President’s Message Continued…

As I move through this section, I’d like to reemphasize a couple of items. First and foremost, the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Certified Public Managers® represents all the members of the Academy, not just a select few. They must do what is in the best interest of the entire Academy membership and not just the special interest groups. Also, everything we do is outlined in either the Academy’s Bylaws or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). And finally, but probably most importantly, we are an open Board of Directors. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about what your Academy Board is doing, please contact one of us personally. We are always willing to answer each and every member’s questions as thoroughly as possible.

So what decisions have we made so far?

• In order to reduce costs, we will curtail the publication of the year specific Academy brochure and print only the “generic” brochure. In other words, we won’t publish a 2008 brochure listing me as Academy President, Steve Mastro as President Elect, etc. It is our intent to produce a brochure that can be utilized for several years and terms of the Board of Directors. Although there will be a minimal set-up fee to change the layout, the ability to order several thousand brochures at the same time will allow the Academy to save significant amounts compared to ordering minimal quantities each and every year. Future Boards will be able to reconsider this action as budgets increase.
  
  
• We have eliminated the President’s Luncheon at the National Conference. We have heard several Society Presidents say they didn’t see a true value to this luncheon, as it was duplicative of the President’s meeting that was already a scheduled item at the conference. The initial purpose of the President’s Luncheon (originally the President’s Breakfast) was to provide information to all Society Presidents at the same time. Over time, it has turned into more of a social event, instead of a business meeting. They also stated they would prefer to spend the additional time with other conference attendees in a more relaxed setting. This event has escalated in size and cost, and was paid entirely from the Academy’s budget. By removing it from the conference schedule, we will be able to reprioritize approximately $1,000.00.
  
  
• We’re taking a realistic look at Board travel expectations and trying to best project those associated costs. When the current Board Travel Policies were developed years ago, certain direction was given. The Board is expected to meet in person not only at the time of the national conference, but at least one additional time during the year. In the past, the Academy relied on the Board members’ employers to cover the majority of their travel costs to these meetings. However, it seems as we’ve moved along, things have changed. Most government agencies across the country have either frozen travel budgets, or reduced those expenditures significantly. Having your Academy Board members depend on their employers to fund Academy travel is just not realistic any longer. In addition, there may continue to be one or more “retired” Board members who no longer have an agency to even request travel funds from. The Board will be developing a closer projection for official Academy travel, projecting all costs covered by the Academy’s budget.
  
  
• Several years ago, the AACPM Board and CPM Consortium Board also decided a joint meeting would have several intangible side benefits, including enhancing the relationship between members of the Academy and Consortium Boards and continuing to open those communication avenues between our two organizations. However, due to some scheduling difficulties, that has not always been possible and a member of the Academy Board traveled to a separate meeting with the Consortium Board of Directors. By continuing the practice of coordinating and holding our annual AACPM Board meeting in conjunction with the CPM Consortium annual meeting, as we have been able to do every year since 2003 except one, we will be able to ensure additional savings of approximately $1,600 in Board travel expenses.
  
  
• We have tightened down the travel costs associated with the Henning Award, reducing the approved expenditure totals and giving the winner the ability to share in some of the expenses if they so desire.
  
  
• We have been working closely with the Ohio Society to ensure a highly successful conference. Because of the instability of the national economy and reduction of travel and training expenditures by state and local governments, we’ve reduced the number of attendees in our budget projections. If we surpass our estimates, that’s great. At least we’re trying to be prepared for any contingency that may present itself.
  
  
• We’re implementing monthly Board Conference Calls—to be held on the first Wednesday of each month. We will be utilizing the City of Yuma’s conference call system to facilitate these calls. These monthly meetings will give the Board additional opportunities to work through the various issues that present themselves throughout the year via a more personal telephone conversation versus impersonal e-mails. You may remember that I work in communication each and every day, and often the true intent of our messages gets lost in e-mails. And, just one quick reminder, if you ever have anything you’d like to have added to the Agenda for one of these calls, all you have to do is ask.

This is just the beginning. Your Board is going to be looking at everything we do as an organization. In these tight financial times, nothing is sacred. If there’s something that isn’t needed any more, or there isn’t a perceived value to our organization, the program may be put into mothballs. We are also reviewing the items in our SOPs and verifying that they continue to meet the spirit and intent they were developed for, and they live up to today’s expectations.

We’ve also got to take a look at our membership retention and expansion. In the past few months we’ve had inquiries from Nevada, Nebraska, and Iowa, as well as California. Now that’s great news. Adding four new societies would greatly enhance the power of CPM across the country. On the downside, Washington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have not reported any members since the end of 2006. And believe it or not, it appears we have some Societies that have under reported their membership. I’m personally working on these situations, but we’ll talk about them more in later editions of The CPM Connection.

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