Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007 - (Page 20)

BEST A ND F I N AL I’ve been telling folks I’m writing a book: Things I’ve Done to Remind Me I’m Not as Smart as I Think I Am. by Victoria (Tory) R. Windley University of Delaware The writing of it will be one thing, but I think it’s pretty darn smart just to have developed the concept… all mine… don’t even think of stealing it. It started years ago when my family and I dog-sat a Weimaraner named Baron for some friends of ours. Baron was highly energetic, and for 10 whole days, we listened to his collar and tags jingle Jangle JINGLE all day long, ALL NIGHT LONG. After about ﬁve such nights, we ﬁnally closed our bedroom door to block the certain, unavoidable, unrelenting sounds of his nocturnal wanderings. Upon their return, our friends came in the back door, hugged us “hello,” and immediately removed the collar by which we had been tortured for over a week. Seems as though we didn’t ask whether Baron needed to wear the collar inside the house. Thus born the ﬁrst entry in the book. I have many entries from life and family, but it occurs to me that we in NAEP have worthy examples as well. At a recent regional meeting, I heard the story of one of our colleagues who had attended an NAEP Procurement Academy. The course was in Baltimore, and it was several years ago. She arrived at the Academy from California after visiting friends, but she actually lives about 50 miles from the Charm City (Baltimore’s real name). Her signiﬁcant other joined her for the night before the ﬁrst class, and she instructed him to take all her extra clothes home with him in the morning. He did leave bright and early, and when she arose, every pair of shoes had gone with him. Another entry for the book. (OK, just so you’re not left sel docks on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean is about 100 miles from our Procurement ofﬁce on the main campus. So, let me ask you: To which campus did we have the buoy delivered? Right. Another entry. Another colleague told the story of the time he was tasked by his Institution to purchase specialized trucks for one of its campuses. Again, great skills were brought to bear, and the buyer was able to save signiﬁcant cost by amending the speciﬁcations according to his judgment and skill. All’s good? Not quite. As speciﬁed and delivered, none of the trucks ﬁt in the garage. Final entry? Not by a long shot. When you see me at a regional or national meeting, step up. Tell me your story. I promise… I’ll regard you as smart, even if you may think otherwise. hanging, she wasn’t shoeless when she attended – there’s a dead baseball player that carries that label, isn’t there? – but instead, she got a little help from the hotel staff and the lost-and-found box. No doubt there was some frantic noon-time shopping along with some fairly serious @$$-chewing.) At my institution, we once purchased a buoy. That’s right. One of those big – and I mean BIG – things that ﬂoat in the ocean. Did a great job on the Procurement. Good contract and payment terms, delivery when needed. Really helped out the researcher. Now… the campus where our research ves- Victoria (Tory) R. Windley is the Director of Procurement Services at the University of Delaware. She is a regular contributor to NAEP’s Journal and Purchasing Link, is past faculty for NAEP’s Procurement Academy and past District II Board representative. Tory currently serves on the Board of E&I Cooperative. e-Mail: Tory@udel.edu 20 EDUCATIONAL PROCUREMENT JOURNAL www.naepnet.org | December 2007 http://www.naepnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007

Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007 Contents Letter From the CEO: Sustainability in Higher Education Heard On the Streets Calculating Procurement's Value Cost-Per-Copy Contract and Site-Based Funding At a K-12 School District Bargain-Basement Solutions to Automate and Streamline Procurement Processes LEED & Leadership Certification Roamin' with Yeoman Best and Final

Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.