MARCH 2003 Dinner Meeting

Call For Presentations Paper Presentation Night (more information) Moderated by Bobbie Ascarate Principal, RDA Associates

We had some interesting responses to our call for papers for this evening’s program, among the submissions two titles were: “Reverse auctions and online bidding - understanding the theory” including understanding the technology, techniques and strategies, sharing the experiences, identifying the value proposition and debating the issues. With these objectives in mind - raise the level of understanding about reverse auction and online bidding, to define and understand the threats, opportunities and benefits, and provide a forum for constructive debate.

(more information)

Presenting this topic will be Grif Palmer, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at SourceXL. Among his credits are Executive VP of Sales and Business Development at Commtouch in Silicon Valley, where under his guidance the company was successful in obtaining Microsoft’s Gold Partner Certification and VP of Sales for High End Systems of Austin, TX. Palmer earned his Bachelor of Science, Communications degree from the University of Texas, Austin.

“Problem Resolution - Lessons Learned” - The assignment involved buying latches for the overhead bins for the Lockheed L1011. The bids were collected and a small firm in Temecula, CA was awarded the contract. They began the tooling for latches for 350 shipsets of hardware. The next thing I knew they had filed bankruptcy and the sheriff had locked the doors with our tooling inside. Solving this problem, for a relatively new buyer at Lockheed was a real challenge and taught me several lessons.

Elaine N. Whittington, C.P.M., CPCM, Buyer/Program Manager at Lockheed-Martin for 25 years, currently retired will share the lessons she learned above. Elaine is a former president of ISM-Los Angeles as well as ISM national. As an educator she has facilitated many workshops at UCLA. In 2000 she was awarded purchasings highest honor the Shipman Gold Medal Award. She is also an Honorary Member of NAPM-Orange County.

This evening you will have the opportunity to hear more about these interesting topics from your constituents - what a good variety of subjects to grapple with. See you then...