Alan Dessoff is a freelance writer, based in Bethesda, Maryland, who has written numerous profiles of APPA presidents. He can be reached at dessoff@erols.com..

Gary Reynolds knows how to stay on course to achieve his objectives. As director of facilities services at The Colorado College, his sharp focus on meeting the institution's needs helps him successfully manage a department that also is responsible for utilities as well as planning, design and construction of college facilities.

In his spare time, Reynolds is a flight instructor and ski instructor, and keeping his students on course in the skies and on the slopes around Colorado Springs, Colorado presents its own challenges.

Now, as APPA's President, Reynolds also aims to lead the association on a course that will help its members perform better in their jobs. While there are many challenges, Reynolds sees facilities managers facing challenges in three broad areas.

One challenge is to be "efficient and effective at the same time," says Reynolds. "During the late 1980s and early '90s we went through a lot of turmoil dealing with budget cuts with a focus on being cost-effective. Many of our institutions are facing these same issues again in 2001. Our challenge is to ensure that we are cost-effective while at the same time providing, in the long term, an effective learning environment. I don't see that changing," Reynolds declares.

Second, educational facilities managers also need to "keep up with the changing pedagogy and societal expectations and their impact on the mission and cultures" of their institutions. That includes new uses of technology inside and outside the classroom, distance learning and constantly changing research agendas. "It's important for us to keep up with what's going on in higher education in general, not just facilities," Reynolds says.

Finally, managers must look to the future and the development of new leaders in the profession. "It's the concept of succession planning within facilities organizations to ensure that the managers of today can be the leaders of tomorrow in our organizations," Reynolds explains.

APPA is well-positioned to help its members meet those challenges, Reynolds believes. For one thing, the association is in sound financial condition. "Thanks to the excellent leadership that has gone before, we've been able to meet our target for reserves as set by the Board."

He cites the association's "very successful education programs," especially the Institute for Facilities Management, under the leadership of Jim Roberts and Emily Wren, and the Leadership Academy, under the leadership of Doug Christensen and Bill Daigneau. Jack Colby and the Professional Affairs Committee revised the Award for Excellence program and the Facilities Management Evaluation Program to incorporate the latest thinking in leadership, being centered on the customer and strong financial management processes. And Maggie Kinnaman has worked tirelessly with Vickie DeWitt and the Information Services Committee to get the Strategic Assessment Model (SAM) off the ground. "So in many areas in delivery of services to our members, we're doing very well," Reynolds says.

"I am particularly pleased to see the continued growth and strong leadership exhibited in APPA's regions and chapters," continued Reynolds. "They offer some of the greatest value to members because of opportunities they provide for networking and sharing of information-the fundamental reason for the association's existence. "Our members get their most valuable information from their peers who face similar regional or state issues. The regions and chapters are at the very core of APPA meeting its goals."

APPA's vision to become a Global Partner in Learning outlines Reynold's view of the association's future. "I truly believe in this. We really are becoming global and the association of choice," he says.

"The one area that we probably need to work on is the changing pedagogy, the changing institutional demands that we're facing," he asserts. He is excited that APPA's new Center for Facilities Research will play a prominent role in that regard, coordinating the association's research efforts. Reynold's believes the Center will play a valuable role in helping APPA further develop and distribute information to its members. "It will tie everything together as the information it develops will feed into our educational programs and publications and add knowledge to our profession," Reynolds states.

Also, "to be a valued partner to the other CHEMA [Council of Higher Education Management Associations] organizations, we need to be able to bring good information to the other organizations that represent higher education management associations. I see the Center assuring that what we bring to the table is valued and important," Reynolds says.

Still another benefit of the Center, he suggests, is the new opportunities it will offer APPA members to become actively engaged in association endeavors. "Under our current structure there are opportunities for only 125 to 150 of our nearly 5,000 members to participate as Board members or on various committees. I'm hoping that by creating the Center we can break down large projects or create many small projects to develop information and engage more members in doing that," Reynolds says. Involving more members that way also will help prepare them to hold other positions later as APPA's future leaders or at their institutions.

Getting the Center "on its feet and running" is one of Reynolds' priorities for his term as APPA's President. A November retreat will "help us finalize and refine the structure and processes and procedures that will allow us to carry out high-quality research on facilities management issues."

Reynolds' other priority for the year is promoting the theme he has chosen for his term: "Leadership is Personal." Reynolds wants APPA members to "make a personal commitment to step outside our normal routines and take on bigger challenges." The Center for Facilities Research will provide opportunities to do that in APPA but it's also important for managers to become more broadly engaged at their own institutions.

"It's very easy to stay at our comfort level, just doing our jobs as managers or supervisors of our areas. I'm suggesting that we go beyond our normal routine and step up and take a leadership role and expand our participation in our institutions and grow as institutional leaders," Reynolds says. That gets back to the changing pedagogy in higher education and the need for managers to comprehend "the whole academic and social learning environment that our students come to our institutions for."

"It's important that we understand and help ensure that the missions of our institutions can be met through the roles we play," he declares. "We wear many hats in trying to be experts in technology, facilities management, financial matters and human relations. It's my hope that through the Center for Facilities Research and our other programs, our members can get from APPA what they need to be experts in those areas and true leaders at their institutions. This institutional engagement also helps develop the facilities leaders we will need in the future."

Reynolds brings a long record of professional involvement and leadership to APPA's Presidency. As the association's Vice President for Educational Programs, he spearheaded a total redesign of the popular twice-yearly Institute for Facilities Management. He also edited and was primary author of APPA's book on Total Quality Management. In addition, Reynolds has been heavily involved with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); APPA's new Center for Facilities Research follows to some extent the ASHRAE model for conducting research and disseminating its results to members.

At The Colorado College, a four-year liberal arts school with about 1900 students, Reynolds is responsible for oversight of the operations, maintenance, capital construction and utility systems for the college, as well as transportation services, environmental health and safety, and campus security. He manages a budget of $7.3 million, including $2 million for utilities, and oversees 55 employees in the facilities department, 20 more in security, and an additional 50 in custodial services under an outsourcing contract.

Under a unique Block Plan at the college, students take one course at a time and all classes meet from 9 a.m. to noon. That means if 120 courses are scheduled for that block, 120 classrooms must be available every day at the same time. "The reliability of our systems is very important. Any problems that develop during a school day are resolved quickly. We can't afford to have a building down for a day because of electrical outages or something else," Reynolds says.

Another implication of the Block Plan on facilities management is that "all the students get up at the same time every day, so the impact on our utilities in particular and infrastructure in general is much greater in those peak periods," Reynolds says. He participated in the design of new residence halls in which four students share an apartment. "For example, we set up the restroom and sink facilities so all four could get up and use them at the same time," he explains.

Reynolds is particularly proud of a new utility master plan that is being put into place at the college that includes new infrastructure for telecommunications, electrical service, a high temperature hot water distribution system, new chiller capacity and water supply improvements. The plan will enable the college to serve new facilities for "decades into the future," Reynolds says.

He also is working on new fire safety improvements including fire alarms and sprinkler systems in all residence halls and ultimately in the academic buildings.

"Gary has great management skills. He always has an answer when problems come up, as they do in construction, and when the going gets tough he tells everybody to hang in there. He amazes me with his skills," says Dave Lord, business manager of The Colorado College who is overseeing the institution's new housing project.

Like John Harrod, his predecessor as APPA President, Reynolds moves into the association's top leadership position from the Midwest, where APPA began in 1914 as a regionally-based organization with a Big Ten core. An engineering graduate of Iowa State University, Reynolds worked as an engineer in private industry before returning to Iowa State as head of energy management in 1981. He worked his way up to director of facilities management at the university before moving to his present position at The Colorado College in 1997.

Also like Harrod, Reynolds cites William (Bill) Whitman, an APPA member emeritus and past APPA President, as a key mentor in his professional development. "One thing he taught me, which I still carry with me today, is the importance of understanding what the needs are in facilities, creating a vision for those needs, and then having the patience to manifest that vision into reality," Reynolds says.

"He always liked to have a whole bunch of things on his plate and when he took on something, he got it done," says Whitman, who retired as assistant vice president for facilities at Iowa State. He recalls how Reynolds managed cleanup and repairs after a local creek flooded and devastated a number of university buildings in 1993 . "He got them back in operation," Whitman says. Reynolds and his wife, Paula, a nurse, and their daughter, Jessika, 16, live 8500 feet above sea level in Woodland Park, Colo., "a little town up in the mountains" about 18 miles from his campus office. It is a sharp departure from the flat corn and soybean country around Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State, but living in the mountains was one of the attractions that brought him to The Colorado College, Reynolds says.

Airplanes have been a lifelong interest for Reynolds. "As a child, I built every model of airplane I could get," he says. He took flying lessons after college and "it grew from there." He once owned his own planes but sold them because "they're expensive to own." Now he enjoys instructing others how to fly both powered planes and gliders. In winters, he also is a ski instructor at the nearby Keystone resort and he likes to play golf.

In those activities, as in his professional activities, Reynolds establishes objectives and ways to reach them. It's a practice that should serve him well as APPA's President.