By Ronald L. Buchholz, CPM
ronbuchholz@charter.net

When I wrote my last President’s Message to you, I indicated that I was communicating to you from a new and unique perspective, that as being Academy President for a second time. Clearly, that was perspective that I had not previously thought about or considered.

I am again writing this Message from another new and unique perspective, albeit this time it is one for which I had been planning for and considering for some time. I write to you today from the perspective of being an “official” retiree. I am pleased that I can attest there is life after retiring from your “day job,” and thus far, it has been all I had expected it to be and then some, although at this writing I have only been in this status for a week!

My wife, Mary, and I both retired from our positions with April 20th being our last day in the office. We celebrated the event with two great parties, which were truly happy and memorable events. Both events were heightened by the fact that our oldest son, Lauren, was able to travel from his home in Seattle to join us for the parties and festivities. Although retiring from my Deputy Administrator position in the Division of Safety and Buildings, there was a strong CPM presence at the events. Wisconsin CPM Program Director Susan Paddock and Associate Director Robbi Dreifuerst were both in attendance, as were many of the members of the Wisconsin CPM Program Policy Board, which I continue to chair. Most current and a number of past Wisconsin CPM Society Officers and members were in attendance, and Mary and I were especially pleased that AACPM Past President Bill Herman was also able to travel to Wisconsin from his home state of New Hampshire to celebrate the event with us. Mary and I look forward to all the opportunities retirement has to offer, a large segment of which at least for the next year or so will be CPM related at both the state and national level…More >