At the Awards Luncheon of the NIGP Forum at Anaheim, California, on August 1, 2005, the Southeast Florida NIGP Chapter was awarded the 2005 Best Large Chapter Award. In presenting the award, NIGP First Vice-President Darin Matthews noted the following:

“Our 2005 Large Chapter of the Year had many outstanding achievements in 2004. Under a strong governance structure that incorporates 11 committees, this Chapter provided a variety of services to its public procurement community. They worked with a lobbyist to affect legislative changes at the state level and hosted a regional purchasing cooperative on their website at the local level. The Chapter supported a mentoring program as an outreach to other NIGP chapters while developing an internal marketing plan to grow its own membership. Our Large Chapter of the Year also co-sponsored a Reverse Trade Show involving 187 vendors and provided educational workshops for the supplier community.

This Chapter hosted 15 seminars including 8 NIGP classes during the year – Involving 164 students. With education comes certification - so it is no surprise that the Chapter saw a 40% increase in the number of new CPPB designees over the prior year. There’s clearly something in the water off the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida…because we just presented the Mid-size Award to the Greater Miami Chapter, and now we go just a few miles north on I-95 and impart this 2005 Large Chapter of the Year Award to The Southeast Florida Chapter of NIGP.