Report on the 2008 Annual AACPM Board of Directors Meeting

By Debra Bourbeau, CPM, Academy Secretary
dbourbeau@dhhs.state.nh.us

First, I would like to personally thank you for electing me as your secretary. It is an honor and privilege, and I look forward to serving you over the next two years. If I may assist you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The AACPM Board of Directors met on February 10 and 11, 2008 in San Diego, California. The Board is looking forward to another year of commitment, progress and working for the benefit of the Academy membership.

Prior to meeting in San Diego, the Board approved 15 Committee chairs, co-chairs and many membership appointments as recommended by Academy President Greg Hyland. Congratulations to all and thank you for volunteering to serve the Academy. The Board received a large number of responses from individuals expressing an interest to serve on AACPM Committees in 2008. Every member who volunteered to serve was accommodated and put on one or more committees. The Committee chairs and members come from 17 Societies plus Alaska and California.

Following are highlights from our meeting:

GOVERNANCE

AACPM Treasurer Larry Gordon provided a Financial Status update. Holcomb & Shreeves, CPA’s, in Gilbert, Arizona, are conducting a CPA review of the 2007 fiscal year finances for the Academy.

The Certified Public Manager® Education Foundation has been formed as a New Hampshire nonprofit corporation as of October 3, 2007. This concept was originally discussed at the 2004 House of Delegates meeting and thereafter approved by the House of Delegates at the 2005 and 2006 HOD meetings. The objective of the Certified Public Manager® Education Foundation is to provide for professional development and education opportunities for members of the AACPM and its chartered Member Societies by providing an IRS recognized tax advantage for those individuals, corporations and other entities which provide grants and gifts to promote the educational activities of the Academy.

Our AACPM archivist, Debbie Smith, has been electronically scanning all academy hard copy documents stored in archives from 1987–2001. Debbie has been in contact with the previous AACPM Secretaries, Julie Felice and Judy Dennis, to gather their academy documents. Once this project has been completed, the Academy will have all documents available electronically. A huge thank you for the undertaking of this project goes to Debbie.

On the second day of the board meeting, a joint meeting was held with the CPM Consortium. The Consortium Chair, Ann Cobb from North Carolina, welcomed the AACPM Board, and AACPM President Greg Hyland stressed the importance of the two groups meeting together. Greg thanked the Consortium for the open lines of communication, commented on how good the communication has been, and stressed how important it is for the groups to continue to grow together. Chair Ann Cobb echoed Greg’s sentiments and stated, “We’re all in this together, the ultimate goal is providing effective programs.”

CONFERENCE

Academy President-Elect Stephen Mastro (NC) and Shirley Hollis (KS) are co-chairing the Leadership Institute Committee for 2008. Stephen updated the Board on the progress of the Leadership Institute and has contacted the Ohio Conference Committee Chair for the 2008 AACPM Professional Development Conference for breakout sessions to meet Leadership Institute requirements.

Bids for hosting conferences have been accepted through 2013 and are as follows:
Orlando, Florida—September 19-23, 2009
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma—September 2010
(TBA) Utah—2011
Charlestown, South Carolina—2012
Boise, Idaho—2013.

AACPM WEBSITE

Academy members are encouraged to visit the Academy web site often. The Board is working diligently on ways to keep AACPM members updated with current information. The  Academy website is: www.cpmacademy.org. The web site is your link to the Academy newsletters, Standard Operating Procedures, By-Laws/Constitution, Strategic Plans, Meeting Minutes, Board Member Information, Activities, Conference Registration, and Updates and Links to all Society and CPM Program web sites. Many web site updates are in progress.

TRAINING

The Board received a briefing on the Master Thinker tools from Kay Eldridge (AZ), and after discussion, the decision was made to use a real issue current to the Board. The Board chose the topic of communication and then listed all the ways one could communicate to a group of people. The Board chose the “seven times, seven ways” strategy, which is a strategy based on the idea that a person must hear the same information a minimum of seven times and see the information presented in seven different ways for retention. The discussion led to identifying seven particular methods of presentation, and putting those methods in a timetable for completion.

© Copyright 2008, American Association of Certified Public Managers®