President’s Message
Howdy!
It is my great pleasure to greet you as President of the Texas A&M Association of Professional Support Staff (TAPSS) for 2019. This is an exciting year for TAPSS. We will be holding our annual development conference on Thursday, October 17 at the Thomas G. Hildebrand ’56 Equine Complex. The theme this year will be “Picture the Possibilities” We will have five outstanding speakers, including our keynote speakers Shilo Harris and Jamie PK.
There are some great changes on the horizon. We hope you enjoy our website with its new look and ways of accessing information and resources. We will soon be hosting quarterly educational programs to continue help you continue your professional education. Membership is only $20 through December 31, 2020.
As always, I encourage you to step out of your box and participate on one of our many committees or join the annual conference committee. Come and serve with me for the last part of my term.
I look forward to seeing you soon!
Flora Reeves
President, TAPSS
History
Faceless Voices
On May 14, 1987, two secretaries, tired of working out details of projects with faceless voices on the telephone, decided to meet their fellow workers.
First Meetings
That first meeting of the Texas A&M University Association of Professional Support Staff, better known today at TAPSS, was held in a small, dim conference room in one of the oldest buildings on campus but the eleven people attending the meeting were enthusiastic. The agenda of the gathering was to discuss the possibility of creating an organization for university support staff.
The group scheduled a campus-wide meeting and started planning a newsletter. Using the official Campus Directory the group pulled together their first mailing list.
The response for the first campus-wide meeting was so overwhelming that the original meeting room was changed to one that could hold the 120 people attending. Committees were established; constitution and bylaws were hammered out. The first monthly newsletter was sent to over 600 personnel.
By November of 1987 an official name was chosen and officers installed.
First Annual Events
In 1991, the First Annual Professional Development Conference was held in the MSC/Rudder Complex. The First Annual Bosses Day Luncheon was also established that year.
The next year, 1992, TAPSS held the First Annual Secretaries Day Luncheon at the College Station Hilton. In 1996, it was renamed the Staff Appreciation Luncheon.
The first year that TAPSS held all three of these events – the Annual Professional Development Conference, the Bosses Day Luncheon, and the Secretaries Day Luncheon – was 1993.