Utah Chapter President’s Message April 2021
Dear Utah Chapter NIGP Members,
We hope Spring and warmer weather are getting you excited for the summer and all of the fun activities that come with it. Many agencies are approaching the end of their fiscal years, and workloads can get heavier. Please take some time to rejuvenate your batteries.
Thanks to all of you for participating in our March NIGP meeting. We look forward to a Brown Bag Learning Series seminar on April 15th. We’ll meet again for a NIGP meeting on Thursday, May 20th. Please mark your calendars now to reserve the dates.
We are grateful to see COVID case numbers dropping in our state, and hope to see upcoming changes to state and local mandates that will allow us to meet with you again in person. If all goes well, we hope to see you in person this Fall.
The Chapter is starting a few new fundraising and educational initiatives that you will begin receiving information for soon. For those of you with a sweet tooth (or have loved ones that do), we will be having a See’s Candies fundraiser for Mother’s Day, or for your office just to give yourselves a chocolate break. Proceeds will go towards providing scholarships for the National NIGP Virtual Form this August, or to go towards NIGP-CPP, CPPB, or CPPO test fees and prep materials. We hope you will take a look and participate if you can.
In addition, the Chapter plans to host a few NIGP courses throughout the rest of the year. We are still working with the National Institute to secure dates and instructors, and hope to get course information out soon to all of you. These courses will have fees associated with them, and will provide you with either Competency Modules or a Core Certificate in the content areas as part of NIGP’s Pathways program. These will be held virtually and will be ½ day, 1- day or 2- day courses. Because these are held virtually, we are able to have participants from other states and/or countries participate with us. The Chapter will receive a percentage of the course fees back for each class member as a fundraiser. These funds will also be used to help fund scholarships for Forum or certification tests for chapter members. Please contact me at tonya.hodges@jordandistrict.org if you plan on taking the CPPB or CPPO test later this year, and which month you plan to take the test. We can consider hosting a prep course for these if there is enough interest.
We are happy to announce that a scholarship application period will be opening soon, and we hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to apply, especially those of you whose agencies do not have the funds to pay for your tests or conference attendance. Forum is a great opportunity to learn new skills and come back with ideas for your organizations. The classes are well organized and a broad range of topics are available to attend. Certification is a valuable asset, to be able to show that you are highly qualified to provide your agency with expert knowledge and skills to help them with their procurement needs. Our budget has been very limited without an income stream last year, and we hope these fundraisers will help us get more scholarship opportunities out to you as chapter members.
Be safe. Be Well. Be Happy. We are grateful to each of you for the amazing work you do, and even more so through a pandemic.
Yours Sincerely,
Tonya Hodges
Utah Chapter NIGP President