Good Day TAPPA Members!
I hope all is going well and you’ve had a smooth transition from summer to the beginning of the school year. Those of you supporting athletic events in some form or another, I pray your seasons have been successful and the work orders limited. With the fall season comes many challenges that can sometimes make facility team members feel isolated or separated from other academic institutions and, at times, even from other departments on their campus. One of the benefits of an organization like TAPPA is the partnerships and friendships you develop within your own institution and across Texas.
At times it can be of great relief to be connected to others in the industry who understand your struggles and to know you can call upon them when you have questions or would like to review a new opportunity. For those who aren’t familiar with the demands of our field, it may be difficult for them to understand the facilities team member who isn’t as polite as they normally are when working on repairs come Monday when they’ve worked all weekend for an event or athletic game. I know several of us can relate. Having those connections you can call on to assist in tough situations, or in some cases to just listen, makes all the difference.
Several years ago during COVID, a group of us ate lunch together once a week over Teams. Even though the meetings started out to see what everyone else was doing and how they accomplished the task at hand, we quickly developed lasting friendships. To this day, I still call upon several of those friends to run an idea by or just catch up. I say all of this because TAPPA offers opportunities to learn, grow and develop relationships across the state with other academic institutions and business partners. These connections can be gained through involvement within one of the many committees or development opportunities we either host, partner with or support.
Our goal at TAPPA is to be a resource that promotes common interests, proficiency and professionalism in college and university facilities. We do this through webinars, Regional Round Ups, an Annual Conference and hosted events with our business partners and other organizations like TAHFM, TEMA, CAPPA and APPA. If you have not yet, I would like to encourage you to join us at one of our upcoming events which can be found at TAPPA.net, or stay engaged by signing up for one of the multiple social platforms that can also be found on our webpage.
I hope to see a few of you at the CAPPA Annual Conference at Oklahoma University or one of TAPPA’s upcoming events. Be blessed and have a great September!