Utah Chapter President’s Message January 2021
Happy New Year! I hope each of you were able to take some time off during the recent holidays and spend time with your loved ones and recharge your batteries.
2020 took all of us by surprise, and was an unprecedented year with changes to our work and personal lives like many of us have never seen through our public procurement careers. Many have experienced illness, and some have lost dear ones. The year also provided an opportunity for growth, for thinking outside of the box for new and differing solutions for our agencies, learning how to have meetings in a virtual environment, changing at least part of many of our homes into work office spaces, etc. We’ve seen supply chain disruptions, and the rapid rise of PPE supplies and accompanying suppliers. Who knew we would learn to wear masks on a regular basis without Halloween or a costume party as an excuse?
We look forward to new experiences and opportunities as we enter 2021. Utah Chapter of NIGP is committed to being a professional development and Procurement resource for you and your agencies. As the pandemic continues, we will continue to offer virtual chapter meetings as well as the Brown Bag Learning Series in conjunction with the State of Utah Division of Purchasing. Our next chapter meeting will be Thursday, January 21, 2021 from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. You should soon be receiving links and reminders to register for the meeting on our website at https://nigputah.org/ . We hope you’ll be able to join us. Please let us know what you would like to see in our upcoming meetings. Feel free to reach out to me at tonya.hodges@jordandistrict.org or to any of our Board Members with your ideas. We want to be able to help you and provide content that is relevant and insightful to what you do each day.
We are so grateful to have this association community where we can come together and share insights and ideas and to collaborate one with another. As we see more and more civil divisiveness in our communities and country, it is so refreshing to be able to have an association where we can come together in a common cause to help provide necessary goods, services and resources for our various agencies and communities. What you do each day has a direct reflection on the effective function and management of our agencies, neighborhoods and communities. Thank you for your efforts!
May we all have a wonderful new year, and hopefully a gradual return to whatever our new normal will look like.
Sincerely,
Tonya Hodges
Utah Chapter NIGP President