Hello TAPPA,

Summer is now in full swing, and the heat is upon us. I hope you are all finding ways to beat the heat. As mentioned at this year’s conference, TAPPA has at least one way for you to escape the heat. On July 28, Ana Thiemer and the University of Texas will be hosting a Regional Round Up. The topic of this Regional Round Up is “Implementing Total Cost of Ownership – TCO Sounds Like a Great Idea, but What Do I Do First?” Ana has a full day of discussions planned for this topic, along with a campus tour for those interested in seeing her lovely campus. This topic is ideal for those in positions of facilities leadership with each organization. As Ana says, “Failure to attend this session may result in a loss of sound decision making or a loss of significant money.” Based on that statement alone, I highly recommend that you sign up by July 21, and make your way to UT to dive into this valuable topic. 

If you are unable to make it to UT, TAPPA will be hosting other topics in our Regional Round ups. We want to ensure that these sessions continue to provide value, so we invite you to submit recommendations for topics you would be interested in learning about. Additionally, if you are interested in presenting on a topic, we would love to hear from you. And for our institutional members, if you are interested in hosting a Regional Round Up, we would love to hear from you as well. Please email us at info@tappa.net to express your interest. 

I would like to introduce Jacinto F Colmenero, the Director of Physical Plant and Facilities at Coastal Bend Community College, as our newest Board member. He is an Alumni of Austin Community College (ACC) and Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK). Prior to joining CBC, he worked in the private sector of facility & property management, K-12 (I.S.D.), and Texas A&M University – Kingsville. He has directed his leadership and professional experiences towards higher education where his professional goal is to provide administrative leadership, oversight, and continuous success of facility operations for the Coastal Bend College community. JC has agreed to serve in this role and was elected to the position by the TAPPA Board of Directors for this year. Keep an eye out for him as we will have an opportunity to extend his term of service at the next conference when we vote for Board positions. 

Finally, speaking of the next TAPPA conference, we will be in San Marcos, April 7 through 9, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Hotel Conference Center. We expect to have high-quality topics and plenty of opportunities to develop not only our facilities management skills but also our connections within the Facilities Management world. So place a hold on your calendars for the 2024 TAPPA Conference, and plan on joining your TAPPA Board and fellow TAPPA members in San Marcos. Throughout the rest of the year, you will see communication providing additional information, requesting nominations for presentations, potential Board members, and for awards such as the Stars Across Texas. 

Stay safe and stay cool,

Chad Crocker, President, TAPPA

This month we spotlight Neely Shirey, Senior Project Manager at the University of North Texas Facilities organization.  Neely has worked at UNT for 14 years and obtained her bachelor’s degree in interior design from UNT.  She’s an accomplished project manager with hundreds of completed projects under her belt and has carved out a niche in classroom renovations.  She was recently recognized by the university with its Digital Innovation Award for innovative efforts in upgrading classrooms and their technology.  Ms. Shirey also participated in two presentations at TAPPA 2023 in April.  According to Neely, “Presenting an educational session at a TAPPA conference complexly transforms the conference experience.  I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities and found the audience engagement and follow up conversations made TAPPA even more meaningful.”

As a new member of TAPPA, Billy McCord is a Senior Business Development Manager with Ameresco, Inc., who he has been with since 2013. In the industry since 2000, Billy has accumulated a great deal of experience working with business officers and physical plant operators on turnkey development and implementation of central utility plant projects, facility efficiency measures, and distributed generation projects.  Billy lives in Tyler, Texas and reports out of Ameresco’s Dallas office, though he can often be found on various campuses throughout the state.  This was the first time that Ameresco has been a sponsor at TAPPA, and Billy found it to be a worthwhile experience, saying, “of all the conferences that I have participated in over the years, TAPPA is one of the best with regard to the quality of content, interaction with the business partners, and the caliber of professionals in the industry network.  I am already looking forward to next year in San Marcos.”

Have you or a colleague recently been or are soon to be a presenter, a panelist or serving in an advisory role that may provide beneficial information to TAPPA members? If so, we would love to hear about it! Please share your experiences with us at info@tappa.net, and follow us today!
 
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