Our PA Public Purchasing Association (PAPPA) Chapter meeting, held at The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of General Services “Capital Complex” in Harrisburg PA was called to order by Chapter President Mary Ann Ramey.

Attending were Mary Ann Ramey, Whitehall Township; Maureen McIlvaine, Bucks County; Scott Brodt and Diane McKenzie, City of Allentown; Price Morris, Lancaster City Housing Authority; Bob Dopira, Montgomery County; George Nader and Ann Wertman, Lehigh County; Mary Jo Reed, City of Bethlehem; Lenore Horos and Judy Cole, South Whitehall Township; Barry Hitchcock, Lancaster County; Renee Carpenter, County of Berks; Chris Gentile, Alvernia College; Bill Irish and Christine Parnau, Northampton County; Bill Lyle, Bucks County.

Minutes from our April 2, 2001 meeting were read. Members were asked if there were any changes, additions or deletions to be made to the January 29, 2001 minutes. The following changes were made:

Joint Meeting change “Gordon in Philadelphia” to “Gordon in New Jersey”

Region III Meeting change “Region III” to “Region I” and “Region II” to “Region I”

Tax ID change to read “Chip has submitted paperwork to get PAPPA under NIGP National’s tax exempt umbrella.”

Golf Shirts change last sentence to read, “The cost of the shirt is $16.00 each to members and the chapter will pay the difference of $4.75 each”.

Speakers, #6 change “contract” to “contact”

Speaker change to read “Meeting concluded with a presentation from Tony Massiota, Director of the Trexler Lehigh County Game Preserve.

A Motion to approve the April 2, 2001 meeting minutes as amended was made by Mary Jo Reed, Bill Irish second the motion, and those present approved it.

Treasurer’s Report - Scott Brodt handed out the April 2001 Treasurer’s report and reported the chapter saw a profit of $495.00 from the ‘General Public Purchasing Seminar’. Maureen McIlvaine made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report as presented, Diane McKenzie second, and those present approved it.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Audit - Jill Stewart will audit the chapter’s financial records during the month of June 2001.

Awards - Second vice-president Maureen McIlvaine chairs this committee. Nothing new to report at this time.

By-Laws - Diane McKenize chairs this committee. Nothing new to report at this time.

Education - Price Morris chairs this committee. Price reported that the ‘Intermediate Public Purchasing Seminar’ scheduled for May 9-11 had to be cancelled for low attendance. Contact Price if you are interested in this class being scheduled again. Price is looking into putting a survey together to poll the members on what other classes or seminars they are interested in. Stan Richart reminded us that the chapter can piggyback off the PA State Contract for NIGP Seminars and the seminars could be held at any location in the state. Bill Irish reported the NIGP National’s Learning Education Aligned w/Procurement (LEAP) Program with Florida State University would be putting together college classes based on NIGP courses. Bill also announced that Mary Ann Ramey recently received her MBA and that Chris Parnau received her CPPB certification and presented her with her CPPB Certificate.

Financial - Scott Brodt chairs this committee. Scott reported that all checks and PO’s for the cancelled IPP seminar have been returned. He is applying for two credit cards for the Chapter, one for the President and one for the Treasurer, these cards will have expiration dates to coincide with the end of their term in office. Scott will be switching the chapter’s checking account to an interest bearing account; he is working with the bank on exact procedures and requirements. An annual budget will be prepared based on the Treasurer’s reports from previous years minutes. Scott is also working on the PA State Tax Exempt paperwork and will be polling the membership to get information needed to complete the application, he needs to know the number of volunteer hours members contribute to the chapter,.

Legislative - Ann Wertman chairs this committee. In Ann’s absence, Maureen McIlvaine said the committee had no report to give.

Liaison with Chapters - Price Morris is working on a Region I Liaison and Chapter website list, he will put this information on the PAPPA website. Bill Irish reported he has contacted all chapter Presidents in Region I and will meet with them at the National Forum.

Liaison with NIGP - Stan Richart had no report to give. George Nader has volunteered to help Stan. Bill Irish reported that National has changed the Forum site selection process to include cities with no active chapters or small chapters but have convention or tourist bureaus interested in hosting the National Forum.

Library - Angela Marino chairs this committee. In Angela’s absence, Diane McKenzie said the committee has no report to give.

Marketing - There is no news to report as of yet.

Membership - Mary Jo Reed chairs this committee. Mary Jo reported that the chapter has one new member, Stephen D. Suder of the Delaware River Port Authority and had an updated membership list available. Mary Jo will provide an updated membership list at every other chapter meeting but will keep Mary Ann, Angie and Price informed of new members as she received their applications. If you are going to the National Forum, contact Mary Jo so she can give you PAPPA chapter lapel pins to give to other Forum delegates.

Newsletter - Mary Ann Ramey chairs this committee. Mary Ann reported she has made no progress with this, if you have any articles you would like to contribute to the newsletter contact her.

Ohio Forum - Mary Ann reported she has received little information from the Ohio Chapter. Bill Irish said Ohio has not provided us with any guidance on what they expect from us, one of the neighboring states, he has asked Rick Grimm of National to ask Ohio for direction. He believes the neighboring states will be part of the Share Fare so we should concentrate on this for now. Bill will find out what shipping address we should use to have companies who donate promotional items ship to Columbus and suggested we count 1200-1500 people passing our table. Bill also announced that he would like to host a reception for our chapter one night of the Forum and will try to reserve one or two tables for us in the front of the banquet hall for the President’s dinner.

Operations Guide - Diane McKenzie chairs this committee. Diane handed out a new front page for the Operations Guide, and said more changes will be coming when the Strategic Plan is approved. Diane will be ordering more binders and tabs for additional Operation Guides to be distributed in the future.

Strategic Planning - Mary Ann Ramey handed out a copy of the chapter’s Strategic Plan and noted a few changes were brought to her attention. A revised Strategic Plan will be e-mailed or faxed to all members. Mary Ann also stated that as a result of the chapter’s Strategic Plan, she would like to see more members volunteer to be committee members

Web-Site - Price Morris and Kevin Sharp are in charge of PAPPA’s web-site. Price reported that our web-site has received over 300 hits since it opened and that we have received our first electronic membership application. The committee should have a plan to follow the strategic plan at our next meeting. Price also suggested some additions to the web-site: perhaps a banner to announce seminars or events and a member or agency-of-the-month with pictures and bios (Barry Hitchcock will follow up on this). Price requested that Committee Chairs make a point to send Price or Kevin updates or changes they want made to their portion of the web page.

OLD BUSINESS:

Region I Conference - Price Morris reported that the Delaware Chapter will be hosting the Region I Conference on October 25 and 26 in Wilmington DE. Price will be getting more information from Greta Iplenski, Delaware Chapter President soon.

PAPPA Shirts - Mary Jo Reed brought samples of the shirts and said a navy blue PAPPA logo will be embroidered over the left breast pocket. Mary Jo also reminded everyone that the quoted price of $16.00 each for members and $4.70 each for the chapter is based on an order quantity of 36, if the order quantity is lower the price will go up.

Mary Ann Ramey made the following reminders: Have meeting minutes distributed to the members at least 2-weeks prior to the next meeting. Committee chairs should give Mary Ann an update at least 2-weeks prior to the next meeting. Provide Price and Kevin with updates for the web site.

Meeting topics - George Nader will poll the members for meeting topics.

Question - Mary Jo Reed asked how membership applications and checks should be handled until the By-laws are revise? Mary Ann Ramey said the membership applications and checks should go to the Membership Committee who will approve the application and forward the check to the Treasurer to be deposited.

Mary Ann Ramey reported that NIGP has a power point presentation available on certification/recertification. She will look into it further for discussion at a future meeting.

Mary Ann reported that the Ohio Chapter has requested a donation for the ‘2001 Forum’ from all chapters. After much discussion, George Nader made a motion for PAPPA to donate $250 to the Ohio Chapter to help offset “2001 Forum” expenses, Jill Stewart second the motion, and it was approved by those present.

Mary Ann asked that any official correspondence written on behalf of the Chapter be sent to Angie so it is included with the official Chapter records.

Stan Richart reported that the PA State Conference will be held October 10-12 at a soon to announced location. Keep checking the state’s web site for the location.

Mary Ann reported that NIGP has an annual member contest going on; the contest is for promoting chapter and National membership. Prizes for the contest are: 1st Prize-free Forum Registration; 2nd Prize-free 1-Day Seminar Registration; 3rd Prize-Palm Pilot. For more information go to National Link on our web-site.

Mary Ann reported that L3P has re-scheduled their annual conference for September 12 & 13, 2001; the location has not been decided.

Mary Ann requested chapter Letterhead and Envelopes be printed. Maureen McIlvaine volunteered the printing to be done by the Bucks County Printing Department.

Judy Cole made a motion to adjourn the meeting; it was second by Diane McKenzie.

The Program for the afternoon was a presentation by Gary Anakbrandt, Assistant Chief Counsel for the Commonwealth, on Act 57, the Procurement Code of 1998.