Getting Motivated and Involved

Public Service is no laughing matter, but it is the little things we do that does matter.  The average, everyday citizen rarely knows the level of work and commitment that goes on behind the scenes to provide them with services they use daily.  Many times the public servant’s role is thankless.  So how do you motivate others?  How do you get others involved?

I have heard a time or two that the characters in the Winne-the-Pooh stories represent different emotional and social conditions that people face such as depression, OCD, and ADHD.  I guess you could say, no, I KNOW you could say that Tigger is a representation of my personality.  Hyper, energetic and most of the time positive and forward thinking.  By portraying those traits, I hope to motivate others to be as excited or committed to public service as I am.

I was recently elected to the Virginia Association of Governmental Purchasing (VAGP) Board of Directors as a Second – At – Large member.  In this role I have been assigned to complete the implementation of our Champions’ Program.  The core of this program is to reach out to those areas of our state that are possibly more isolated than the metro areas of our state to find someone in their area that can be a conduit between their needs and the offerings of our organization.  So today my ever active brain is storming trying to figure out ways to promote VAGP, procurement education and active involvement.

Sadly, after a recent public meeting I got to read how a former government employee called all other public employees “Thieves”.  I wondered if that person really took a moment to realize all the services in their life that were provided by these so called “Thieves” and why they thought that they should not be paid a reasonable wage that kept up with inflation?  How do you combat this negativity and encourage others to join and stay in public service?

I do it for my fellow man, fellow citizen and I feel that “We’re All in This Together”!!  Keep it real and let me know how you stay motivated or motivate others!

Editing, Creating Policy

Well I have done it now!  I have started on the journey to update our Procurement Policy and Regulations.  As I reviewed our lead legal document, the Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA), I first start with identifying what parts of the VPPA we are required to follow and which parts we can elect to incorporate or not.  Once the paragraphs are identified it is then time to move on to what was currently in place.

My goal in taking on this arduous task is to improve the documents in order for our constituents and end users to clearly understand what we do, the methods we use, and to show that we are transparent, unbiased and use industry best practices.   Thankfully some of my VA colleagues sent me copies of their policies and procedures to use as resources and I am using them to the fullest!

As I look at our two documents my ADD brain tends to over think things.  In our organization Policy is approved by the School Board and Regulation is approved by the Superintendent.  In a nutshell that means that Policy is broad and Regulation is detailed.  For some reason my brain is struggling to determine what should go in which.

In brainstorming with my supervisor a game plan is developed; combine the documents into as much detail as possible and then we can determine what to pull out to make the broad document.  Now while this sounds simple, for someone like me, I will still get hung up on the minutiae from time to time but I will slog on until it is as finished I can get it before showing others.

I am taking this week to devote to this project and hopefully it will be done on my timeline… but as we all know Procurement will interrupt the best laid plans!