Ed. Note: The following reports are from APPA' 2001-02 officers for activities and services provided this past year. The officers are listed by their 2001-02 titles.]


President's Report
by Gary L. Reynolds

[Ed. Note: The following reports are from APPA' 2001-02 officers for activities and services provided this past year. The officers are listed by their 2001-02 titles.]

The year has been both a challenging one and a rewarding one. The challenges included navigating a prudent path for the association in the current economic climate, membership management, staff management, and launching the new Center for Facilities Research (CFaR). The rewards included a wonderful experience in South Africa, meeting many new (to me) members of APPA at the regional meetings, and seeing the beginning steps of CFaR taking place.

Internationalization - Becoming Global Partners in Learning
This year started out with some interesting opportunities. As approved by the Board, John Harrod, Immediate Past President and Robert Kelly, AAPPA President and I attended the Tertiary Institutional Maintenance Conference (TIMCON) in Cape Town, South Africa to explore the potential relationship of southern African institutions of higher education with APPA. Ferdie Petersi and Stan Dennis attended the Annual Meeting in Montreal and made a presentation to the APPA Board and extended an invitation to attend their conference. TIMCON is not an official organization but the name of the annual conference that is attended by 20 to 30 institutions from a half dozen countries in southern Africa. They have been meeting for a number of years but were interested in becoming an officially recognized organization potentially affiliated with an international organization in the future.

Ferdi Petersi and Stan Dennis (along with many others) were excellent hosts and really made us feel welcome. At the conference we had an opportunity to make several presentations to the attendees about APPA and AAPPA. John started off with a presentation about APPA; who we are, our history and vision, mission, and desired outcomes. Robert then spoke about AAPPA's experience as they transitioned from members in PCAPPA to a region in their own right. I then made a presentation about APPA's products and services with an emphasis on how they could benefit TIMCON members, even across an ocean.

Since that visit, the institutions involved with TIMCON have created and accepted a constitution, set dues, and are in the process of adding members under their new organizational name - Higher Education Facilities Managers Association - Southern Africa (HEFMA-SA). Robert Kelley and AAPPA have been supporting this effort as there are several Australian institutions that have campuses in South Africa. The current organizational model has institutions that are members in HEFMA-SA being able to become members in AAPPA in a low cost fashion. (This is similar to the way PCAPPA supported AAPPA in their formative years.) APPA is currently exploring ways to allow HEFMA-SA members to also become members of APPA in a form and cost that recognizes the current economic and geographical environment. We all recognize that this will be a slow building process but I am encouraged by the initial progress that has been made and I look forward to APPA, AAPPA and HEFMA-SA becoming true global partners.

How APPA continues to address internationalization of our organization will be an important part of future discussions. We now have a region in Australasia, a strategic alliance with AUDE in the United Kingdom, an interest in southern Africa, discussions with ATA in Germany on a potential strategic alliance and interest from Japan.

In this past election an Australasian member was a candidate for the APPA presidency. It will be important that we look at our by-laws, organizational structure, communication processes, membership classification and dues structure, for example, to ensure that we have the flexibility to respond to our increasing international membership and collaboration.

As a footnote, we were attending TIMCON on September 11th. And while we were appalled to learn of the events, we were overwhelmed with the heartfelt condolences and expressions of concern for us and our country by our many new found friends in southern Africa. My sincerest thank you to everyone who looked after us and made sure we felt welcome and safe until we were able to return to the US.

Regional Visits - Desired Outcomes
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend four regional meetings this past fall (Eastern, Southeastern, Central and Midwest). I want to thank each of the regions and their host committees for their wonderful hospitality. Several regions allowed me time to present the "Leadership is Personal" program that I presented at the annual meeting and I very much appreciated that opportunity. I was struck by several things during my visits. First, the excellent, dedicated and energetic leadership that is working hard to make their regions a valuable resource for their members. The regions are truly at the heart of APPA's mission of sharing and networking. Our members get their most valuable information from their peers who face similar regional or state issues. Second, the regional meetings themselves were extremely well run and rivaled APPA's annual meeting in quality and experience. Kudos and thank you to those hard working host and program committees. Finally, I was pleased that there were no "earth shaking" issues or concerns from the regions about APPA's initiatives or direction. I believe we are starting to see the benefit of the development of the vision, mission and desired outcomes keeping everyone informed and on the "same page."

Center for Facilities Research - Our Mission of Research
The Center for Facilities Research (CFaR) continues to move forward with excitement. A retreat was held last fall and attended by a number of people representing a broad cross-section of APPA's stakeholders. Vision and mission statements have been developed and a preliminary research structure was identified. This spring work on the draft business plan was completed. This plan includes a management structure, a staffing plan, an operational plan, a technology plan, a financial plan, and a schedule for implementation. The final piece, a marketing plan, will be developed this summer and fall. A number of pieces of the business plan have already been implemented including parts of the technology plan, staffing changes and the recently approved name change of the Information Services Committee to the Information and Research Committee. The schedule, per the original Business Plan Request (BPR), calls for continued development of CFaR during the next year with full implementation and roll-out at the 2003 Educational Facilities Leadership Forum.

Strategic and Other Alliances - Collaboration
I had an opportunity to attend the Council on Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA) this past January. This organization consists of representatives from over 30 different non-profit organizations that support higher education (i.e. APPA, NACUBO, SCUP, ACUHO-I, CUPA-HR, etc.) APPA has been playing a leading role in identifying collaborative issues and promoting partnerships where appropriate. As a result of our association with CHEMA we have participated in several publications, co-sponsored numerous conferences and will be co-locating several annual meeting with NACUBO and SCUP in upcoming years.

APPA continues to explore partnerships with a number of organizations. This past year APPA created a strategic alliance with the International District Energy Association (IDEA). This organization brings together professionals involved with distributed heating and cooling systems which are on many of our campuses. I am sure that this will be a valuable alliance for APPA's members.

Budget - APPA Stewardship
Finally, I am concerned about the impact of the current economic climate on APPA. As I visited with many of our colleagues around the country it is clear that most state schools and many private schools are facing budget recisions this year and are being told to plan budgets for next year with 5% to 15% reductions. In addition a number of states have implemented out-of-state travel bans. Because of the concerns raised by these events, the February APPA Board had extensive discussions about the potential impact of the economic climate. The APPA staff did an excellent job of preparing and providing supporting data for various scenarios. These scenarios ranged from the economic climate having a significant negative impact to only a moderate negative impact. The result of the discussions is a prudent budget that is sensitive to our members budgets and considers the impact of membership retention, program attendance, and business partner support while not being so pessimistic as to fundamentally alter APPA's ability to carryout its mission.

This mission includes moving forward in several significant areas. The APPA office has re-aligned several of the staff with new duties to address the increasingly important technology support. Also, we are continuing to address technology needs through the addition of new software. These continuous improvements will allow APPA to meet the upcoming needs of CFaR, e-commerce, international communication and other APPA initiatives.

APPA Programs
Each of the Vice President reports contains exciting accomplishments and I do not want to steal their thunder. However, I need to acknowledge the great work they have done over the past year. The Education Committee has completed a total transformation of the annual meeting into the Educational Facilities Leadership Forum. This is not just a name change but a complete revamping of the educational experience. In addition the Education Committee has been working diligently with NACUBO to organize next year's co-located meeting in Nashville, TN.

The newly renamed Information and Research Committee has developed and started the implementation of a technology plan that will allow us to accomplish many things. Archiving list serve conversations for future reference, creating a database and search engine that is Web enabled, and full e-commerce of electronic (.PDF) files (important to our international membership) are just a few of the things already available or soon to come. In addition they have been successfully shepherding the development of CFaR.

The Professional Affairs Committee is totally redoing the FMEP program complete with handbook, training guides and a training program for the FMEP team members. The Awards and Recognition Committee has worked hard to organize the inventory of awards and to oversee the award process.

The Membership Committee has worked tirelessly to accomplish an excellent renewal rate that is most amazing in this economic climate. It is particularly pleasing to see that these many accomplishments continue to remain tightly focused on our strategic plan ensuring that we are using our resources wisely.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge and thank Lander Medlin and the APPA staff. Having worked very closely with them for over a decade I can honestly say that APPA is truly blessed with a focused and hard working staff dedicated to making APPA an outstanding organization.

It has been an honor to represent APPA at a number of venues during this past year and to work and participate in the leadership of APPA with so many wonderful people. I look forward to continuing to serve APPA in the future.

Immediate Past President's Report
by John P. Harrod, Jr.

This report has been a challenge for me to write. Not for lack of interest, but because it will bring to closure my term as serving in the role of APPA's President Elect, President and Immediate Past President. The past 3 years have been filled with wonderful experiences, a few challenges, and unfortunately, an international tragedy. During that time, I have come to have an even greater appreciation for the dedication of APPA staff, the unselfish commitment of the APPA leadership, and the loyalty of our membership. I thankful for the opportunities you have given me to get to know so many of you.

Last year, the theme of our annual meeting was "Moving Beyond Boundaries". During my oral and written reports I often suggested that we all should "reach out and touch someone". The goal was to extend membership and partnership in our association to others outside of our "traditional" circle of associates, and to "bring along" the next generation of individuals in our profession. I truly believe that alliances with other professionals and development / inclusion of the next generation will enhance our organizations' ability to better serve our members and our member institutions.

We continue to be a dynamic association. Even during these challenging economic times, our membership has remained relatively stable, and new alliances continue to be established. We are recognized as an association of professionals with whom others want to be affiliated. It is important that we not stand on our accomplishments; we must continue to "reach out…"!

In September of 2001, I was privileged to be part of the APPA delegation to travel to Cape Town, South Africa to meet with the membership of TIMCON, a group of facility managers from southern Africa who where interested in aligning with APPA. That group has since reorganized and is known as HEFMA-SA (Higher Education Facilities Management Association-Southern Africa). Robert Kelley, from the Australasian Region, has been working closely with the HEFMA-SA folks, guided by Ferdi Pieterse and Stan Dennis, assisting them during their organization and development stage. Great progress is being made.

We often talk of partnerships, professional networks, and the lasting friendships that develop among APPA members. I know from experience that such talk is true. I also know that "Moving Beyond Boundaries" pays great dividends. The APPA delegation was in South Africa on September 11th, 2001. Shortly after receiving word of the terrorist attack and hearing that American travelers should take extra caution, I commented to one of the meeting attendees that, "I guess that I should start watching my backside" to which he replied, "Don't worry, we will take care of you." And take care of us they did! We were so very fortunate to have "friends" ready and willing to assist us while we were "grounded" so far from home. As you can imagine, our visit was a very emotionally moving and truly rewarding experience.

The South Africa visit is an example of how these past three years have been; emotionally moving and truly rewarding. At times, it is a bit difficult to think of it all coming to an end. But I know that the best part will never end. The sights we have seen, the spectacular events we have enjoyed, and the friends we have made, will always be a part of our life. Jane and I have fond memories of this great experience. We have been honored to serve APPA. We thank you for the opportunity!

President-Elect's Report
by Philip L. Cox

My 'official' duties as President-elect were to have gotten underway in September as I was scheduled to join the RMA annual fall meeting in Tucson. My flight was to have departed Ithaca the afternoon of September 11th. When flights were grounded all across the United States for several days following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, my plans to visit RMA vanished. I look forward, however, to attending the 2002 RMA meeting in Banff this fall.

AAPPA
Some degree of normalcy was restored to air travel by late September, 2001, which permitted my wife Marsha and me to travel to the annual AAPPA meeting in Australia. We first visited Auckland, New Zealand before arriving in Sydney. Our travels also took us to Australia's capital, Canberra, where the joint AAPPA and ATEM meeting was held; then on to Adelaide and finally to Perth.

During this opportunity of a lifetime, I learned many things about our AAPPA colleagues. As so many people had predicted, I discovered first-hand that the hospitality in New Zealand and Australia is second to none in the world. What most impressed me about AAPPA was their leadership. They are providing tremendous services to their membership through benchmarking, networking, recognition, and excellent educational opportunities.

I came away from our visit convinced that APPA must find ways to exploit the potential of web-based communications to overcome the geographic distance that separates AAPPA from the North American regions. When we do this, we will be better able to avail ourselves of one another's resources.

Globalization
APPA's vision is to become a "global partner in learning." It was the global part of the vision that was discussed at length during the mid-year Board of Directors meeting. We are starting to realize our vision in a number of ways in addition to our Australasian membership, such as our strategic alliance with the Association of University Estates (AUDE) from the U.K.. Likewise, we have begun forming a relationship with higher education facilities professionals from several southern African countries and from Mexico. Plus we have had interest expressed in ties to APPA by another U.K. association and a German association. Also for the first time ever, a member from the AAPPA region ran for president-elect this spring. All of these advances toward greater globalization have raised the urgency for determining how we are going to better connect with our AAPPA members and how we are going to collaborate with other international associations in the future.

Strategic Plan
The desired outcomes of APPA's strategic plan are competency, credibility, and collaborative relationship-building. An important way in which these are pursued is through participation in the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA). I had the good fortune to be able to take part in updating CHEMA's strategic plan and examining the trends, challenges, and opportunities facing all of us in higher education. CHEMA is a perfect example of how we, as professional associations, can do more for our constituents by teaming up than we could ever hope to do alone.

Diversity
In the coming year of my presidency, I believe the time is right for our association to take a look within itself and examine the lifeblood of our organization--the membership. Not only do I hope that our membership base can be strengthened by its growth, but I hope that we can measure our diversity. In the areas where our differences may be limited, I hope we can begin to remove barriers to inclusion in APPA and in the facilities profession that we serve. As we do this, I believe we should pay particular attention to gender, race, age, and in the interest of our globalization movement-nationality. Building on our many strengths, I am convinced we can broaden our diversity to more closely reflect the sort of inclusiveness that is so highly valued by our constituent institutions.

Secretary -Treasurer's Report
by Jack Colby

The fiscal year ending March 31,2002 has been a very challenging period as APPA responded to the immediate economic impacts of the September 11 attacks as well as the longer term impacts of the recession. Only through aggressive scenario planning and staff actions to control costs have we been able to once again meet our budget while making a contribution to reserves.

The 2001/2002 fiscal year ended with a modest $65,000 surplus thus allowing a $60,000 contribution to reserves for capital and operating expenses. This year's contribution brings us closer to our goal of liquid assets as reserves of 25% of the operating budget and 10% of the estimated replacement value of property and equipment.

A portion of the reserves are investing in equities based on the new investment policy approved by the Board last year. Although these investments saw the expected decline when the economy faltered, they have rebounded and we expect the modest recovery to continue.

There are many factors which impacted our financial performance. The annual meeting in Montreal, although very successful from a program perspective, experienced higher costs and lower revenues than expected. The Fall Institute had to be canceled and rescheduled for November thereby costing additional administrative expenses. Other educational programs also were impacted as travel was slow to recover and the impact of the declining economy was felt by education. The implementation of a recovery strategy by the APPA staff provided higher than expected revenues for publications, advertising and job listings. This, in conjunction with significant reductions in expenses, have allowed APPA to meet its obligations and realize a modest surplus.

Although the bulk of our spending is focused on education, member services, the annual meeting, and communications through publications, we continue to provide support for research in educational facilities through our investment in the Center for Facilities Research and other ventures. Ongoing efforts to create valuable tools for our membership such as SAM, The Strategic Assessment Model, Operational Guidelines for Grounds Managament, Maintenance Compliance Assistance Guide for Colleges and Universities, and others demonstrates the value of APPA to our profession.

This year the membership approved by-laws changes that provided the President with discretion in setting committee terms to allow the re-establishment of staggered renewal of committee membership by region. Also, the name of the standing committee for Information Services was changed to Information and Research to reflect the changing emphasis of its mission.

For further details of APPA's activities, members may find the Board of Directors meeting minutes on-line at www.appa.org/about/minutes/.

Vice President for Educational Programs
by Jim Roberts

First, let me start by commending the APPA staff for all they do to make things happen for Educational Programs. Andria Krug and Suzanne Healy have been our mainstays in preparing and providing for all our educational professional development needs. With the addition of Deirdre Bourke (although we will miss some of Suzanne's time with the realignment) we are prepared to continue to move forward, providing for the changing needs of our organization. Lander Medlin's support and assistance is invaluable in finding presenters and contacting organizations to financially support our increased cost of doing business. That leads me to thank the business partners who make us successful through their presentations, morale, and financial support.

The charge of the Educational Programs Committee is educational program development and oversight. This includes the Annual Meeting, the Institute for Facilities Management, and the Professional Leadership Academy. It is our committee that makes these programs the quality they are. We are lucky to have such excellent members providing strength and guidance to this charge. For the year of 2001-2002, our members were Carol Trexler, Rutgers University, ERAPPA; Chris Ahoy, Iowa State University, MAPPA; Travis Weatherly, Jr., Georgia Perimeter College, SRAPPA; Pat Apel, Maryville University, CAPPA; Mary Vosevich, University of New Mexico, RMAPPA; Mark Hunter, California Polytechnic State University, PCAPPA; Greg Simpson, University of Auckland, AAPPA; Dr. Sam Polk, Tennessee State University, 2003 Host Committee Chair; Jay W. Klingel, University of Virginia, At-Large; and Douglas Christensen, Brigham Young University, At-Large.

Institute for Facilities Management
In retrospect, we survived the September 11 disaster rather well educationally by rescheduling the fall institute to November. Although the numbers were down, we were able to meet the needs of the organization and provide for this important piece of our program. In January we felt some of the shift. Our numbers were down slightly from other Januaries but that was not overwhelming and should easily come back to full stature by the beginning of 2003. Jay Klingel, of the University of Virginia, has taken the reigns of the Facilities Management Institute. Emily Wren will continue teaching but has asked to be relieved from the leadership duties. We appreciate what Jay does as a Dean and look forward to his guidance with this key program. Charlie Jenkins will also be stepping down from his Dean's role but we have been blessed with the addition of Mary Vosevich as our Dean of General Administration and Management we look forward to the future. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Emily and Charlie for their leadership. Thank you both for being so generous with your time and efforts.

Professional Leadership Academy
The Leadership Academy is continuing to develop nicely. In its third year with the new format, the program for this June already has more than 30 registrants. We continue to work with other organizations to support this program through advertisements and commitments from their boards. I believe this program will eventually be as successful as the Institute but for that to happen we need to develop a base that needs this level of leadership involvement. It will happen.

Educational Facilities Leadership Forum
Since July of 2001, the education committee has been working to make the major overhaul in the old annual meeting. The Educational Facilities Leadership Forum is making its debut in July in Phoenix. I hope you are planning to attend. This was no small task. We developed a matrix of six perspectives and six presentation focuses. We prepared excellent content, solicited dynamic speakers, and prepared for superior participation. The six perspectives are: Customer Service, Innovation & Learning, Internal Process Management, Financial Stewardship, Technology Management, Knowledge Management. Each perspective is then examined by industry experts within the following framework: Visionary, State-of-the-Industry, Effective Practice, Critical Issues Panel, Industry Best-in-Class, and How To.

To appropriately develop these perspectives and guide the Forum, we have put together a statement about each area to help the attendees understand what they will find when they attend. Each perspective has written "Learning Outcomes" to again clarify to our attendees. As you will see this is truly a different conference than we have provided before. If all goes as expected, it will be one of the best conferences that is available for facility professionals. The Hyatt Regency Phoenix and the Phoenix Civic Plaza are ready for our arrival. I hope you have made your plans to attend. We are excited about the potential of this program.

Other Programs
We have been able to provide another joint program with NACUBO, The Institute for Facilities Finance. This year, the program exceeded our expectations with attendance as well as quality. It remains important for us to provide different opportunities to our membership and this program has been an excellent indicator of what we can do with other organizations.

Closing Thoughts
It is the committee's intentions to focus on the programs we have in place and provide them within the budgets set before us. I am proud to be a part of APPA. I look forward to another year expanding our programs and developing new opportunities for our membership and education facilities professionals. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve.

Vice President for Information and Research
by: Vickie DeWitt

Starting right off with a name change for the committee to reflect our expanded focus, you can see that the year has been one of growth and development. The changes you find are aimed at member interests, increased member participation, better international accessibility to information, increased recognition of member accomplishments, and more ease in finding information electronically. We hope that you will be as pleased with the accomplishments and continuing plans as we are. Current members include: Joseph M. Lalley (ERAPPA), C.R. Lyons (SRAPPA), Thomas Dale (MAPPA), Scott Turley (CAPPA), Harvey D. Chace (RMA), Debbie Aguilar (PCAPPA), Alan Egan (AAPPA), Maggie Kinnaman, At-Large Member; Vickie DeWitt, Vice President.

Comparative Cost and Staffing Survey
The Utility Section of the survey was the most troublesome last time we collected data. We looked at the problem and determined that improving several of the definitions, completing some that do not have definitions and clearly linking the MBTU calculator to the Utilities questions will improve the instrument. We wish to emphasize completing what can be done easily and make the salary information optional. We will still produce a book, a CD, and hope to get to the web tools that will allow users to produce custom reports. We will explore the possibility of adding a "green" section and one on capital renewal/crumbling classroom info.

Strategic Assessment Model
The SAM task force continues to move ahead with implementation guidance for members. Specific tasks they have accomplished include update of the web presence, and completed an article for Facilities Manager. Still ahead is the development of a web survey format for the next data collection time. This task force will also be presenting a session at the Educational Leadership Forum this summer, focused on the importance of measurement and how the SAM took can assist members. Scenarios with a financial perspective will help with this process.

Web Site
Many of the new programs and changes that are occurring throughout our organization are reflected in the updates to our web site (www.appa.org). One of the most important factors is the reorganization of personnel within APPA's office to help up keep up-to-date and make advances in archiving and conversion of files to downloadable .pdf's. Suzanne Healy, Medea Ranck and Steve Glazner make up the new Web Team. This new focus will bring alive some of the ideas we have had about searching archives, downloading information, quick availability to international members, and a more user friendly web site. A technology survey is ongoing at this time to determine the level of usage and interest from the members.

Publications
We are delighted to welcome Betsy Colgan to fill the role of Publications Manager for APPA. Steve Glazner will still retain overall responsibility for the magazine and the publication schedule. We had 19 first time contributors to the Facilities Manager between July/August 2001 and May/Jun 2002: Sarah Bieck, University of Wisconsin/Madison; Garry Bradley, RMIT University; Thomas W. Brady, Fairfax County Public Schools; Jeff Buenting, University of Illinois/Urbana?Champaign; Patrick S. Daly, University of Massachusetts; Robert P. Dillman, University of Virginia; Shari L. Ellertson, Iowa State University; Elaine Gossett, Emory University; Jacqueline Hall Kelly, University of Missouri System; Bill Lucksted, Grand Valley State University; Derrick Manns, Madonna University; Con Mozjerin, RMIT University; Ron Opp, University of Toledo; David W. Polensky, Gage-Babcock & Associates; Robin Smith, Emory University; William Stauff, Erskine College and Seminary; Mike Thompson, Gage?Babcock & Associates; Janet Walls, Grand Valley State University; Richard L. Walter, University of Delaware. We appreciate their input and look forward to further contributions.

The Rex Dillow Award is presented to the author of the best article published in Facilities Manager during the previous calendar year. Eligible articles are those written by a full-time employee, from any department, of an APPA member institution of higher education. We are honored to name Walter Simpson as this year's recipient of the Rex Dillow Award.

We are very proud of the number and quality of publications that have come out this year. Sales have been tremendous. New publications to be released late this summer include the long awaited Maintenance Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities, the Environmental Compliance Assistance Guide, and Facilities Finance, with future planned publications of 2001-2002 Comparative Cost and Staffing Report, Facilities Supervisor's Tool Kit: Nuts and Bolts of Supervision. A Space Planning Anthology and a Building Commissioning book are in the planning stages.

Center for Facilities Research
With a vision to be "an internationally recognized resource supporting learning environments" and a mission of "advancing the body of knowledge of facilities management through research, discovery and innovation," the Center for Facilities Research is moving ahead in its development. We plan to roll out the program at the 2003 Educational Leadership Forum.

Two meetings have been conducted during which the basic structure for research and research projects has been developed. The process is ongoing, with the foundation being pretty well established for half of the levels for research. Web enhancements are essential to the sharing and distribution related to research. An Advisory Council and a Research Review Panel have been established to assist with flow and content. Success measures are being developed and enthusiasm mounts as we move toward a "ready" date.

The Information and Research Committee looks forward to the work we have before us during the upcoming year. Your input and ideas are welcome and help steer us in directions that make our organization stronger for you.

Vice President for Professional Affairs
by Michael Besspiata III

New Leadership
Chris Christofferson resigned from the position of Vice President of Professional Affairs at the February 2002 Board Meeting. After a board vote I was elected to fulfill the remaining term (July 2003). My first meeting was a combined three day meeting in April with the PAC meeting on April 4 & 5 and the A&R Committee meeting on April 6. I want to thank Jack Colby for coming to these meetings to help in the transition and keeping me updated on all processes. I will have a busy year trying to catch up on the combined workings of the Professional Affairs and Awards & Recognition Committees. My main goal is to have a member packet ready by the Phoenix Annual Forum for all current members and have it available for new members. This packet will contain all the responsibilities of committee members and give some detail on how the committees work on evaluating either institutions or individuals.

Facilities Management Evaluation Program (FMEP)
The revamping of the FMEP process is nearing completion and final drafts are expected from the FMEP Task Force at the 2002 Annual Leadership Forum in Phoenix. I want to make special recognition to the FMEP Task Force, Charlie Jenkins, Ron Hicks, Jim Christenson, Val Peterson, Doug Christensen, Jack Hug and Task Force Chair David Cain. These people have done an excellent job in this process. David Cain made a presentation on the FMEP update at the PAC meeting in April. The new procedures should be in print for the 2003 annual forum for both institutions and team members. There was discussion of using a "CD" business card for FMEP that would contain the entire process and information which could be used as a promotional tool. Dates and scheduling of FMEPs were discussed to prevent quick turn around requirements.

Award for Excellence Program (AFE)
The newly designed AFE has gone through its second year of submissions under the new format. Three schools applied for the Award for Excellence by the 2002 deadline. The new guidelines are excellent and APPA encourages any institution to apply that excels in any of their operations.

Effective and Innovative Practices Award (EPA)
This is the first year for the EPA and if number of submissions is any indication, it was a great year. There were 26 submissions for the new "Effective and Innovative Practices Award". Several institutions submitted multiple papers for considerations. The selections were narrowed down to Cal State Long Beach for "Mobile Integrated Facility", Univ. of Oklahoma for "EVAL 2000-Performance Evaluation System", Florida State Univ. for "Facilities Maintenance Storefront Partnership with Grainger", Univ. of Missouri for "Volume Purchase of Bid-Document", and Univ. of Miami for "Using a Formal Asset Management Program to Improve Communication and Maximize the Value of Renovation and Improvement".

Strategic Alliance
I want to thank Chris Christofferson for his work on obtaining the strategic alliance between APPA and IDEA (International District Energy Association). The value added through our alliance with IDEA will be beneficial to members of both organizations.

Meritorious Service Award (MSA)
The Awards and Recognition Committee evaluated and rated ten Meritorious Service Award nominations. Two people were selected to forward to the Board for approval.

Pacesetter Award
The Awards and Recognition Committee evaluated and rated ten Pacesetter nominations. Six nominations were put forward for Pacesetter Awards.

Electronic Submissions
The Awards and Recognition Committee discussed the use of electronic submissions and how far we could go with it. There will always be a need for face to face discussions. Time of committee meetings could be shortened by accomplishing more "on-line" before the meeting. On-line forms could be emailed to the regional reps just by clicking a box. One of my goals is to streamline the process and work to make it more electronic.

I want to thank all the members of the committees for their work during this transition period. Professional Affairs Committee members are: Joe Rubertone, Greg Fichter, Robert Kelly, Bob Hutton, Eakle Barfield, Dan Johnson, and David Cain. Awards & Recognition Committee members are: Ken Bolig, Alan Bigger, Darryl Crider, Tony Ichsan, Greg Wiens, and Darrel Meyer. I also want to thank the Staff Liaison, Medea Ranck, for her help.

Executive Vice President's Report
by E. Lander Medlin

This has been both a sobering and an exciting year. A sobering one given the tragedy of September 11, 2002, with its impact on human life and the corresponding impact on the economy. Yet, despite these horrific events, APPA has remained the "association of choice" by its members to meet their professional development needs. APPA has also been blessed with the added diversity of emerging international members. Our vision of becoming a "Global Partner in Learning" is continuing to take form. In addition, our diverse portfolio of programs, products, and services has served us well financially. Given the circumstances, we are pleased to have achieved a year-end surplus of over $70,000. These monies will be placed in our operating and building reserves funds which represents 50 percent of our long-term cash reserves goal.

As I mentioned in last year's report, our strategic plan is not only driving the association toward the achievement of the three desired outcomes of competency, collaboration, and credibility, we are thriving as a result of its focus and direction. Progress toward these outcomes is focused ultimately on our ability "to increase the awareness of the facilities profession with senior institutional officers." In essence, this is what an international association can and should do on behalf of its members. Therefore, "to increase the awareness of the facilities profession with senior institutional officers" requires a focus on and support of both the institution/organization and the individual facilities professional.

Competency
In this regard, APPA is serving its members and their institutions best by setting the guidelines and standards by which facilities management is measured. These guidelines and standards can be found in such tools and resources as the Strategic Assessment Model (SAM), the Comparative Costs and Staffing report, the trilogy of staffing guidelines for the custodial, trades, and grounds areas, the Environmental Compliance Assistance Guide for Colleges and Universities, statistics from A Foundation to Uphold, and the Facilities Management Evaluation Program review (FMEP). FMEP has been significantly revised to align with the Award for Excellence in Facilities Management and now reflects components of the SAM, and the Baldrige criteria. The trick is setting out a plan to best implement these standards and guidelines at your institution. APPA offers its institutions this plan-a framework for the planned vision, direction, performance measurement, and continuous improvement of the organization. Through the application of these tools and techniques, guidelines and standards, you will be assured of collecting relevant data, reviewing strategic management information and reports, and using this information to make knowledgeable decisions, to tell your story effectively to senior institutional decision makers. Indeed, the best way to compete is to have clearly defined products with demonstrable performance metrics. Voila! What are you waiting for?-APPA is ready to assist!

However, there is still much to be done to increase the amount of credible data and information you need to make knowledgeable and informed decisions for your institutions. Our new Center for Facilities Research (CFaR) will serve as the structural mechanism for APPA to keep the flow of new information coming and to develop effective and innovative practices. This will allow us to stay abreast of the changing world in which we live. The duties and responsibilities of several key APPA staff have been realigned this year to reflect these knowledge management needs. Hence, our website is being transformed to ensure that the technology infrastructure is in place so that this type of credible data and information is easily and readily accessible.

As for APPA's present services, I am pleased to report our educational programs (the Institute for Facilities Management, Leadership Academy, and the Forum) continue to hit the mark in both their content and appeal. And, the availability and flow of relevant information regularly occurs via the Facilities Manager magazine, APPA's website, and the APPAinfo list. Yet, there has been a gap in the availability of a basic, entry-level supervisory training program within the collection of superior educational programs presently available to APPA members and their institutions. This gap will be closed in mid-2003 as we introduce a foundational facilities supervisory training program which will be delivered internationally and locally right at your institution.

Additionally, given your input and feedback, we are looking at the pros and cons of developing a certification program. Because a certification program has serious implications financially, legally, and administratively, we are proceeding with a great deal of care and caution. A survey of the membership will be forthcoming and will guide our efforts and direction during the coming year.

Collaboration As an international association located in the Washington, D.C. area, we have significant and fruitful opportunities to build and nurture strong ties with other associations and governmental agencies on behalf of our member institutions. With respect to our relationship with NACUBO, we experienced an extremely successful collaboratively delivered Institute for Facilities Finance this past March. In addition, a book on this topic will follow and is planned for publication this fall. Delivery of two energy strategies seminars were coupled with our governmental strategic alliance partner, the Department of Energy/Rebuild America (DOE/RBA), this past May and June. Our Leadership Academy was fully subscribed and correspondingly attended by several members of the National Association of Education Buyers (NAEB). Thus, our efforts to deliver a collaborative leadership program for the professions within the higher education institution are beginning to bear fruit. Indeed, individuals across all departments will gain immensely from the practical application of these essential people skills. Finally, we will continue to work diligently on our 2003 and 2006 Annual Meeting/Forum co-location plans with NACUBO and NACUBO/SCUP, respectively.

Credibility
Interest in APPA from international corridors has exploded this past year. In September the presidents' visited the southern Africa-HEFMA (Higher Education Facilities Management Association), which is expected to become a chapter of the AAPPA Region. Last fall, we greeted a large contingent from Japan at the APPA headquarters office where much dialogue ensued about the facilities profession and the guidelines and approaches used by APPA members on behalf of their institutions. In March, I visited the United Kingdom to find a strong and viable relationship with AUDE (Association of University Directors of Estates) and much interest on the part of AUE (Association of University Engineers) along with our higher education counterparts in Germany. And finally, I just returned from a four-day visit in Mexico City with a wonderful group of folks from Mexico's Monterrey System of 30 campuses and sponsored by the Tec de Monterrey campus. All of this exemplifies the fact that we are no longer a "local" association (i.e., experienced by the U.S. and Canada alone), but a "global" association being experienced by educational facilities professionals and their institutions worldwide. By identifying with this diversity in our membership, we have the hope of both illuminating our differences and further enlightening our perspectives.

As always, our only competitive advantage is the fact that you continue to choose to become members and remain members. As such, we ask your patience during the coming year as we engage you in short feedback surveys, targeted focus groups, program evaluations, and specific survey research. These activities help us determine future offerings and modify our delivery approaches to better meet your needs from your perspective. All these activities taken together ensure that our focus remains on you to further meet your needs and your expectations. Through these offerings, APPA can help you gain that competitive edge and enhance your professional image.