The SUNY Purchasing Association held the annual joint NAEB (Northeast National Association of Educational Buyers), "The Assembly of Professionals" in Albany at the Holiday Inn, on October 14, through the 16th.

The planning and development of this years meeting agenda was done by a planning committee of 10 members of both organizations, with six of the members being SUNY purchasing professionals. It was decided to have joint/generic business seminar topics consistent with universal procurement themes.

SUNY attendees had three breakout sessions for quick updates on SUNY Administration, OSC and OGS current issues, a quick overview of proposed bid protest guidelines from OSC and Hospital flex legislation, from Joanne Fazioli and Lonnie Clar, as well as a Research Foundation breakout session by Nancy Lewis and a discussion about raising dollar thresholds for SUNY procurement.

There were seven (7) joint sessions, two (2) of them for professional development and motivational focus on personal and professional ethics.

The other five talks were related specifically to legal matters including, collusion and bid rigging and business law affecting procurement universities, business ethics in the work place (by NYS OSC Director of Bureau of Expenditures, Dave Hancox), trends in construction Project Delivery and design and construction in colleges and universities.

The conference theme was reinforcement and renewal of commitment to ethical business practices, and legal procurement issues and about university construction projects in New York State.

The SUNY Purchasing members had many questions and comments about the pending State Comptroller Guidelines and Procedures for bid protests and will dedicate an entire session to this topic again in the Spring.

The next SUNY meeting in the Spring of '99 will focus on SUNY/RF/AP business only. We hope and plan to ask SUNY's Brian Stenson and SUBOA Ken Levison to address our group for SUNY business update on the technological implementation, status, RAM status, SUNY Construction Fund organizational changes, etc.

We also plan to invite Jim Hettie and Wayne Sickler to address OSC new travel procedures, accounts payable items and a round-table session with as many campus auditors as possible ("Meet Your Auditor" session). We will ask for SUNY Systems to provide a "hands on" breakout for the POPS, Gateway Screens, we may also ask OGS to return to discuss the new contracts and share our experiences about travel, physical equipment, regional design and consultant contracts, etc.

The Research Foundation will have another 2-3 hour breakout session for Oracle and any other RF topics as well.

The SUNY Purchasing Association plans to meet in late April or early May of 1999 in the upstate region (possible Albany or Saratoga or Lake George) and will be formalizing said arrangement by January of 1999.

Our organization looks forward to entering the millennium with a commitment to excellence and outstanding professionalism. This concludes my report.