A Message from the President

Hello TAPPA,

We are now just over a month away from our annual conference, that will be held in Denton, TX and co-hosted by UNT and TWU.  You have just until the end of this month to take advantage of the early bird registration.

As a reminder of some of the events taking place as part of this year’s conference, we’ll be kicking things off on Sunday, April 23 at Bigshots, where you will get to meet with our business partners for some meaningful connections for anything needed on your campuses. We will quickly transition to education sessions on the afternoon of April 23 followed by the first timer’s and President’s receptions in the late afternoon and evening.  The agenda is outstanding: 2023 TAPPA Agenda | Texas Association of Physical Plant Administrators

I want to take this time to introduce a program that may help with the employment crunch we’ve seen in recent years. The Facilithon, a surprisingly effective career-introductory competition that has grown to 13 states and Washington DC in 2022. The Facilithon’s webpage, www.fmpipeline.org, serves as a springboard for Facilithon students and industry to encourage careers in facility management.  

APPA Members with interest in future talent or who are experiencing critical skills-gap problems are encouraged to volunteer for this innovative program.  TAPPA Members can sign up for the April 13 post-secondary competition taking place at Houston Community College at https://fmpipeline.org/tx-state-facilithon-2023. I highly encourage our Facility Manager and Business Partner members in the Houston area to support this program.

I also want to remind everyone that we have several Board positions that will be open for election this year. These are the Vice President, the Treasurer, two additional Facility Manager Board positions, and a Business Partner Board member. If you are interested in serving on the Board, email info@tappa.net so the Nominating Committee can contact you.  Please include your full name, institution or firm, a statement of interest, and a short bio. Additional info on Board position elections is available on the TAPPA webpage at: https://tappa.net/. I started my TAPPA career after attending my first TAPPA in 2017 in Ft. Worth and it’s one move I haven’t regretted. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some really amazing people in our industry.

I also want to let you know about our awards program. We have three different areas where you can recognize someone within your organization or maybe that special business partner. The three categories are:

• Facility Management Distinguished Service Award
• Business Partner Distinguished Service Award
• Stars Across Texas Award

You can reach out to myself, wls1@txstate.edu or David Reynolds at dreynolds@f-w.com with any awards questions.

Sincerely,

Wm. “Shorty” Schwartz, President, TAPPA