Five Reasons Why a Design Professional Firm Should Join ACEC
A conversation with Ron Brinke and Mark McCrobie, ACEC Michigan
If you run an engineering, architectural, surveying, environmental, or related design professional firm, and you are not a member of ACEC, this conversation is for you.
For our fifteenth episode of the Pro Concepts podcast, I sat down with Ron Brinke and Mark McCrobie from ACEC Michigan, which stands for the American Council of Engineering Companies. Ron has led the Michigan chapter for 20 years. Mark joined as deputy director in January 2023 and brought 14 years of experience from the consulting engineering world with him.
PCIA has been closely tied to ACEC for years. We attend the Michigan events, we attend both the spring and fall National Conferences, and I do the risk management session for the Emerging Leaders Program. The firms in this association represent the built environment, clean water infrastructure, safe roads and bridges, schools, communities. Their work shows up everywhere, even when people do not think to notice it. This is an organization worth knowing.
1. Advocacy.
Ask ACEC members what they value most about the association, and advocacy comes up first in survey after survey. That means more than just tracking legislation. It means having someone in Lansing who knows your industry, knows the issues, and is already at the table when decisions are being made that could affect your firm.
ACEC Michigan maintains an active political action committee that supports candidates who understand and back the engineering profession. Ron put it plainly: if you are not at the table, you are on the menu. That is true for engineering firms just like it is for any other industry. When a bad policy surfaces or a contract issue arises with a state agency, members have an organization with 20 years of relationships working on their behalf. Non-members often find out too late how much that access matters.
2. Education.
Engineers are exceptional at engineering. Running a business is a different skill set entirely, and ACEC Michigan has built a substantial education portfolio around exactly that.
Programming spans technical continuing education, business development training, leadership development, strategic planning, and succession planning. It is delivered through conferences, webinars, and specialized trainings developed in partnership with organizations like the National Highway Institute.
The flagship program is the Emerging Leaders Program, now in its tenth year, with approximately 25 participants annually. It runs over three months, with two-day sessions in September, October, and November at rotating locations across the state. The curriculum covers business development, risk management, strategic planning, and more. What participants often take away most, though, is the network. These are peers at similar career stages spending real time together, not just in sessions but at dinner, in conversation, building relationships that tend to last decades. For a civil engineer without surveying in-house, the person they need to know may well be in that room.
3. Industry promotion.
Engineering firms tend to be humble. The infrastructure that keeps a city running, the school buildings going up across Michigan, the bridges and roads people depend on every day: the firms behind that work rarely talk about it. ACEC fills that gap.
Each year, the association runs an Engineering and Surveying Excellence competition where firms submit their best projects for review by a panel of judges. The winners are recognized at an annual gala that celebrates the quality and impact of design work happening across the state. A Firm of the Year award recognizes organizations that are deeply embedded in their communities and consistently delivering work that improves quality of life.
For firms that have spent years doing excellent work without much public recognition, this is a meaningful opportunity.
4. Networking and best practices.
ACEC events bring together firms ranging from two-person startups to some of the largest engineering companies in the world. That range creates an unusually open environment for learning. CEOs of small firms sit alongside executives from national organizations. The conversations are candid, and the willingness to share what is working and what is not is something I find genuinely rare.
The CEO and CFO roundtables are particularly valuable. There is no set agenda. Ron and his team share what ACEC is working on, and then the room drives the conversation. Topics that come up range from financial management software and vehicle rental policies to overtime structures and cell phone policies. These are the operational questions that every firm is navigating, and having peers willing to share their experience openly makes the room worth the trip.
Non-members are welcome to attend these events. The registration rate is different for non-members, but the access is there. Attending even one of these roundtables gives you a direct sense of what the association is and what its members are getting out of it.
5. Member benefits and the ACEC Trusts.
ACEC has developed three trusts available exclusively to member firms: a Retirement Trust, a Business Insurance Trust, and a Life and Health Trust.
The Retirement Trust provides access to a 401(k) plan with low administrative costs and shared fiduciary oversight, reducing the compliance burden on member firms significantly. The feedback I hear from firms about this benefit is consistently strong.
The Business Insurance Trust is one that PCIA participates in directly. PCIA is one of fewer than ten brokers in the United States authorized to write coverage through the trust, which was established by engineers for engineers. The coverage is tailored specifically to design professional firms, and the efficiency of the process reflects that. One benefit worth noting: for firms with auto fleets, deductible reimbursement on covered auto claims, up to $10,000 per year, can add up quickly for firms managing large fleets.
The Life and Health Trust rounds out the package with group health coverage options that have performed well for member firms nationally.
As Ron noted, the goal is not for firms to join ACEC solely for the financial benefits. But for firms that engage actively, the trusts alone often more than offset the cost of membership.
The firms that get the most out of ACEC are the ones that show up. If you have been a member and drifted away from the events and programs, the calendar is live at acecmi.org. If your firm has never joined and you are curious what it would look like, reach out to Ron or Mark directly. Non-members can attend events, sit in on roundtables, and get a real feel for the community before making any commitment.
To connect with ACEC Michigan, visit acecmi.org or call 517-332-2066.
To reach Mike Cosgrove at PCIA directly, call 810-224-5255 or visit pciaonline.com.