Happy New Year!

While individuals are making personal resolutions this time of year, managers are setting their organizational goals. If you are like me you have taken a snapshot of things and are deep in the process of setting up systems to achieve those goals.

This year is a little trickier for me as I really like to jump in and be aggressive right out of the gate, but I am still in the information gathering phase. I was able get out and meet some members in December and spend some time with the folks at APPA. My priority was to get a grasp on Littleton, where our new facility is going up this month. But I still need to reach out to more members and understand their individual circumstances and needs. This will be one of my goals for the next several months.

My overall list for the year is short but large in scope. It includes:

1. Complete new facility and move in by October.

2. Meet with members from all regions of NEPPA and better understand their operations and needs.

3. Restructure the professional education system and update or create needed programs.

4. Improve our communications and use of technology to serve our members.

5. Look for collaborations that will maximize NEPPA’s presence and use of our new facilities.

This may sound like a short list, but like many of yours, each goal has layers to it. Additionally, these must be accomplished while still giving full attention to our services like Mutual Aid and legislative efforts.

For those of you who have been previously involved or are looking to be involved in our legislative efforts, a reminder that our visits to meet our elected leaders are scheduled for March 12^th through 14^th. We have an orientation breakfast tentatively scheduled at this time for the 12^th and we are asking you not to schedule any meetings until after that session. This will allow us to be coordinated with our efforts and issues. Please put this on your calendar and go to the APPA website to find and reserve a hotel room, as this is a busy time in D.C. and rooms book up fast. I am hoping to see as many of you there as possible.

One of the items on your list for 2012 is training. NEPPA has completed its training schedule for 2012 and will be adding to it as necessary. So, if you haven’t scheduled your on-site training or registered your folks for the group trainings we do I recommend you do so as quickly as possible. If you want to check our calendar for availability you can do so at: http://www.neppa.org/calendar.html. We update this calendar daily to make it convenient for you. Just added are Substation and Advanced Lineworker. These begin in the next few weeks.

Please let us know anything we can do to help you meet your 2012 training goals! If you have any suggestions or needs for training that we are not offering, please let me know.