VISIONS

September 2005

Staff Development Newsletter

Quinsigamond Community College

Editor: Erica Merrill

Layout & Design: Erica Merrill

This month's issue:

"Strategic Life/Retirement Planning" by Mary Scott

"Essentials of Purchasing" by Anita Bowden

Stress

You know you’re stressed when:

	It takes you 30 days to write 3 paragraphs.
	Five days after your deadline, you jump out of bed at 3:00am to jot down said paragraphs before inspiration deserts you.
	You wake up the next morning, only to realize that your 3:00am epiphany was nothing more than a very vivid, elaborate dream, and you still . . . got . . . nothing.
	You actually prefer your recurring nightmare about the giant gray spiders (the one that makes you jump out of bed, snap on every light, throw back the covers and search frantically for the creepy-crawlers that aren’t really there – all while staving off yet another hyperventilating episode) because your deadline nightmare was that much scarier.
	You stare at the blank, white screen, thinking, “Computers – can’t live with them, can’t live without them, can’t smash them with a sledgehammer!” (See also: copiers, printers, and fax machines).
	Anytime you hear your boss mention your name in conversation, you instantly break out into a cold sweat.
	You can’t find your desk underneath the tottering pile of paperwork that’s starting to resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is the closest you’ll ever get to a European vacation).
	You don’t just see the glass as “half-empty,” you see it as “completely devoid of any liquid, whatsoever.”
	A list like this one (which was meant to be all fun and games) only makes you realize you’re an even bigger pessimist than you first thought.

Strategic Life/Retirement Planning

By: Mary Scott

Americans are notoriously poor savers. When we finally begin to save for retirement it is often too little, too late.

Consider the following (2003 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by Employee Benefit Research Institute, American Savings Education Council and Matthew Greenwald & Associates):

	21% of workers are confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, while 45% say they are “somewhat” confident
	29% have not saved for retirement at all
	61% have not calculated how much money they will need to save by the time they retire
	24% of workers aged 45 and older decided within the past year to postpone retirement to increase their financial security.

Change is needed.

In order to turn this situation around, many of us need to change our assumptions about retirement and take action to ensure a successful transition. For too many people retirement-saving is not even on the radar screen. It’s something to do later – after they buy a house, take vacations, pay off credit cards, put kids through school, etc.

Retirement-saving needs to start early and needs to continue to be an unwavering commitment. But that is only Step 1. Those who have begun saving should actively manage their investments. This function should not be put on autopilot. Many people put money in a particular investment option or fund and never think twice about it. Perhaps there are other options that may be better over time.

Retirement will look different in the future. “It’s not your father’s retirement plan anymore.” Even today many retirees go from one full time job to a second career or maintain part time employment to keep active and supplement their income.

Planning is not a one-time event.

It’s not enough to set a savings goal; it is also important that we take a good look at how retirement savings will be spent down. A person with a life expectancy of 90 but whose retirement resources will last only through age 80 will be sorely disappointed.

How to begin:

Awareness – understand your benefit plans and all the options available to you.
Attention – monitor your resources and evaluate your savings goals.
Action – manage your investments and consider participating in supplemental retirement savings plans.

It's not too late to plan for a better retirement.

Essentials of Purchasing

By: Anita Bowden

On March 24^th and 25^th, I attended a 2-day seminar at Babson College Center for Executive Education, in Wellesley, MA, entitled “Essentials of Purchasing.” This seminar was presented by the National Association of Educational Buyers – New England Region (NAEB-NE), a non-profit professional purchasing association serving colleges, universities, hospitals and secondary schools in all 6 New England states since 1920. This seminar was rich with back-to-back informational segments addressing RFPs, Contract Management, Financial Analysis, Procurement Card Programs, Purchasing Law and Legal Responsibilities, Ethical Responsibilities, Introduction to E-Commerce, and Group Purchasing Organizations. Discussion facilitators were Purchasing Directors from colleges and universities across New England and New York.

So much wonderful information came out of this seminar, but for the purposes of this writing, I am choosing to focus on two topics which have a particular relevance to those of you who are reading this: “What is, and why do we use a Centralized Purchasing structure?” and “What is the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC)?”

What is Centralized Purchasing?

Centralized purchasing is a system of purchasing in which the authority, responsibility and control of purchasing activities is concentrated in one administrative unit. At QCC, the administrative unit that has such control is the Budgets and Purchasing Department. As a public institution, the College is governed by the laws and regulations that pertain to purchasing in higher education, as established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the College’s Board of Trustees. Centralized purchasing provides the checks and balances that are necessary to ensure that goods and services are purchased within such laws and regulations, from responsible sources, and at the best possible prices. The following specific purchasing guidelines apply to QCC:

	All transactions for goods and services must be processed through the Budgets and Purchasing Department to ensure uniformity, compliance with state laws and sound business practices.
	Purchase Orders must be obtained prior to incurring financial obligations, regardless of funding source or amount. A Purchase Order is an official contract for goods or services between the College and the Vendor. Only the College’s Purchasing Agent has the legal authority to approve such a contract. Consequently, while a Cost Center Head may be provided a budget to address expenses for the year, that Cost Center Head does not have the legal authority to engage in the purchase of goods or services for the college.
	Purchase Order numbers cannot be requested after the fact (such as to confirm an order already placed); they must be requested before placing the order.
	The College is required to use State Operational Services Division (OSD), Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC), and Colleges of Worcester Consortium (COWC) contracts for all purchases of goods and services, regardless of the dollar value. These contracts have been negotiated on our behalf, to provide additional legal protections and to provide important cost savings to the college.
	Contracts must be bid if the needed goods and services exceed $5,000.00, and cannot be provided by vendors on approved group purchasing contracts. At a minimum, contracts that have been awarded via a bid process must be re-bid at least every seven years.
	State law prohibits split ordering to avoid the bid process.
	When the end user does not select the lowest bidder, it must be clearly stated, in writing, why the lowest bidder was not selected.
	Sole source requisitions (vendors who are not listed on approved group purchasing contracts) must be accompanied by a written, detailed explanation and justification.

One wonderful resource for members of the college community is the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC). The MHEC negotiates contracts that support the needs of higher education institutions; it is recognized by the Massachusetts General Laws as an approved purchasing entity, and the use of MHEC vendors allows the college to safely engage in purchases of high dollar value, without having to go through a formal bid process.

Group Purchasing Philosophy & The Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium

“Group purchasing” is rooted in basic economics. A supplier of goods is inclined to provide better service, quality, and pricing to those accounts that comprise the greatest percentage of their business. The volume of sales those accounts are able to give the supplier determines the account’s purchasing power. Several smaller accounts, by grouping together and buying as a unit, can increase the power of all to demand the prices and services accorded larger accounts. It is the group’s ability to offer an increased volume of sales that gives each member “purchasing power.” The strength of the program depends entirely on the loyalty and unity of the group; the negotiating power relates directly to the degree of common participation.

The Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium has been in operation for more than 25 years. There are some 83 contracts and more than 600 vendors in place, and over $160,000,000.00 a year in purchases are generated. It is conservatively estimated that the MHEC has saved its member schools more than half a billion dollars in its history!

Nationally recognized, the MHEC has been the model for the start-up of consortia in Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Purchasing agents, nationwide and from other countries, have visited the MHEC to view its operation. The MHEC is unique in that it was the first to combine the synergy of public, private, sectarian, and non-sectarian institutions into one of the most powerful and successful buying groups in the country. The MHEC is listed in Dunn and Bradstreet and serves as a resource to the State Office of Minority and Women Owned Business Assistance (SOMWBA).

Current MHEC contracts fall into the following broad categories:

	Appliances
	Educational Supplies
	Furniture
	Laboratory Supplies and Equipment
	Maintenance Contracts
	Office Equipment and Supplies
	Miscellaneous

To take a look at the possibilities available to you, please be sure to visit: http://www.mhec.net/ListContracts.asp.