Minutes Florida APPA Organizational Meeting April, 8th and 9th, 2004 Hosted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityAttendees: Ed Rice, Kansas State University and President Elect of APPA David Smith, Medical College of Georgia and GAPPA representative Michael White, University of Miami and SRAPPA representative Dan Young, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Linda Manning, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Debbie Iglay, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Becky Griffith, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Brian Wormwood, University of Central Florida Montel Watson, University of Central Florida Diane Neff, University of Central Florida Carl Truesdell, University of Central Florida Matthew Taylor, University of North Florida Victor Citarella, Florida International University Michael Steger, Palm Beach Atlantic University Rich Elmore, Florida School for the Deaf & Blind Danny Ware, Daytona Beach Community College Carl Younger, Okalossa-Walton Community College Eric Cochran, University of Florida Jim Williams, University of Florida Scott Bitikofer, Rollins College The first meeting of the Florida chapter of APPA was held at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Dan Young welcomed the attendees and informed the group that the need for a Florida chapter was discussed at an APPA Supervisor’s Toolkit workshop in April 2003 at UCF. Dan indicated that the start up group identified a Florida chapter goal “to foster institutional relationships”. Further introductions were made as Brian Wormwood introduced the start up group. Linda Manning welcomed the attendees on behalf of ERAU and said that ERAU was excited to host the first meeting. All attendees introduced themselves to the group. The business sponsors, WFF, FPL, Grainger and Sodexho were thanked for their meeting support. Michael White, the Florida SRAPPA representative, was the first speaker. Michael has worked 14 years at the University of Miami and has been on the SRAPPA board of directors for 10 years. Michael told the group, “As an assembly, today you have made a declaration (to form an APPA chapter)…” He indicated that about 10 years ago an attempt was made to form a Florida chapter during a SRAPPA meeting hosted at University of Miami. Michael challenged the group to explore desired outcomes. A Florida chapter would serve as a communication vehicle for sharing communication back and forth among members favorable. The question was addressed to the floor, “What are we really here for?” The discussion that followed addressed the need for intercommunication within the state; the need for supervisor training; local level issues are really not addressed at APPA and SRAPPA levels; and the need to fill in the gaps. The dynamics of the State University System (SUS) is changing as universities are being granted a lot of autonomy with self-governing board of directors, resulting in fewer SUS types of meetings. Further dialog identified that a common group develops a sense of community by being able to pick up the phone (and network). As a unified group we can pressure contractors to treat everyone the same way. We all have common issues at a local level. The SUS and Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida (ICUF) are two currently organized groups. It was recognized that this new organization will be competing for funds and time with SUS and ICUF. There is a need to come together as identified when employees come back from APPA or SRAPPA training sessions with phenomenal new ideas. We need to grow Physical Plant directors to take our place. We have opportunities to learn and flourish as being part of an organization such as this for networking. David Smith, the GAPPA representative, addressed the group. He stated that the GAPPA directors of Physical Plant have bought into GAPPA and support it very strongly. There are 42 active institutions with 4 being community colleges. GAPPA can be accessed on the web at GAPPA.org. The directors understand that participation in SRAPPA and GAPPA has its limitations as most of the seminars are geared towards the director level. GAPPA uses its forum for the training of front line supervisors. The better staff is trained, the better we are. David described the GAPPA committees: List server committee: Members can post problems and questions on the list serve for member institutions to review. Membership committee: Workshop committee: GAPPA holds a minimum of 4 workshops per year with as many as 8. Topics such as TB, lab pressure filter change theory have been offered. Subscribing business partners committee: There is such a demand to participate in the vendor show that potential business partners are put on waiting lists. They must sponsor a workshop in order to participate in the show. Scholarship committee: Vendors provide funds to supplement scholarships to GAPPA members Tradeshow committee: This committee is always chaired by a private school so that there is no impropriety with state gratuity laws. Conference education committee: Entertainment and accommodations committee: This is currently the most critical committee for GAPPA as they are trying to find another facility for the annual meeting. Newsletter committee: This committee has troubles from time to time as people are too busy to write articles. The quarterly newsletter keeps members informed of the success stories from other institutions. Annual conference: The annual GAPPA conference is held Memorial Day weekend at Jeckyl Island, GA. It is attended by 120-150 people. More would attend but the facilities cannot accommodate more attendees. The conference is more focused on management and front line managers down to the foreman level. Directors meet on Saturday, and there is a kick off golf tournament on Sunday. Sunday evening the spouses meet for casino night, using play money won, to buy gifts at auction. Monday opens with breakfast, and educational sessions run all day long on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday brings a final breakfast and drawing for vendor prizes. Workshops: Workshops held have included floor care with 40 attendees and delivery methods for construction projects with 70 attendees. Meeting dates: APPA is held in July, with SRAPPA being held in October. Florida annual meetings held in the spring would be manageable. GAPPA will support us to develop seminars, observe how they do their annual meetings, whatever they can do to help us be successful. Questions: SRAPPA had a surplus of funds—education was best use of the money. SRAPPA would be favorable towards helping a Florida chapter get started. APPA President –Elect, Ed Rice, addressed the group after lunch. He shared that in 1914 APPA started at the University of Chicago with 14 universities in attendance. He cited actual meeting minutes from the 1938 meeting held at “Harvard and Yale and compared and contrasted the meeting to today’s APPA. Issues in 1938 still prevail such as importance of meters, relighting a hall, principles of settling buildings, collective bargaining, wood floors, vacuum cleaners for general classrooms, inspection of buildings, physical plant organizations, air conditioning, maintenance of masonry construction, moisture as a factor in paint failure, timber and treating specifications, asphalt walks, In 1938 APPA had 74 member institutions. Today there are approximately 1400 institutions comprised of approximately 4000 individual members. APPA has a $3.6 million budget with 14 paid staff members. Ed Rice closed his remarks with a reference of Charles Darwin, where he summarized, “It is not the strongest….but the ones most responsive to change who will survive.” The session ended at 2 pm with some of the attendees breaking for an afternoon of golf. The meeting resumed at 9am on Friday, April 9th with the following members in attendance: Dan Young, David Smith, Eric Cochran, Jim Williams, Danny Ware, Brian Wormwood, Montel Watson, Michael Steger, Matthew Taylor, Carl Younger, Michael White, Diane Neff, Debbie Iglay, Becky Griffith, Carl Truesdell, Scott Bittiker. David Smith facilitated the morning discussions and indicated that at a minimum, the task before the group was to set up an advisory organizational committee comprised of a president, vice president and secretary/treasurer. The notes that follow detail the discussions that led to an interim organizational structure, interim officers, purpose and follow up meeting dates. Michael White recommended that we send a letter to APPA notifying them of our intent to form a Florida chapter. The letter will be sent to Brooks Baker and Lander Medlin and will request an APPA resolution recognizing Florida as a chapter. The letter will include the agenda and minutes from this meeting as well as the names of the interim officers. Michael White, as SRAPPA representative, will send an email to APPA informing them that a letter will be coming. The group identified issues for Friday morning’s agenda: 1. Identify and fill critical positions using David Smith as the facilitator to get the positions filled immediately. Reference the position descriptions described in the SRAPPA bylaws, as a model. 2. Determine the name of the organization. 3. Identify the next meeting date and location. David Smith asked the group to consider two scenarios for filling the critical position of president: consider term limits and elect the first president formally at first annual meeting, or have a leader now who becomes the immediate past president at the first annual meeting. The first year’s president will need to commit a lot of time to get this organized, and it is recommended that the president appoint committees with advice and consent. The president is responsible for the annual meeting reports highlighting the activities of the board and officers for the year, with distribution of meeting minutes to SRAPPA and APPA. David recommends that the board meet once a quarter. David noted that the past president is the SRAPPA and APPA delegate. David Smith informed the group that at GAPPA the first vice president does the planning work for the annual meeting by securing the facilities, and assuring that there are appropriate conference topics and speakers. The annual meeting could be in the same place for the first few years, with rotation to other sights at a later date so that members don’t get bored with the facilities and surroundings. The secretary/treasurer will be needed immediately. This position records minutes, collect the funds and disburses appropriately with board approval. The secretary/treasurer provides financial statement at each board meeting. This first year 503c status will have to be secured for the chapter. Legal advice from someone in Florida as well as assistance from APPA will be required. A bank account will also need to be established. In general, the first year as an officer of this organization will require more time commitment than down the road. David Smith estimated that it will probably take about 5-10% of the officers’ time over the next year. Most work can be done via telephone or email. GAPPA has at times cancelled board meeting and handled business issues through email. David Smith asked that we take a moment to consider the level of commitment we wish to make to get this started. He asked for volunteers or nominations. The group then refocused discussions on the need for establishing a Florida chapter. We need to recruit and bring additional members to the next meeting or the chapter won’t succeed. Once schools see that we have inertia they will jump on the bandwagon. The group members expressed concern that the positions should be filled today. Discussions about forming an interim committee, a mission statement, interim officers and draft of the bylaws resulted. It was agreed that we need to market the new chapter to nonparticipating schools. We will distribute these meeting minutes and a copy of SRAPPA bylaws to the schools that expressed interest in the formation of a Florida chapter. We will ask for input regarding suggested changes to the SRAPPA bylaws to be used as a model for our own chapter. Michael White will obtain a list of all Florida higher education institutions from APPA for our mailing list. Debbie Iglay will update our current mailing list and provide it to Scott Bittiker. Scott will coordinate with members to make personalized visits or calls to other schools based on geography. Members questioned the agenda of this organizational group. A common theme identified is opportunity for localized training specific to our industry. It is recognized that we promote our people with out the skills to do the new job, and local training will help our work groups. It was noted that ERAPPA developed an educational tract where there was something for everyone. Housekeepers, grounds and directors participated elbow to elbow at meetings and work shops. Dan Young and Brian Wormwood were nominated as co-chairs of this developmental taskforce, with Montel Watson nominated as secretary/treasurer. David Smith made the recommendation that the chair and co-chair appoint a committee of not less than 5 people with the charge to be as inclusive and diverse of representation as demographically as possible. The group concurred and agreed that the members participating at this first organizational meeting will all serve as committee members. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 4th at the UCF Rosen School of Hospitality Management. The group voted on the acronyms FAPPA and FLAPPA and chose FLAPPA for our name. The group acknowledged that the acronym does not reflect the national organization’s current name, “The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers”. The group recognized that a sense of purpose must be outlined as we envision our new chapter and move towards a common goal. The purpose developed is:
Action items to be discussed at the June meeting are developing an annual meeting, workshops sponsored by this group, and soliciting vendor support. Each member will solicit vendor support and will provide Becky Griffith with vendor updates. The web page will be ready next week and information will be forthcoming via email. Membership dues were discussed with the group recommending 20% of APPA dues or a minimum to be established. Membership in FLAPPA does not require SRAPPA or APPA membership. The meeting adjourned at approximately noon on Friday, April 9th. Respectfully submitted, Montel Watson Interim Secretary/Treasurer, FLAPPA Associate Director, UCF Physical Plant 407-823-3044 |