of our conference in 2026 is "Safety in Uncertain Times - Staying Competitive with Value Optimization". In a world full of geopolitical tensions, supply chain problems and technological upheaval, the aspect of safety is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, competitiveness remains the key to sustainable success. This is exactly where value analysis comes in: Through targeted value optimization, companies can develop more robust and sustainably competitive solutions.

Together with you, we would like to shed light on how sustainable action, artificial intelligence (AI), and cost engineering in combination with value analysis offer concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. Sustainability is not just a trend, but a social necessity that we face with responsible products and processes. The integration of AI opens up new potential for optimization, whether in product development, service, or software support. Cost engineering helps us to evaluate these innovations economically and at the same time to work in a resource-saving manner.

Numerous practical examples from various industries will illustrate how these approaches can be successfully implemented and what positive effects result from them. In addition, we offer a wide range of other topics. For example, we show how value analysis can contribute to supporting software development or what potential lies in the application of value analysis in infrastructure projects. These additional topics complement the program and are intended to provide food for thought and new perspectives.

Our goal remains unchanged: We would like to invite you to actively participate and enrich the conference with your contributions. Let us work together to find ways to combine safety and competitiveness and to develop future-proof, sustainable solutions with the help of value analysis and modern methods such as AI and cost engineering.

On behalf of the Program Committee, I wish you inspiring preparations and look forward to welcoming you to the “Wertanalyse 2026” conference at Schmersal in Wuppertal.

Visit the VDI website for more information.

Combined, Charles, Fred, and Al have contributed more than 100 years of service to SAVE and worked as value professionals around the world. How many CVSs do you know that have worked in Djibouti? Yes, all three have done so.

These three are also the only SAVE members in Western Colorado. Our secret? Mesa County has the best peaches from anywhere in the world. There are also world class wineries, apple and other fruit orchards, and spectacular views. The nearby mountains offer year-round recreational activities include skiing, hiking, off-roading, fishing, bird watching, river rafting, and much more.