By Mare Allen

Ever wonder what it would be like to serve on the NAPM-SA's board of directors? Visualize a high-paying, glamorous job with lots of perks and fringe benefits that require no real work. Great that's some other job, one that probably exits only in Washington. Real NAPM-SA directors spend hours and hours of their time each month without pay, making tough decisions to ensure the association if financially sound, serves the needs of it's membership and operates smoothly. Without such people, there would be no NAPM-SA. Specifically, the Board of Directors has many of the same duties and responsibilities as the Board of Directors of a corporation. The Board is responsible for the overall direction and operations of the association. Among the many tasks this may include are amending the association bylaws or requesting changes in it's chapter when necessary; authorizing investments; planning for appropriate facilities and scheduling many functions throughout their terms. Monitoring activities of the association's through an increasingly complex, competitive, and volatile purchasing profession.

The "right stuff" for a director would include:

1. Dedication and commitment to NAPM-SA and its philosophy of "Professional Purchasing Produces Profit in our workplace".
2. Willingness and energy to put forth the time and effort required.
3. Uncompromising sense of honesty and integrity. Understanding of the basics of our materials management profession and of course, good
4. Business practices.

Elections for three new board members will be held in April and it would be great if there were more new faces and ideas for the organization. If you would be interested in running for a board member position please give your name to one of the current Board of Directors.

THE BUCK STARTS HERE!!!

By Scott Oldendorph, C.P.M.

Contracts, some of us have been exposed to small contracts while others have lived a life through a large contract. In contracts there are only two kinds of purchasing professionals: those who have experience in serious disputes and those who will sooner than they may like to. Disputes are a fact of life, and they can be very serious. A contract can range from minor disagreements to the stuff of major lawsuits. The old maxim is that if you wish for peace, you should prepare for war holds a ring of truth, as well as Murphy's Law.

It is NAPM-SA's pleasure to have Charles Grube from the State of Arizona's Attorney General's Office come talk to our membership on Wednesday night April 12 at 7:00 at the Doubletree Hotel. Charles will be talking about the anatomy of a contract dispute, Grube's law of commercial combat, the mechanisms for dispute resolution, and the basic game rules for the uniform commercial code.

Charles Grube is a 1980 graduate of the Harvard Law School, and a 1977 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After college Charles was in private practice, focusing on financial and business litigation. From 1990 to 1993 he was the in-house counsel to Chase Bank of Arizona and other Chase Manhattan entities. In 1997 Charles joined the State of Arizona's Attorney General's Office where he is an Assistant Attorney General. As a member of the Commercial Law Unit in the Attorney General's Office, he represents many state agencies, boards and commissions where he conducts administrative and civil litigation on the State of Arizona's behalf, mostly in procurement, contract and construction disputes.

As a result, Charles has wide legal experience in business, financial and litigation matters. Charles is a member of the bars for the US Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as well as the 7^th and 9^th Circuits, various federal district courts and the state bars of Arizona and Wisconsin. Charles is also a member of many wildlife, environmental and conservation groups besides being a NRA certified pistol instructor.

You will experience a contract at some point is your business or personal life and this is a speech not to miss. As a certified pistol instructor, Charles knows how to gather a crowd together, so let's all show up and make his day.

Dinner Meeting Menu

Name_______________________________________________________________________________________

Company_______________________________________________________#Attending________________________

Phone___________________________________________________________________________________________

Entree(s)_________________________________________________________________________________________

Spring Council Meeting

The Spring Council Meeting was held in Sacramento, California March 10/11. The major discussion was the passing of the Governance By-laws and what that will mean to the Affiliates in District 1. The first thing is that the District goes away and is replaced by a Region. So far that doesn't cause a problem except that the Region has no governance responsibility or authority. We will be combined with District 11(2500 members) and District 12 (500 members). District 1 has 6000 members.

Most of the council members were in favor of retaining some organization like a District where the affiliates could get together to discuss similar problems, NAPM governance, network, etc. This is not part of the National plan. Effective with the new By-laws the Affiliate Support Council will be the only body representing the affiliates, however there will be only one and maybe two representatives from each Region. That's one or two representatives for 25 or more affiliates. Bottom line, the new By-laws do not provide for affiliate representation. The Council Members proposed several ways to keep an organization - similar to the District Council so all "grass-roots" input is not lost. This will be sorted out in the future but out officers and Directors must keep track of this issue if the affiliate is to have any input to the National organization.

"Purchasing Department Administration"

The next C.P.M. Review session will be April 15, 2000 at the Viscount Suites, 4855 E. Broadway. The review will cover Module 2, Administration. If you are working on certification, this will help. If you are in a supervisory or management role review of this module will remind you of the major areas in managing a purchasing activity. Specific tasks include developing goals and objectives, evaluating performance, necessary files and records, budgets and forms. We will also cover personnel issues such as delegation of work, performance evaluation, hire, job training and personnel performance problems. These are areas that we deal with daily and frequently question if we are going the right thing. Plan to attend this review and pick up some hints and rules to follow. Fax or mail the registration to NAPM-SA, P. O. Box 13201, Tucson, Arizona 85711 or fax to 520-206-4536.

U of A Proposal Process

The board of directors is responsible for the overall direction and operations of the association. This is a great opportunity for you to help shape the future of our organization and to assure that we are meeting our members needs.

For the up-coming year we will be having three (3) positions become vacant on the Board Of Directors, at this months dinner meeting nominations will be taken and they will be voted on at the May 10, 2000 dinner meeting. If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact anyone of the current board members which are listed on back of this newsletter.

Satellite Seminar Apr. 6, 2000
"Effective Negotiating Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies"

NAPM Dinner Meeting Apr. 12, 2000

C.P.M. Review Apr. 15, 2000

Board Meeting Apr. 20, 2000

Golf Tournament May 5, 2000

THE FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT AND THE BUYER

Much has been said and written about purchasing ethics as it applies to global sourcing. All of us have heard the horror stories. Payoffs made to local petty officials for the privilege of doing business overseas. For example. your goods are "trapped" in the customs area in a foreign country and the only way to "liberate" them is to pay an official a bribe. Or is it a bribe? Using our standards it would be an illegal act to bribe a U.S. customs official to release goods from customs control. But the U. S Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 could be construed as ruling otherwise in the overseas setting.

The FCPA was an attempt to define what is proper and legal when dealing with foreign governments with respect to business issues. Specifically, it makes it unlawful to bribe foreign government officials to obtain or retain business. The Act applies to any individual, firm officer, director employee or agent of a firm, Individuals and firms if they violate the law.

Criminal penalties may be imposed for violations of the FCPA's antibribery provisions. Corporations and other business entities are subject to a fine of up to $2,000,000; officers, directors, stockholders, employees, and agents are subject to a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to five years.

It is important to understand that the prohibition extends only to corrupt payments to a foreign official, a foreign political party or party official, or any candidate for foreign political office. A "foreign official" means any officer or employee of a foreign government, a public international organization, or any department or agency thereof, or any person acting in an official capacity. The person making the payment must "have a corrupt intent and the payment must be intended to induce the recipient top misuse his official position to direct business wrongfully to the payer or to any other person."

However all is not as black as it seems for getting that shipment out of customs. The FCPA contains an explicit exception to the bribery prohibition for "facilitating payments" for "routine governmental action." The statute lists the following examples of such exceptions: obtaining permits, licenses, or other official documents; processing governmental papers, such as visas and work orders; providing police protection, mail pick-up and delivery; providing phone service, power and water supply, loading and unloading cargo, or protecting perishable products; and scheduling inspections associated with contract performance or transit of goods across country. "Similar" actions to these are also covered.

It would appear that getting goods released from customs might fall within one or more of these exceptions. In other words, pay the customs official and get on with the job. However, a word of caution. In any situation where a payment is contemplated you should consult with your legal counsel and consider utilizing the Department of Justice's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Opinion Procedure before making any such payment.

For more information on this subject visit the Internet. Search on "FCPA" There are over 5000 web sites on this subject. For authoritative information on the statute take a short cut and click on www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa

Charles B. Bilbro    Imation
Sr. Materials Manager

Mary Jo Furphy    Northwest Fire District
Support Services Clerk

David A. Larson    Raytheon Systems
Subcontracts Administrator

Edward A. Little     Phelps Dodge Sierrita
Warehouse Technician

Carlos E. Rangel     Imation
Materials Control Analyst

Damon T. Testa     RHM Associates
Engineering Project Buyer

William E. Wells, CPIM     Air System Components
Materials Manager