President's Message

by Marianne Bays

My year as IPMAAC President is rapidly coming to an end. This will be my last President's message to you. It's been fun (really, I mean that!), but it's now my turn to fade into the background gracefully as "Past President". In that role, I'll be chairing the Bylaws and Nominations committees and continuing as a member of the Board of Directors for one more year. I look forward to continuing to work with the Board and to working with you on building the 1997 slate of board/officer candidates and any needed bylaws changes.

This message provides the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the many people who made my job as President this year both pleasant and possible. One of them that I must single out is Marianne Ernesto, IPMA's Director of Assessment Services. Most IPMAAC members aren't aware of the tremendous amount of support that IPMA staff gives to IPMAAC operations. They help with virtually all aspects of our administration. More than that, though, Marianne E. has been an ally in helping us to make desired changes and a valued collaborator in planning organizational programming. I'm grateful to have had her able assistance as well as that of other staff.

I can't possibly take the space here to list all of the members who have actively contributed to committee work this year, but I am grateful to them as well. I hope that the experience has been rewarding to them and has generated an enthusiasm to participate in IPMAAC more in the future. The committee chairs' names are printed in this as well as prior issues of ACN. They and I have told you throughout the year about what each of their committees have accomplished so I don't need to repeat that here. But, I would like to note that they have made me proud to be IPMAAC's President.

In particular, I think that our public "face" has been enhanced immeasurably in the past year through:

Innovation in and expansion of this newsletter. (You have my undying admiration for this fine work as well as your grace under fire, Madame Editor);
Achievement of a stimulating, fun, and well planned conference in Boston (Kristine Smith and Warren Bobrow, you did a wonderful job - take another bow!);
Excellent technical management of and continued improvements in our electronic communications network. (Bill Waldron, I'm both in awe of your talent and your prodigious capacity for work. All of us who have ventured on-line as well as those who will do so in the future owe you a vote of appreciation for your work on the ECN.);
Publication of our new training brochure, our new membership brochure, an improved Student Paper Competition announcement, and our advertisements in TIP. (So many people contributed to these I can't list them - but special thanks to members Dennis Joiner, T.R. Lin, Paul Kaiser, Nancy Abrams, and Charlie Sproule and also to IPMA staff).

I'd be very remiss if I didn't also thank two members who are going off the Board of Directors at the end of December, Jim Johnson and Kaye Evleth. Jim preceded me as President and Kaye served as our IPMA Executive Council Representative - our link to our parent organization - during my term. These two were my source for wisdom, encouragement and many good ideas over the past year. They set the stage organizationally for most of what IPMAAC has been able to accomplish this year.

Paul Kaiser, IPMAAC's President Elect, has prepared a message for you in this ACN about organizational plans already underway for 1997. Paul and the other IPMAAC Board Members just met with me in the wild and weird city of Las Vegas on October 27 (where my only gambling consisted of losing $20 in the nickel slots and betting $5 on the Giants to win the Superbowl at 300-1 odds). We met just prior to the IPMA International Training Conference there. In the remainder of this message, my plan is to fill you in on the most recent IPMAAC happenings, including the discussions and actions taken at this recent Board meeting.

To begin with, let me recount IPMAAC's participation in our parent organization's annual conference. We successfully ran two 1/2 day pre-conference workshops in Las Vegas (on employment litigation, courtesy Jeff Feuquay; and on administration of oral exams, courtesy Kristine Smith). Kaye Evleth and Kristine Smith presented an IPMAAC sponsored concurrent session on multipurpose job analysis as well (and both have also agreed to work with me to try to develop a new multipurpose job analysis workshop for IPMAAC).

Highlights from the October IPMAAC Board Meeting were as follows:

Several IPMAAC members, including myself and many of the other Board Members have been invited to serve on IPMA committees next year, including their Nominations Committee, Publications Committee, Conference Program Committee, Member Development Committee, Information Technology Committee, and their Center for Personnel Research Committee. In addition, our new IPMA Executive Council Representative, Doris Maye, attended her first Executive Council Meeting as a guest in Las Vegas.
IPMAAC's entire APA Test Standards Revision Committee, chaired by Nancy Abrams, has now been formally merged with that of IPMA, which is chaired by Arch Pounian. Nancy reports that there has been no new activity on the standards revision, though the national committee is expected to hold a meeting on it again soon. Articles on this subject are being planned for both the ACN and IPMA News in order to keep the membership posted. In addition, coverage of this topic is being planned for the 1997 IPMAAC Conference.
A new policy was established to provide discounted conference registration fees to multiple attendees from the same organization. This is intended to encourage more first time attendance, especially from local jurisdictions, and will take effect in 1997.
The Board expanded our policy on IPMAAC mailing list use to specify that: "IPMA Assessment Council mailing lists will be available at no cost on a reciprocal basis to the various consortia and Personnel Testing Councils. Other organizations who wish to do so may purchase the IPMA Assessment Council mailing list for $105.00 per 1000 or part thereof. Rental of the IPMAAC mailing list is both a member service and a means of income to the organization. Only in cases where the intended use of the mailing list would represent a violation of one or more of IPMAAC's Professional Principles, would rental of the list be denied a requesting party. Regardless of the purpose for which the mailing list is to be used, its use shall represent no endorsement by IPMAAC or IPMA of the products or services advertised. A letter specifying this shall be sent to all requesting parties along with the rented list, on the occasion of each rental."
Training Committee member David Hamill is contacting the IPMA Section officers to work with them to arrange for IPMAAC sponsored concurrent sessions at each of their conferences next year. This initiative is based on the Board's action last June to adopt policy that states our commitment to participating in each regional conference as well as to budget travel funds to support this.
We reviewed and approved revisions to our policy manual on Assessment Council Newsletter, the Stephen E. Bemis Memorial Award Committees, and the Training/Workshop Committees. All board members and committee chairs will receive updated copies of the entire policy manual by year end.
It was agreed that our Professional Principles statement should be republished in each member directory, the ECN and, periodically, in ACN.
St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Florida was selected as the site of the 1999 IPMAAC Conference based on research provided by IPMA staff and discussion among the Board of Directors.
Incoming member Kristine Smith was appointed by the Board to serve as our representative to the Regional Relations Roundtable, concurrent with her term on the Board.
The Board considered the recommendation of the IPMAAC Bemis Award Nomination Committee, chaired by Anne Soileau, and selected Doris Maye as IPMAAC's 1997 nominee.

On a personal note, I've just taken a new job that represents my fourth major career change since joining IPMAAC. Continued participation in IPMAAC was one of my hiring stipulations. Despite the fact that I'm not going to be doing much personnel assessment (the assessment focus of the job is on the effectiveness of information technology organizations) and my new firm's clients are largely private sector, I declared my intent to stay active in IPMAAC as both a personal and professional commitment. For those of you who might hesitate to do something so cheeky during new job negotiation, I should add that my condition was met without hesitation. In fact, I'm told by my new boss that people are "impressed" by my leadership credentials, despite the fact that he personally has trouble remembering the name "IPMAAC" or what it stands for. So, do yourself a favor, and when I call you in early 1997 to ask you to allow yourself to be nominated for election to the Board of Directors or the President Elect position, don't try use the fact that you might be changing jobs as a reason to decline. You're warned in advance that I'll have arguments to counter that.

See you around!