By Greg Hyland, CPM
Greg.Hyland@YumaAZ.gov

Fellow Academy members, welcome to 2008.

I am writing this message to you in mid-February having just returned from our annual Board meeting last week. The Board had a great meeting, and we were able to plow through a nearly four page agenda, as well as hold two joint meetings with the CPM Consortium. Our meetings began each day with an early breakfast and a meeting start time of 8:30 a.m., usually wrapping up with a joint dinner at around 9:00 p.m.

The Board made the decision to meet in Rancho Bernardo, California primarily for two reasons. Location—three Board members are within 500 miles of Rancho Bernardo, which then allowed us to take advantage of reduced travel time and costs. Also, the Academy and Consortium Boards were able to have a joint meeting and continue to build the relationship with the newly established California CPM program.

As I said, all in all, it was a very successful meeting with several lingering issues being put to rest, at least for the time being.

2008 is starting out to be an interesting year. The weather across the United States has seen a different pattern than we’ve been used to the past few years. Ron Buchholz and Debra Bourbeau skirted blizzards and freezing temperatures during both legs of their journeys to the Board meeting. Becky Bryant has seen tornados come through Arkansas this spring, Debbie Smith has been a first hand witness to freezing rain, sleet, and wildfires so far this year, and Steve Mastro had experienced more rain in the first two months of this year, than he did in all of last year. Larry Gordon and I, of course, live in Arizona where the temperature is always 80 degrees and sunny, yeah right. When I dropped the last Board members off at the airport, temperatures in Southern California were headed for the low 80s; that night, Interstate 8 to Yuma was closed because of a blizzard and white out conditions. All this weather reminds me of the year the Academy is going to see.

With the national economy either headed for a downturn, or in the best case scenario, flattening out, it is time for the Academy to take a serious look at our budget, business practices, and our goals, objectives, and action items. It is a time to cut costs and develop, and live, within a true budget.