President’s Message

Greg Hyland, CPM
Greg.Hyland@YumaAZ.gov

Greetings fellow Academy members. As I write this, it’s a beautiful spring day in Yuma with the temperature in the mid 80s without a cloud in the sky.

Who would be thinking that in just a few short weeks we’ll be coming together to celebrate our 20th Annual Professional Development Conference in beautiful Columbus, Ohio? With our busy summer schedules, September 7th will be here before we know it, and we’ll be converging on the Hyatt Regency Columbus either by car, bus, motorcycle or airplane for the premier CPM event of the year. Those of you that have never been to Columbus are in for a treat. I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days there in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were so many things to do that I didn’t know which to do first.

With many agencies cutting back on travel and education, my concern is that there may not be as many of us in Columbus as we’d all like. The last time we faced this type of situation was in 2001 when the Academy met in Scottsdale, Arizona, and our members from the Southeast were facing an economic slowdown. Compared to the previous conference in Florida, attendance was down; but, those of us who were there had a great time. And, I have it on good authority (from the Ohio Society) that those of us who head to the Buckeye State will have a great time again.

On-line hotel reservations are already available at http://columbusregency.hyatt.com, or by calling (614) 463-1234 and reserving your room under the event code “AACPM.” Room rates are $130 per night for single or double, $140 for triple occupancy, and $150 for quad occupancy. By the time this article is published and distributed, on-line conference registration should be available. Watch your mail and email for more information. We’ve reduced our room block slightly, so make your reservations as soon as possible to ensure you’re able to stay at the conference hotel. I look forward to seeing all of you throughout your stay in Columbus.

In other news, your Academy Board has been hard at work. As I mentioned in my last article, the Board held their mid-year meeting in February and we were able to complete most of our annual tasks. Since February, we’ve continued to hold monthly conference calls to work through Academy business. These calls have been very helpful and we’ve been able to accomplish a number of things that normally would have been delayed until the post Conference Board Meeting in September.

We’ve also had some good results in other areas – we’ve developed a database of pertinent conference information – the number of room nights at the conference hotels, broken down by day, the meeting room requirements, conference registration costs, etc. My thanks go out to Ron Buchholz, Bill Herman, Steve Mastro and Larry Totten for putting this information together. This information should be particularly helpful to upcoming conference planners.

Our committees have also been hard at work, and I look forward to sharing the results of their diligence when the committee reports are presented during the House of Delegates meeting.

We’re working on reviewing, revising and updating our Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and developing some minor recommended By-Laws changes. One area we’re exploring relates to ethical standards by which Societies report membership information and submit dues payments to the Academy. We’re also looking at what alternatives the Academy has when Societies are in arrears for multiple years.

We continue to look at different opportunities to save our precious budgetary dollars. A few months ago I asked you to respond to a survey that asked some specific questions regarding services desired by you as members, who should provide those services, and then who should pay for them. In a small nutshell, the results were that we, as Academy members, wanted more training and more membership services, those services should be provided by the Academy and the costs should then be borne by the Academy.

Thought provoking, isn’t it? It sometimes puzzles me. How can we continue to provide more, when demands and costs are increasing and contributions are decreasing? It doesn’t make any sense. It reminds me of the situation in government, but wait, that’s where the majority of us work – in government…

It’s something the future leaders of the Academy are going to have to wrestle with. For if we are to become the organization we feel we’re destined to be, I suggest we may have to change the way we look at ourselves and the way we do business. It is truly amazing that, as a national organization, we exist on the monetary contributions of less than four Starbucks Venti Iced Mochas® per member per year; or putting it in a different perspective for those of us that don’t drink coffee but have kids, it’s less than five Happy Meals® per year. My personal opinion is that we will need to take a serious look at how we as an organization are going to exist in the future,  a future where everything we do will cost significantly more and likely we will have less support from our members’ agencies. Unfortunately, I see an eventual end to employers’ full support and sponsorship of the Academy activities, particularly related to the activities of our Board Members.

As I said, it’s an unfortunate situation, yet something we’ll need to deal with as we decide what we want to be when we grow up.

On a brighter note, we have a full slate of candidates for all of our offices up for election, and we’ve had this slate for several weeks now. (We didn’t even have to send out our usual multiple reminders or extend the nomination period.)  For that I’m deeply grateful to our members. Thank you for stepping forward and throwing your hat into the ring and running for national office. It’s a great experience – one that you will remember for the rest of your lifetime. And that’s a good thing! Having the honor of being a member of the Academy Board is an experience I wish everyone could have. Because of this opportunity, I have made lifelong friends with some people I never would have met in my normal everyday life, here in beautiful Yuma, Arizona. They are great people and they will always have a special place in my heart.

And that brings me to my closing paragraphs. In a recent newsletter from my fraternal organization, our regional President posed the following question – are you a brother or an acquaintance? In other words, in our organization, do we truly care about our fellow CPMs and Academy members, or are they just people we see once a month for lunch? It made me stop and take stock of my personal situation. As we became Certified Public Managers®, we bonded with our classmates and formed relationships that lasted long past our class sessions. When we joined our Societies and the Academy, did we bring that philosophy of fellowship with us? If not, why not? If we did, is it still alive? Do me a favor -- take a few minutes and think of your CPM friends, give them a call or send them an e-mail, tell them how much they mean to you, and renew those old friendships. If you do it, let me know what happens. I’d be very interested to know if this small step affects you as it does me. At least once a week (sometimes once a day), I call one of my close confidants who happens to be a member of our organization. We talk about the weather, the local football/baseball teams and what’s going on in our lives at that particular moment. I’ve even run my thoughts about a new e-mail signature “Some people are like slinkies, not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs,” even though they knew I was just kidding (I hope I was kidding). These conversations keep me sane and help me realize that I have many true friends that I wouldn’t have ever met if I weren’t a member of this great organization. I hope that in the end, I am their brother, not just their acquaintance.

Please remember I’m always here if you ever want to talk, laugh, comment, grouse, whine or complain. I can be reached at (928) 373-5023 – office, (928) 580-4751 – cell or via email at Greg.Hyland@YumaAz.gov or gdhyland@yahoo.com.

I’ll conclude with the following, wonderful quote from the film Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium – “Life is an occasion, rise to it.”

© Copyright 2008, American Association of Certified Public Managers®