The Challenge
Adults learn as much from one another as they do from the experts that give presentations during a conference. As a part of the goals for its 2016 Annual Conference, the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) wanted to drive more peer-to-peer learning and infuse purposeful engagement opportunities into traditional networking breaks.  

The Challenge
Information technology in state government is far more than boxes and wires; it is the fabric of government and very often the face of government. The work that supports, connects, secures and engages is led by state chief information officers (CIO), yet this role is often misconceived as solely a technologist rather than policy leader and strategist.

Promoting, advancing and reinforcing the state CIO as a key state leader is a primary goal for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).  NASCIO also seeks to share stories of IT innovations that support, enable and transform the business of state government.

The Challenge
The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), one of AMR’s clients, was charged with creating a professional development and ongoing learning platform for its members. They envisioned a multi-faceted education platform that would assist its members and other state government procurement professionals with resources to help advance public procurement, which includes helping states develop their own certification programs.

The development of this program was important because of its connection to certification; both national and state specific certifications are very important to the NASPO membership. This was also identified by the membership as an area where additional resources and support were needed. NASPO leadership came up with Procurement U as a name and challenged the staff with creating a resource for state’s developing or enhancing their own certification programs that could be delivered in a fun, interactive, online format that would be easy to use and easy to update.

The Challenge
Shortly after AMR began working with a new healthcare client, AMR staff had questions about the accounting principles that had been applied to one of its programs that was separate from the association and co-owned with another organization.

After presenting concerns to the Board of Directors, an audit of this program was conducted and it was discovered that, unknown to leadership, funds had been mistakenly co-mingled in past years and the association had less than $30,000 in the bank, with the remainder of the reserves belonging to this separate and co-owned program.

The Challenge
AMR client-partner, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, needed a new brand identity that was more modern and attuned to a leading-edge IT organization. It had been several years since NASCIO had reviewed their brand identity and the Executive Committee asked staff to bring a proposed branding redo for their review and approval.