FLAPPA, the Florida Chapter of APPA

FLAPPA’s Fourth Annual Conference has come and gone and now it is time to look ahead to the upcoming year! It is amazing how fast the year goes, it has been a busy and exciting year for our chapter and we hope you will join us at St. Petersburg College, March 9th through the 11th, 2009. St. Petersburg College will host the FLAPPA Conference on their Gibbs Campus. It will be a wonderful opportunity to see the growth and opportunities that this growing institution has to offer to this state and the gulf coast of Florida. Facilities Services Director Jim Waechter and his staff have been working hard getting ready and the results of their efforts will please everyone who attends in March. Our chapter is grateful to Jim and St. Petersburg College for their willingness to host us next year, thank you all!

FLAPPA is for our institutions of higher education here in the state of Florida. The problems, challenges and issues we all face each and every day in facilities management are what bind us together in this chapter. We have common goals and objectives and the support of each other. Working together for our common good is a benefit that this organization, though in its infancy, has brought to many of us here in Florida and beyond. This year the chapter will be instituting its first series of Business Partner based training sessions, the first to be held at Northwood University in West Palm Beach in the month of August. Facilities Director Matt Stevens is working to put the first training session in place that will bring our Business Partners and front line staff from surrounding communities together in what will become the model for future training sessions to cover different topics in all areas of the state.

By our participation in FLAPPA, we bring the benefits, knowledge and networking available from APPA and SRAPPA to our group. APPA and SRAPPA are incredibly supportive of our chapter. Over the past four years many of us have had the chance during our conferences to talk directly with leaders in both organizations and for this we are grateful. This year will be another opportunity to talk with APPA leadership; it is a great opportunity to get involved not only on a local level, but a regional and national level as well.

Though our collective budget times are difficult and stressors that are affecting our state and our campuses continue to change the day to day efforts we all share, the FLAPPA Conference at St. Petersburg College next year will give you a chance to engage in discussions that have direct impact on you and your staff regarding these stresses and changing times. We are creating our history and we encourage you to be a part of this history. It is why FLAPPA is here, it why we want you to be at the St. Petersburg College Gibbs Campus with us in March 2009!

Copyright © 2006 FLAPPA