Promoting Member Excitement and Engagement With PSC
By: Venkatapathi “PV” Puvvada, President, Unisys Federal, PSC Board Chair, 2019 |
Jan. 24, 2019
New Year’s resolutions—whether fulfilled or not—begin with the best of intentions. People commit to losing weight, starting a business, traveling to a new destination, rekindling old friendships, and much more. But the difference between making or breaking those resolutions is commitment. As I embark upon the second year of my term as board chairman of the Professional Services Council, I encourage PSC member companies to enter 2019 with a firm commitment to be excited about membership and to be fully engaged with this world-class association that successfully advocates on behalf of professional services contractors.
This is an exciting time for the federal government contracting industry. With the start of the 116th Congress, and through the highly-respected advocacy work of PSC, we have an opportunity to engage with roughly 100 new Congressional leaders on issues ranging from foreign assistance to federal health to defense and IT policy.
We also have a continued opportunity to partner with the Executive Branch. In 2018, our industry saw increased engagement from the White House, particularly on federal IT policy, and as always, PSC remained on top of the issues on behalf of members by actively providing comments on federal policies and strategies that impact our member companies involved in this work.
PSC has a 46-year proven track record of shining light on issues that impact our daily operations as professional services contractors. While our advocacy work is unmatched, we readily welcome your ideas on what we can do more of and how we can improve. Whether it is addressing supply chain security, changing acquisition strategies, increasing association thought leadership opportunities, or fighting for your priorities through legislation, I invite you to inform me and other PSC leaders of topics and issue areas that PSC can focus on.
The success of this historic association benefits our government customers and our industry as a whole, but it takes collective work. For example, PSC’s Smart Contracting Working Group—composed of individuals from various member companies—spent many sessions throughout this year to craft white papers with recommendations for improving government shutdown guidance and communications, as well as providing industry perspectives to the Section 809 panel. These recommendations have been well received by agency leaders and have already begun to make an impact. The valuable work that PSC does–and that you do as engaged members–truly makes a difference.
Whether you are new to PSC, renewing your commitment, or have been an active member for many years, I implore you to find ways that you and your team can be more involved. From staying abreast of association-specific and industry news via PSC’s daily and weekly newsletters, to sponsoring events that elevate your brand, to attending intimate roundtables with government speakers to share your company’s insights, or by joining PSC’s larger conferences for the impactful networking and market intelligence they provide. We want to promote member excitement and engagement in 2019 and beyond. I look forward to working with you to achieve this mission together.
Click here to view the PDF of this article, which was featured in PSC's Winter 2018 Service Contractor magazine.