The SAPA Board will vote whether to expand membership categories during the March 6th Board meeting, which is open to all Fellows and will be held at 8 am at Rockefeller College, Milne 120 (the Levitt Room).  

Specifically, the Board will vote whether to amend SAPA's by-laws to add an Associate Fellow category and a New Professional category. The Board has been discussing these changes for quite some time.  We want SAPA to become a resource for all public administration professionals. This change also will help sustain SAPA into the future and allow us to broaden our program offerings.  

To take effect, SAPA by-law changes must be approved by Fellows as well. If approved by SAPA's Board, we will circulate the proposed amendments to active (dues paid) Fellows for review and voting.  An affirmative vote of two-thirds of those voting is required for adoption of the changes.

During the March 6th Board meeting, consideration will be given to the launch of a  mentoring program, whereby younger public administrators and students will be able to network with SAPA's more experienced Fellows.  This will be done in a social setting.  More information about this will be forthcoming.  If you are interested in participating, contact Paul Shatsoff at [email protected].

2017 Excellence Award Recipients

SAPA will hold it's 7th annual Public Service Excellence Award ceremony on Monday, May 21, 2018 at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.  We are pleased that our partnership with Rockefeller College continues.

Nominations for team and individual Excellence Awards are now being sought from state and local governments, and from non-profits that are closely aligned with government.  

Though commissioners, executive deputies and local government organizations like NYSAC have been notified, we also would like you to reach out to your agencies or local government contacts about the Excellence Award Program.  

The letter announcing this year's program can be found here, as well as the nomination form.  Nominations are due by c.o.b. April 10, 2018.

Each year one-third of the SAPA Board is up for either re-election or, because of a limit of two consecutive terms, replacement. 

This year we will have two vacancies because of the term limit provision in our by-laws.  If you are interested in being a SAPA board member OR would like to nominate a colleague, please let us know by April 16, 2018  at [email protected].  Elections will take place in late May or early June.

TIDBITS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION NEWS FROM OTHER SOURCES

TIDBITS is a new section of the SAPA newsletter that will link to stories that should be of general interest to the Public Administration community in New York.  If you have suggestions for this section of the newsletter, send an email to Paul Shatsoff, [email protected].

Sea Level Rise Presents Challenges for New York's Public Sector

If you think about New York's most densely populated areas, most are along our coastlines; others are on lakes. A new study by the National Academy of Sciences discusses the extent to which melting land ice, mostly in Antarctica and Greenland, are causing sea level rise attributed to climate change. This is happening now and is measurable. A summary of the findings was recently posted in Clean Technia. 

The public sector will have a major responsibility to plan for potential destruction that could occur along New York's coastlines. New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation has an excellent summary of information about climate change's likely impact on New York. As you read the summary, think about the role that your agency or locality will have in coping with the projected impacts from storm surges, sea level rise, and flooding. Major changes to our infrastructure will be needed. As we saw during Irene and Sandy, upstate, non-coastal communities will not be immune.