ACEC Changes Its Name

At the Annual General Meeting in Whistler, B.C. earlier this summer, the ACEC membership supported a proposed name change for the association. Effective June 27, 2009, the association name will be the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies with the acronym remaining ACEC. The membership also voted in favour of a new tagline: “Shaping tomorrow’s world”.

The initial intent behind the name change was to create a consistent (though flexible) brand for ACEC and the Member Organizations (MOs) across the country. Harmonizing names and branding with ACEC is intended to allow ACEC and the MOs to leverage each other’s profile and to more readily share resources. Each association can adopt the ACEC acronym, incorporating their own province or territory (e. g. ACEC -New Brunswick). To date, several provinces have adopted the harmonized name approach. It is hoped that, in time, all MOs will consider the merits of adopting a consistent brand across the country, although the decision of each MO will be left entirely up to its own membership.

Another reason behind the change was to re-incorporate the term “consulting” into the association name. The term consulting was dropped from the name two years ago when it was thought to be confusing to external audiences. However, it was later felt that the term consulting was necessary to distinguish the ACEC membership from other types of engineering businesses such as manufacturing. It was also felt that the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada created a mistaken impression with many stakeholders that ACEC represented individual engineers rather engineering companies.

Now that a second round of consultations has taken place, the con- sensus is that the new name, the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies, is a compromise which maintains both the term “consulting” and the term “companies.” It is hoped that external audiences will no longer have any questions about who the ACEC represents.

ACEC is now in the process of undergoing a re-branding exercise to accompany the name change. This re-branding will involve significant consultation with and input from the MOs. Implementation will not likely occur until the spring of 2010.