A Message from the Affiliate President

By Jennifer Farros

Can you believe it is 2008? Two thousand and eight! Some of us remember when “procurement” was called “purchasing” and supply management professionals were buyers. We are still in awe that we survived the Y2K panic, let alone that it is almost a decade later. We remember when computers were for spreadsheets and turned on periodically. Now, we can’t do our jobs without them! Our world consists of change and how well we can adapt. Did you ever read “Who Stole My Cheese?” oops, no, the book is called “Who MOVED My cheese”? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Mr. Johnson strives to educate readers on how to successfully deal with change in an ever- changing environment. We all have to deal with change in our jobs and personal lives. How we do it dictates our success and happiness.

Education is necessary to arm ourselves to deal with change. One of NAPM Diablo Valley’s goals is to provide opportunities for education to local professionals in the East Bay. We do this by sponsoring various events and providing opportunities for networking. We are not a large organization but we are local and need your participation to stay active! We already had two successful seminars on Global Sourcing and Six Sigma. We may not be exposed to Global Sourcing today, but the markets of tomorrow are all global. And who hasn’t heard about Six Sigma? …. Some of us now know a little bit more about them! We are better educated to deal with the change that both these subjects bring.

If you are reading this letter, that means you are on our site: www.napm-dv.org. I urge you to peruse the site. Check out “Meetings & Events”, make plans to learn something new, or better yet, share your knowledge with us! Worse case, take the opportunity to meet some interesting people.

My fellow board members and I wish you a Happy & Prosperous New Year!

We hope to see you soon!

Best Regards,

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