Leadership Letter
October 2022
ASK COUNSELOR TARA
ASCE’s General Counsel Tara Hoke responds to legal questions posed by Sections and Branches here each month. Send Tara an email with your question.
As an ASCE leader, what potential conflicts of interest should I be aware of?
With many new volunteer leaders taking office at the Society or local level during the coming months, now is a good time for volunteers to familiarize themselves with ASCE’s conflict of interest policy.
Section 10.1 of the ASCE Bylaws reads: “A Conflict of Interest shall be defined as any activity, transaction, relationship, service, or consideration which is, or appears to be, contrary to the best interests of the Society, or in which the interests of an individual or another organization has the potential to be placed above those of the Society. Any interested individual must disclose the existence of any actual or possible Conflict of Interest and all material facts to the Society entity considering the proposed transaction. Action to address the conflict shall be taken by either the interested individual or the Society entity.”
Conflicts of interest can be financial (such as an ownership interest in a vendor that’s competing for business from the Society entity) or personal (e.g., a family member applying for a scholarship from the entity) in nature; they can also arise from competing positions (e.g., a leadership role in another volunteer organization that might compete for membership dollars or event attendance) or even conflicting philosophies (e.g., volunteer work for an advocacy group campaigning for a policies that conflict with ASCE’s own initiatives).
While, of course, the mere existence of a conflict of interest does not make a volunteer leader incapable of making an impartial decision, it is also true that a member with a conflict may not recognize how much their objectivity is hampered by that personal interest. Indeed, even in cases where the member is not directly influenced by the outside interest, the interest might still cause harm. For example, the presence of a member with a personal stake might serve as a constraint on free discussion or criticism by other members who are reluctant to cause offense, or a decision made with the individual’s contribution might cause others to assume the decision was made solely to favor the volunteer’s personal interest. For that reason, it is both a wise decision as well as an ethical obligation always to err on the side of disclosing conflicts to your Board or other volunteer entity.