Welcome to 2010!
I am thrilled to be serving as your President this year! I’ve successfully made it through January, so I am feeling good about the rest of the year. Your Board this year has a dynamic mix of experience and perspective, from newbies to those that have been serving for a number of years (I won’t mention how many!). The 2010 Board has representation from each of our member agency types – cities, counties, state, school districts, higher education, and special districts. They are here to serve YOU, so feel free to contact any of us at any time. Our contact information is available on the website under the “Contact Us” tab.
Your Board is working on many exciting things this year – I’d like to share with you just a few of them. Two task forces have been assembled to develop recommendations to the Board for 2 potential new programs – one to develop a student membership program; and the other to begin building a community of vendors that RMGPA can use in a variety of advisory and strategic roles.
Another exciting development is the creation of a Marketing Committee with a chair position serving on the Board. Eileen Gonzales with El Paso County will be serving as the first-ever Chair of this committee. She has a lot of exciting ideas about how to build and promote RMGPA. At the end of February, the Board will have a Study Session to brainstorm and prioritize marketing tasks that will be most beneficial to our membership and the organization as a whole.
Plans are under way for a fabulous Spring Conference! RMGPA has been offered the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join one day of the National Association of Educational Procurement’s annual conference being held this year in Denver. We are honored by the invitation and look forward to the dynamic learning and networking opportunities with this group of purchasing professionals from around the country! As I write this, we are finalizing details for the conference so watch for an announcement that’s soon to come.
The Executive Board and chairs have been working diligently to develop a realistic budget for 2010. Your Treasurer, Sharon Williams, has worked so hard over the past couple of years to get the bookkeeping and reporting into shape! We are able to see actual revenues and expenses at a level of detail that we have not had in the past. I expect to have an approved budget by the end of February, and it will be presented to membership at the Spring Conference.
Stay warm in the last months of winter, and I hope to see many of you at the Spring Conference in March!
