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

Well, the holidays have come and gone and before you know it, summer will be here again. Is it my imagination or is life moving too quickly? We have, however, here at NAPM-OC accomplished a great deal in the past six months. We have had four successful dinner meetings, we have several new committee chairs and volunteers, we have made great improvements in our web page and have more to come, we have had several successful C.P.M. and other workshops, and we have increased our membership a little each month since July.

We have many goals left to accomplish for the balance of this year, one being to double the number of active volunteers. We have increased, but we are far from doubling. We need new faces, new ideas, and to spread the work over higher numbers. During the supply management classes I facilitate at the Learning Tree in Irvine, I talk to my students about promoting from within or hiring from the outside, which is similar to managing volunteer work—give it to an existing volunteer or bring in a new volunteer. Although there are advantages in either situation, one of the biggest advantages of hiring from the outside is the influx of new ideas.

We have the same situation at NAPM-OC (and I suspect at most all of the other affiliates) —we keep burdening our existing volunteers with new assignments. They get burned out and run out of new ideas. We need new people to carry us forward into changing times and give some of the “old timers” a chance to take it easy or try something new they haven’t tried before, like running for the board of directors.

I am not going to tell you that “you get out of it what you put into it,” because it is not true. It is an understatement—you get much more out of it that you ever put into it. And with all the time I spend on NAPM business, I can still say that with a straight face! For those of you who are certified with an A.P.P. or a C.P.M., you have the opportunity to earn Continuing Education Hours towards maintaining your certification.

What you also get is a chance to network with other supply management professionals, which could lead to new job opportunities or new people to fill positions within your organization. You get “free” leadership training of all types — you can get training on budgets, time management, managing volunteers, supplier negotiations, and many other supply management concepts. This is one of the biggest areas I have personally benefited and continue to benefit — sharpening my leadership skills.

You can update your resume with your NAPM-OC volunteer activities — it looks really good to have things like Committee Chair or Co-Chair of a major committee within the affiliate listed on your resume of qualifications. It could be the thing that excels your resume ahead of others who are not working on self-improvement activities. Certainly putting “President” on a resume is going to get someone’s attention, should you decide to go all the way!

You don’t have to take very big bites, though. Start slow and do a few things — we are good at fitting the job to the person and the person to the job. Or you can do like Wendy Hebein, JoAnne Mungari, and others have done and just step in and take over a committee out of the blue! We won’t let you fail — you will have lots of help from us “old timers” in the form of training, mentoring, or even co-chairing. We stand behind our volunteers and offer the level of support required, making the whole affiliate and the individual successful.

Last, but not least, you can also get recognition for your accomplishments both within the affiliate and throughout NAPM National. And along with that comes the personal satisfaction of a job well done.

Give it some thought and be a part of the force helping shape the future by Strengthening Supply Management through Leadership.