Free State Chapter - NCMA

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Prior President's Forum letters

2007-2008 Greeting

Greetings and welcome to the start of another exciting year for our Free State Chapter.    We're off to a good start with a re-vamped website, new and energized Executive Board members, improved operational processes, and an exciting speaker for our first luncheon.  We've posted both our annual operating plan for the upcoming year (so you can see what we plan to do) and the annual report for the prior year (so you can see how well we did last year).    We still plan to focus on the mainstay activities of NCMA (i.e. training, professional development, and networking), but we also hope to promote more collaborative activities with nearby NCMA chapters, continue our chapter's certification study group, and continue our quarterly chapter newsletters. 

For the foreseeable future, we plan to continue our luncheons and workshops at the Kossiakoff Center at the Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.  Given all the numerous tradeoffs involved in picking a regular meeting location, this seems to work best.  However, we also hope to try some new venues to see if might be able to serve our chapter members better.  

As always, please contact me if you would like to get more involved in running our chapter or just want to share an idea you came up with.  We could especially use some help in our hospitality and program areas. 

Rex T. Elliott, CPCM, NCMA Fellow
President

Spring 2008

Greetings and welcome to the start of another exciting year for our Free State Chapter.    We're off to a good start with a re-vamped website, new and energized Executive Board members, improved operational processes, and an exciting speaker for our first luncheon.  We've posted both our annual operating plan for the upcoming year (so you can see what we plan to do) and the annual report for the prior year (so you can see how well we did last year).    We still plan to focus on the mainstay activities of NCMA (i.e. training, professional development, and networking), but we also hope to promote more collaborative activities with nearby NCMA chapters, continue our chapter's certification study group, and continue our quarterly chapter newsletters. 

For the foreseeable future, we plan to continue our luncheons and workshops at the Kossiakoff Center at the Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.  Given all the numerous tradeoffs involved in picking a regular meeting location, this seems to work best.  However, we also hope to try some new venues to see if might be able to serve our chapter members better.  

As always, please contact me if you would like to get more involved in running our chapter or just want to share an idea you came up with.  We could especially use some help in our hospitality and program areas. 

Rex T. Elliott, CPCM, NCMA Fellow
President

Summer 2007

Welcome to the Free State Chapter's website—part of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA).  Our chapter recently completed it's annual day of planning, and we're looking forward to providing several worthwhile activities for the 2007-08 program year.  While the mainstay events of our chapter have always been professional development activities (luncheon speakers and workshops on current contracting topics) this year we'll have some more networking activities as well.   We also plan to continue the enhanced quality of our quarterly chapter newsletter (check out some recent editions on this website), and to maintain our chapter's active support for those pursuing professional certification in the field of contract management.   Most importantly, we're going to continue our active support of increased professionalization in our field—by upholding high ethical standards in all our chapter activities, by promoting continuous learning as a "way of life" in our careers, and by providing the very best encouragement and support for others with these same ideals.

Our chapter's certification study group recently had two members successfully pass NCMA's Federal Module—congratulations to Amanda Kreusch and Gloria Paul.  Another chapter member, Deborah Shackelford, also passed that exam but without any help from our group (hey, we've got some impressive folks in this chapter).  That's wonderful news and well-deserved for each of you.   Our study group has now prepared several individuals for the Business and Federal exam modules, so the logical next step is to prepare for the Commercial Module.  This will complete our preparations for all 3 NCMA modules, but then we'll start over again with the Business module.  After all, NCMA encourages continuous improvement.
In January of 2007, our chapter lost a very stellar member.  Jim Graalman was the kind of person for whom procurement was an exciting adventure.  (Jim used to say that he liked procurement so much that he never actually considered it work.)  As a mentor for many of us, Jim provided some very sage advice and perspective on this ever changing profession.  In fact, Jim used to embody the profession's ideal of continuous learning, since he regularly attended luncheons and workshops, served as a mentor to several individuals in the chapter, served in several different chapter officer positions, and participated in the certification study group as well.  Jim continues to be missed by many of those whom he touched while he walked this Earth. 

It's encouraging to see NCMA is forming student chapters at college campuses, one of which is quite close by—Bowie State University.  Our profession could use the energy and idealism that typically accompany college students—please participate as fully as possible with our chapter.  My special thanks to Barbara Hammond for helping to mentor this chapter. 

Rex Elliott,
'07-'08 Chapter President

Spring 2007

Greetings from Greenbelt.  Our chapter recently had a very successful luncheon on cost and pricing issues and we promise to have several more worthwhile events before our 2006-07 program year ends on June 30th.  Unfortunately I had to miss the luncheon due to prior travel commitments (this seems to be a heavy year of travel for me).  Nonetheless, it's reassuring to see that our chapter continues to produce some high quality events in my absence (some might suggest it was "because" of my absence, but I'll leave that for each of you to consider on your own).   

Our certification study group recently had two members successfully pass NCMA's Federal Module—congratulations to Amanda Kreusch and Gloria Paul.  That's wonderful news and well-deserved for each of you.   Although our study group is currently taking a break, our hope is to begin again in the Fall of 2007 to prepare for the Commercial Module.  This will complete our preparations for all 3 NCMA modules, but that just means we should reserve Spring of 2008 for preparing for the Business Module again.  After all, NCMA encourages continuous improvement.

In January, our chapter lost a very stellar member.  Jim Graalman was the kind of person for whom procurement was an exciting adventure.  (Jim used to say that he liked procurement so much that he never actually considered it work.)  As a mentor for many of us, Jim provided some very sage advice and perspective on this ever changing profession.  In fact, Jim used to embody the profession's ideal of continuous learning, since he regularly attended luncheons and workshops, served as a mentor to several individuals in the chapter, served in several different chapter officer positions, and participated in the certification study group as well.  Jim will be sorely missed.

It's encouraging to see NCMA is forming student chapters at college campuses, one of which is quite close by—Bowie State University.  Our profession could use the energy and idealism that typically accompany college students—please participate as fully as possible with our chapter.  My special thanks to Barbara Hammond for helping to mentor this chapter. 

My series on "Tales from Katrina" has run its course.  Although there is a lot more material from my journal, I've pretty much exhausted the relevant procurement information.  My thanks to those of you who patiently read these tales and provided your support.  As I've said before, working disaster recovery procurement actions was a world of difference from working in the aerospace environment.

Rex Elliott

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2006-2008 Meeting Schedule

Luncheon meeting unless otherwise indicated. Cost is $15.00 for NCMA members, $17.00 for non-members.

Date	Topic	Location & Menu	Luncheon Speaker
10/16/06	"Five Reasons to be Excited about your Profession"	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Laurel	Ron Smith, Director of Contracts for EADS -- North America Defense
11/15/06	"Contracts Negotiation" National Education Seminar (See newsletter for details)	The Conference Center at the Maritime Institute 692 Maritime Boulevard Linthicum Heights, MD 21090	Andrew Obermeyer, CPCM Procurement Analyst, Office of the Secretary of Defense
2/15/07	Ethics Refresher: Conflict, Gifts & Resources	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	Ms. Randi DuFresne, Associate General Counsel, NSA
3/15/07	Cost & Pricing Issues	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	Robert Peksa, Chief, DA3C, Maryland Procruement Office
4/19/07	Intellectual Property in Government Contracts	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	Jennifer Ferragut
5/31/07	Hot Issues in Federal Contracting for 2007	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	Ms. Kinosky & Mr. Philips (Federal Contracting Institute)
6/21/07	Subcontracting Workshop	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	John Orday, Partner of Berliner, Corcoran, & Rowe, LLP
10/25/07	OFPP (Current Affairs)	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	Robert Burton, OFPP
11/29/07	Project Managment for Contracting Officers	John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab, Kossiakoff Center, Laurel	John Baniszewksi, Deputy Project Mgr of Resources, NASA

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In Memoriam

One of our NCMA chapter's longtime members, Jim Graalman died recently.

Jim was one of the founding members of our Free State NCMA Chapter, having served at least two terms as Chapter President and also as a National Director, and for a number of years on the scholarship committee.  Jim regularly spoke of procurement as "the profession I love", and indeed looked at procurement as something he always enjoyed.  Jim mentored a number of our chapter members (including the current president), regularly attended chapter events, and, for many years, even hosted the chapter's annual Christmas parties and annual planning sessions at his home in Annapolis.  Several years ago, our chapter named our $1000 annual college scholarship as the "James E. Graalman Scholarship" in honor of the many years of dedicated service Jim gave to NCMA and the Free State Chapter.  Recently, Jim wrote a regular column in our chapter newsletter, The Free State Chronicle, titled "Graalman Grumbles" in which he bestowed his considerable procurement wisdom on all who listened.  NCMA's national office confers an award for the high quality NCMA chapters - called the Graalman Award - which is named after Jim's father, Walter Graalman who was also a stellar figure in the world of procurement.  (Fortunately, our chapter has received several of these awards over the years.)
 
Jim will be missed.
Rex Elliott (Free State President)

Also see NCMA article.

Title	File
Annual Report 2006
Annual Chapter Operating Plan 2006-2007
Financial Report 2006
Annual Report 2007
Annual Chapter Operating Plan 2007-2008
Financial Report 2007