President's Article Strengthening Supply Management through Leadership By Jill A. Alvarez, C.P.M. President NAPM-Orange County, Inc.

January has been a busy month for the association. We have a new board member, Rick Wood, C.P.M., appointed for the balance of the year. Rick was installed at the January board meeting and has jumped in with both feet to fill the vacated position. We hosted “Supplier Night” at our dinner meeting and the evening was a whopping success! We had a huge turnout of the membership, filled the room with supplier tables, thanks to Vicki Jennings and her associate, Brandi Ashbaugh, and had a very interesting topic: “How to Negotiate Your Salary,” which applies to anyone working for someone else! Thank you, Trish Reeves for moderating this panel for us.

We have also just completed our second Retreat of the 2000-2001 term. I decided to call the workshops “Retreats” instead of workshops because a workshop sounds too much like WORK and I wanted the Retreat to be a fun, team building/learning experience. It was well attended by 17 of us die-hard volunteers—willing to work on a Saturday. We had a great time and got some work done in the process, despite the name!

We had a Leadership segment presented by Bobbie Ascarate, who will be facilitating the Leadership Workshop on March 3rd. Bobbie gave us some relaxation tips to help you think before you speak and illustrated how situations come full circle to allow you to learn from your mistakes and not make the same mistakes over and over. She also set up a buddy-system for mentoring each other. It was funny how some of the pairs worked out! I am looking forward to working with my “buddy” DiAnna Cowles, when I need some advice or just a sympathetic ear when I have had a bad day and doing the same for her!

Then the group branched off into three T.E.A.M. groups (Together Everyone Achieves More—thus T.E.A.M.) and were even color coordinated with red, white, and blue shirts so that each member could feel closer to his/her T.E.A.M. mates. I of course wore red, white, and blue to show no preference! The Red T.E.A.M.’s mission was to brainstorm for ways to increase membership. The White T.E.A.M.’s mission was to brainstorm ways to increase the number of volunteers. And, last but not least, the Blue T.E.A.M.’s mission was to look at the future leadership potential of the association. Each group came up with several action plans and many ideas that will be put in place over the remaining months of this term.

There is not a better time for YOU to get involved than now. Your one-hour-a-month or twenty-hours-a-month contribution will be highly appreciated. Some of the key positions we are looking for are:

Membership Chair — We are working towards the point where board members are NOT committee chairs and right now DiAnna Cowles is both. It is not that we do not appreciate all her hard work in both areas, but she does not have the time to do both jobs. This position is one of the most important chair positions we have in the association. And why would someone want to take on this task you ask? Because you gain experience marketing the association, you gain experience leading a team, you can network with companies all over Orange County, and you gain recognition and mention on the web page and at the dinner meetings. Granted, this is not an easy job and it takes just the right individual to make it work, but the entire Board of Directors will support you if you take this on and decide to join the T.E.A.M. You are probably looking at 10 to 12 hours a month. Not impossible, but a challenge when working full time. Link to dianna_cowles@liebert.com or contact me at jalvarez@acltech.com.

Membership Members — We have a few members of the membership committee, but need more people to do recruiting and help with new member orientation and other projects. This commitment is no more than four or five hours a month and all of it can be done after normal working hours. Link to dianna_cowles@ liebert.com or contact me at jalvarez@acltech.com.

Communications Chair — Skip Kay is our Communications Chair, but again, also a member of the Board of Directors. This chair position only takes four or five hours a month, but is essential for communicating the activities of the association, particularly in light of the fact that the Spotlight will now only be on-line. Again, you practice your leadership skills, you gain recognition, and it represents a great networking opportunity. Link to skay@bigscreen.mea.com or contact me at jalvarez@acltech.com.

All of the volunteers we have on our T.E.A.M. are re-energized to see the association through the next six months and give our members the most for their investment. Join us NOW — you will not be sorry, as we continue to move forward with our mission and continue Strengthening Supply Management through Leadership.