2015 Winter Boilerplate - Amazon S3 · Christine Moody, CPPO 2015-2016 OPPA President Dear OPPA Members, Together with my colleagues on the OPPA board, I wish you a very happy, healthy

The Boilerplate V O L U M E 7 I S S U E 1

2015-2016 OPPA BOARD

President Vice President

Christine Moody, CPPO Gail Carter, CPPB, OPBC

Treasurer Secretary

Diane Murzynski, CPPB, OPBC Erik Wicks, CPPB

Past President Director of Marketing

Linda Lichty, CPPB Gretchen Harold, CPPB

Director of Chapter Relations Director of Marketing

Larry Pelatt, CPPO, CPPB Gretchen Harold, CPPB

Director of Communications Director of Education

Susanna Ramus, OPBC Jennifer Jolley, CPPB

Director of Professional Outreach

Melody Waight

President’s Message

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Christine Moody, CPPO 2015-2016 OPPA President

Dear OPPA Members, Together with my colleagues on the OPPA board, I wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! OPPA is celebrating over 45 years of service to public purchasing professionals in this region.

WHAT’S INSIDE...

Committee Article 3

Camber’s Corner 4

Upcoming Events 6

I am humbled and honored to be in the role of President of OPPA (2015-2016). I am deeply grateful to my predecessor, Lin-da Lichty, for her leadership and outstanding contributions to OPPA during her presidency. The growth of OPPA has been propelled col-lectively by the individuals who volunteer, committee chairs and all the past presidents and past and current members of the OPPA Board. OPPA’s spring conference is scheduled for May 17 - 20, 2016 at Kaneeta, OR, this event typically draws over 100 attendees that re-ceive quality education on a variety of sub-jects. Our Professional Development and Program committee staff of volunteers strive to bring the best educational and workshop offerings to our members. I encourage you to attend to learn new things and network with other professionals.

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This organization consists of multiple committees and we are always looking for new talented volunteers. A listing of committees and oppor-tunities are listed on the website. Contact me or any of the board or committee chairs if you are interested in getting involved with OPPA. This newsletter and the OPPA web site is our way to communicate about upcoming events, conferences and tradeshows. Your user profile allows for you to sign up to receive push notifications about job announce-ments and other areas of interest. Also, be sure to subscribe to the MemberConnect List Serve as a way to get advice and communicate with colleagues about solicitations and cooperative contracts. If you are involved with public sector procurement, I encourage you to join OPPA. We welcome new members to bring new perspectives and energy to our organization.

Christine Moody, President

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Have you seen the OPPA Store?

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Back in 2013, the Communications Director, Camber Schlag, the Website Com-

mittee Chair, Gretchen Harold, and the Committee Members, Craig Johnsen, Jen-

nifer Jolley, Eric Wicks and Barry Zimmerman designed our current website. The

following year, Susanna Ramus, our current Communications Director, was the

Website Committee Chair and the defacto committee. She made some tweaks and

improvements and has since handed the reins over to me.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you…as the current Website Committee

Chair, my job was made easy by you. The site is stable and well laid out. Believe me, I like to

tinker, and if there was a screw loose somewhere I would try to

tighten or replace it. So, while all this work by my predecessors has

made my volunteer experience a matter of answering and forward-

ing e-mails, it has created a difficulty for me when it comes to post

my annual Website Committee Boilerplate article. I can’t really talk

about the website without taking credit for something I had little to

do with but I can talk about my volunteer experience for OPPA and

encourage others to get involved, in this organization or any other.

First, to give you some background and simply because I can, a little about me…. I sort of fell into the procurement profession through construction. I am a carpenter by trade and that led to facility maintenance which required me to buy stuff, which led to facility management and buying more stuff, which eventually led me to manage a warehouse for Oregon Youth Authority and buying a whole lot of stuff. Pretty soon… I am a procurement specialist for the State of Oregon. Anyways, what I wanted you to gather from that intro is… I wasn’t born nor aspired to be “in procurement” at any time growing up like the girl in the video. If you haven’t seen the video and you have read this far I suggest a good use of your time may be spent watching this: "I want to be in procurement" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndQgt_VLOHw) Getting back to the point… I suspect from my colleagues that I have talked to, many of us

find ourselves in the procurement boat without having a clue as to why or how we boarded.

Now that we are here, we may as well enjoy the cruise and choose a heading. An organiza-

tion like OPPA helps us do that. The board meets once a month and you don’t have to be a

board member to come. Along with learning official “rules of order” you get to meet fellow

procurement folk and chat about all things procurement. The people involved have all made

a commitment to the procurement field and I have learned a ton just by being there.

Committee Newsletter: OPPA Website Committee

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Katie Shaw

Awhile back I was able to talk with our always smiling, extraordinaire, Past President, Katie Shaw, to discuss her leadership role with OPPA that has spanned over the past 10 years and see what happens next.

Katie and I talked about the past, the present, and her future during our discussion one sunny afternoon. One of her big accomplishments while being a part of OPPA was to get a new web-site. It was no overnight task, behind the scenes from the OPPA membership, it actually took a couple of years to do. Katie came on during the final stages of Memberclicks, the first OPPA website, which was a great system at the time and useful for OPPA for many years. Member-clicks, like all websites, had its good things and it’s bad. It was hard for end-users to make forms and the back end administration side was difficult if you didn’t understand programing. Tara Maffeo, immediate past president, was very good at Memberclicks, she set everything up for the Board and training members, including myself, on how to schedule events, work payments, and manage pages.

For Katie, and many of us members involved with the website, it was hard to maneuver and very cumbersome. A decision was made at the board level to look into getting a new, easier to use website for the membership. In order to move away from Memberclicks, Craig Johnson and Katie researched different websites, other NIGP chapters and what they used. Katie, Craig and the Board wanted the Cadillac of websites. After completing thorough number crunching on budget side, to make sure OPPA could afford such an idea, it was determined that OPPA in fact could afford this new Cadillac website we call ChapterManager.

C amber’s Corner Camber Schlag, the

Contracts and

Procurement Manager at

Marion County, is also a

“field reporter” for the

Boilerplate.

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This also is a chance to expand your resume and your skills. I knew nothing about

websiting prior to this experience and am learning as I go with the help of the web-

site wizards that have come before me. I have also made contact with contract specialists and procurement

managers throughout the state. This volunteer position has helped me feel more at home in the procurement

community and I wanted to use this article to encourage you to get involved.

-Tom Riel OPPA Website Chair

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Katie has received feedback from the membership and members of the board. People are happy, it’s more user friendly, and we are able to have several mega-users. One of Katie’s goals and several other board mem-bers is to get sponsorships up on website from our vendor community, allowing us to work closer with our vendor community and provide an opportunity to generate more revenue for the Chapter.

One of Katie’s biggest challenges that she has learned a lot from is the OPPA budget. For her, understanding the budget side of the organization and being a part of the Budget Task Force has been tremendous for her. At first, she had no idea. Asking herself, “where does the money come from? How do we generate it?” She has researched innovative ways to gain more income for the chapter and also see how we can do more with less. It’s important to her to find new ways to bring in revenue and support OPPA members. Our Chapter is always growing, looking for ways to raise the bar and be innovative to our members through training opportunities, making each conference, workshop and trade show better than the one before. We want the membership to be excited about our programs.

During Katie’s second Director tour of duty, she served as communications director. In those days, RVTS was in its early stages; Katie volunteered to work on Vendor Sponsors and creating the membership directory. Getting sponsors to place ads in the booklet was a great experience. Katie says, “it’s nice to see how it’s evolved into this great book with different state and local governments listed along with tons of sponsors having their busi-ness logos listed.

A significant time in Katie’s tenure was OPPA’s 40th Anniversary. She recalls how everything revolved around the theme, which was exciting for the chapter. Throughout her 10 years she has enjoyed seeing different styles of officers. Katie had the opportunity of being a Director for three years and then going through the Executive Board positions. Each position takes on a different role and has its own leadership style, which makes you stronger and you learn how you want to lead. Right now we are focused on what’s best for OPPA and the members. There’s so much more we can do and want to do. We struggle with getting new people involved. We know they are out there. How do we get them excited to be involved?

As President of OPPA, Katie wished the strategic plan and report cards could have been utilized more and the Chapter could have reached the various milestones. “There’s not a lot of time to get it all done, it’s crucial for the Board to go through the plan and create a bond due to common goals.”

So what’s next for Katie, OPPA-extraordinaire? Currently as a past-president, she’s excited to continue to work on the Program Committee. Her next focus is coordinating the OPPA Spring Conference golf tournament in 2016, and continue to help the current Board. Katie is working on preparing for retirement, playing more golf and hanging out with friends and family. She has learned a lot, made a lot of friends, and “um maybe a few enemies.”

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Camber’s Corner: Continued from previous page...

Katie said OPPA has been wonderful for her career. Being an NIGP member has opened up so many doors. She adds, “It’s been a great ride.” She challenges anyone to get involved, and as she likes to say it, “get your toe wet, you’ll be welcomed with wide, open arms.” At this point Katie paused for a moment and completed our interview with saying, “10 years later you’ll be like me and say 10 years already?”

Thank you Katie for your devoted time to OPPA and the membership. We wish you the best of luck in your future, and we know we can always come to you for advice and guidance.

If you are interested in any type of volunteer opportunity large or small, we have a spot for you! Contact any member of the OPPA Board or Committee Chair for more information.

-Camber Schlag

Upcoming OPPA Courses Visit the OPPA website for more information!

Topic Date City, State

January Workshop 1/27/2016 7:30

am-4:30 pm Salem, Oregon

Register today through the OPPA Website!

Spring Conference /NIGP Class

5/18-5/20/2016 Kahneeta –

Warm Springs, Oregon

Save the date! Registra-tion will open as we get closer to the date

Fall Conference/NIGP Class

11/16/2016-11/18/2016

Seaside, Oregon Save the date! Registra-tion will open as we get closer to the date