Delaware Association for Public Administration DAPA Public Service Reader
ASPA President-Elect Paul Posner Visits Delaware, Discusses Challenges Facing ASPA
—by Bryan Sullivan | download PDF 
Paul Posner, professor and director of George Mason University’s MPA program and ASPA president-elect, seeks to recapture our public administration field by making ASPA “more relevant” to leaders at all levels of government. On February 26, Posner came to the University of Delaware and addressed participants at DAPA’s Winter 2009 Event about changes at ASPA.
Posner observed that analysis and information really does make a difference. Political leaders rely on experts when making decisions; they really want to get the information they need to make decisions. Lately, they have been relying on individuals who are not public administrators—MBAs, consultants, and others.
Currently, we are facing a number of challenges, among them resurrecting the economy and health care, and government is now seen as the solution. The only way we will be able to meet these challenges is by learning and working together. ASPA is unique in that it can bring practitioners, academics, and other players (e.g., persons/experts from nonprofit organizations and consulting firms), both generalists and specialists, together to address these challenges. Thus, persons from federal, state, and local governments, the nonprofit and private sectors, and the entire service-delivery system can work on solutions.
To make ASPA “more relevant,” Posner will implement a number of initiatives, among them making the ASPA national conference more relevant to practitioners, involving more public administration students in ASPA, working with persons in nonprofits and consulting firms; bolstering local chapters by restarting regional conferences, and signing cooperative agreements with 19 international professional organizations.
Meeting today’s challenges will require making tough decisions and hard choices; public administrators have much to contribute to this endeavor. Our time has come.