About PASA Connect
What is PASA Connect?
It is a peer-to-peer learning, sharing and networking service from PASA that brings members together in a variety of ways to learn with and from each other.
Who can join PASA Connect?
Any procurement professional can join PASA Connect. However, they must be in a geography to take advantage of the learning and networking opportunities. While one can join as an individual, the PASA Connect business model has really been premised on organisations joining their procurement team rather than just individuals.
Where does PASA Connect operate?
At June 2018 PASA Connect is active, with extensive schedules of future round-tables, in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. In July/August 2018 it is anticipated that Adelaide and Auckland will go live. We also run a number of ‘virtual’ round-tables that are browser-based and therefore location agnostic.
Why would I join PASA Connect? 
There are number of reasons:
- You believe, as PASA does, that peer-to-peer learning is the most effective form of training/learning available.
- You want to provide networking and learning opportunities to your entire team, not just the select few.
- You want to make your limited training budget stretch further. PASA Connect is very reasonably priced, particularly when compared with other ‘round-table’ or network products in the market. With over 50 sessions available each year in each location in which PASA Connect operates, no other initiative comes close in terms of furnishing you with so many networking and learning opportunities to provide to your teams.
- You want learning and development opportunities that are directly relevant to your team today. Most traditional training regimes have a defined, prescriptive curriculum, often based on 1980’s theories and practices. PASA Connect agendas are driven by and set based on direct input from members, meaning the issues explored and discovered are directly relevant to members today.
- You want to tap into the collective knowledge and experience of the member network, accelerating yours and your team’s capability.
Inform your PASA business development contact that you wish to proceed. We will agree on the size of team and PASA will raise invoice for fist years subscription. At the same time we will ask you to send through names and email addresses of your team members and we will enter them into the PASA Connect website.
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For Members
What happens when I first join PASA Connect?
- Your name and email address will be supplied to PASA for entry into our member web platform.
- Once you have been entered by PASA you will receive an email with your personal login details to the PASA CONNECT website.
- Log onto the PASA CONNECT website using your password.
- Update your member profile on your dashboard – Your member profile allows PASA and other members to see what your interests and responsibilities are.
- PASA CONNECT FREE APP is now available for download
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.supremesupports.pasaconnect
ios: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pasa-connect-australia/id1352887064?ls=1&mt=8
This is a really easy to use app which allows us (PASA) to send you notifications as to upcoming Round Tables and the latest membership news. You are also able to use this app to easily contact other PASA CONNECT members should you wish to catch up or ask advice about a particular issue.
Round-tables
How do I attend a PASA CONNECT round-table? 
The main benefit of PASA Connect membership is the ability to attend round-table sessions with other procurement professionals to share knowledge and find solutions to problems. Here is how you attend round-tables:
- Browse scheduled sessions on the website or mobile app and follow the simple online registration process during which you can;
* Volunteer to host the session
* Volunteer to chair or take notes
* Nominate specific issues or challenges that you would like included in the agenda (This is important. The best sessions are those that explore specific issues or problems that you have raised prior to the session for inclusion in the agenda)
- Attend the session and share best practice, knowledge, experience, tools, templates and more with your new peer network. (Hint: the best sessions are those where members prepare in advance and bring things along to share. It may be a tool or template that you use, or perhaps a case study on a specific issue or problem that you are or have recent been faced with).
What is involved in hosting a Round Table?
You just need to provide a room suitable for the number of attendees (generally capped at 12 for a non-Expert-led session and 16 for an Expert-led session). You are not obligated to provide refreshments but attending members would certainly appreciate tea/coffee and biscuits (you are welcome to provide more if you would like to).
What is involved in chairing a Round Table?
You don’t need to be an expert on the topic to volunteer to chair a Round Table, though some knowledge helps. Most importantly the role of the chair is to ensure that all participants are involved in discussions and that any issues raised by participants either before or at the beginning of the session are addressed in the discussion. The chair will be the timekeeper and decide when it is time to leave one issue and move on to the next. This is important PASA will provide an agenda for each session that includes all issues, questions or topics raised by members with registration, along with a framework of issues and questions relating to the topic that members would be encouraged to explore.
What is involved in taking the minutes at a Round Table?
We are not looking for huge wordy essays – you just need provide a brief and concise description of what was discussed in the session. These minutes then should be sent back to PASA (together with any additional resources used) so that they can be uploaded to the Resource section of the website. The date of the next meeting and any feedback from the group as regards to future sessions, particular questions/issues still outstanding, further help required from PASA etc should be fed back to PASA. The minute taker is also responsible for sending a photo of the session in progress to PASA for upload to the photo gallery section of the website.
What type of Round Tables are there? 
- Peer-to-peer and Expert-led Round-tables
While most of the round-tables are based on peer-to-peer learning, a proportion of sessions will be led or facilitated by an external expert such as an experienced procurement consultant, lawyer or category expert.
- Physical and Virtual Round-tables
Most round-table sessions are physical meetings hosted by members on their own premises. However, for some categories or more niche topics, we have now introduced virtual round-tables where we utilize a browser-based web conferencing application to bring up to 12 members together from across the whole network.
- Roles, Topics and Categories
Round-tables are arranged based on:
Roles – CPO/Head of Procurement, 2i/c, analyst, category manager, vendor manager, contract manager.
Topics – Examples: category management strategy, SRM, contract management, supplier performance management, analytics, procurement and the law, achieving cultural change – moving from cost to value, writing a scope of works .. .and many more.
Categories – primary focus on indirect categories such as marketing services, IT & T, professional services, MRO, travel, contingent labour & recruitment, facilities, logistics (For a discussion about how direct categories are handled please contact PASA).
How many round tables are there?
We are currently scheduling around 6 round-table sessions each month in each of the cities in which PASA CONNECT is operating. That means upwards of 50-60 sessions per year in each city! Sessions run for between 2-3 hours, depending on type of session.
Is there a limit to how many Round Tables I can attend?
Absolutely not – you can attend as many Round Tables as are of interest to you!
Where can I see the forward schedule of Round Tables?
The schedule of Round Tables can be found by clicking on the events tab on the top menu bar on the website or the events tab on the app.
Once in there:
- Ensure you are seeing sessions for the city you want by selecting your state on the filter that appears to the right of the screen. If you have completed your profile properly then your state should be selected in this filter by default. Also by default, as they can be accessed anywhere, you will see any virtual round-tables listed in addition to the physical ones in your state.
- You can view by month, week, day or as a list.
- You can then click on any event in the calendar to bring up more information about that particular Round Table including an overview of what it is about and, if you are logged in, who else is already registered to attend.
Registering for Roundtables 
- To register for the events you must be logged in as a PASA CONNECT member.
- If you wish to attend click the ‘Join this event’ button.
- You will then be asked:
* If you volunteer to host the session at your premises
* If you volunteer to chair or take minutes/notes
* To nominate specific issues or challenges that you would like included in the agenda (This is important. The best sessions are those that explore specific issues or problems that you have raised prior to the session for inclusion in the agenda)
- You will then receive an email confirming that you have registered for the session (we are currently working on having these notifications provide an automatic calendar update file to enable you to quickly and easily add the session to your calendar).
What if my particular issues aren’t covered in the current schedule of Round Tables?
Please contact us at PASA if you have issues or topics that you would like to see addressed at a round-table. We will generally try to develop the idea into a round-table session, though occasionally, depending on the issue, we might make it an agenda item at another relevant session. We really want to hear from you. The best sessions are those that are directly requested by members.
Is there a restriction on how many members from the same organisation can attend a Round Table?
In order to ensure diversity in the conversations, we generally set a maximum of 3 members per organisation to attend the same Round Table.
Can a colleague attend a Round Table in my place?
Yes – providing your colleague is a PASA CONNECT member. Round Tables and other PASA CONNECT benefits (such as discounts at PASA conferences) are only open to PASA CONNECT members.
If a Round Table for a particular topic has already taken place, can I attend the next Round Table or is it just for those members who attended the initial session?
We welcome new faces to all Round Tables regardless of whether the Round Table is the first or the twentieth session for that particular topic.
Other Benefits
Member-find- member
How do I identify other members to contact?
Using the member-find-member search function in the website or app, you can identify people that you would like to contact. By using the advanced search option you can filter by geographies, job title, interests, categories and their organisation.
Is it okay to contact other PASA CONNECT members?
Absolutely! There is a member find member section of the website which can only be seen by current members. Members have the option to in their profiles to make their contact details available to other members. If a member you want to contact has not made their contact details public, then you can message them through the website or app. They will receive an email notification about the message.
Discounts on PASA events or training
Where possible, PASA will negotiate significant discount on behalf of all members for any of its conferences or training courses.
Resource Centre
What is the Resource Centre?
It is primarily an online library of documents from PASA Connect round-tables, such as the agenda and minutes, and any documents that members have decided to share with each other.
How do I find what I am looking for? 
By using the advanced search facility that allows you to search for resources by:
- date entered
- Category
- Topic
- Type of resource (ie: minutes, agendas etc>
- Who supplied resource
How do I share something to the Resource Centre?
Please supply to your PASA account manager. We will then classify and tag the resource and add to the resource centre.
Procurement Concierge
What is the Procurement Concierge?
Your procurement concierge is your account manager at PASA who will help you to get answers to specific questions. A good example of this happened earlier this year when one of newer members approached us asking if any members had developed an RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) for their organisation. We put the question out to the CPO network and within two hours we had connected the new member with four CPO’s who had already developed RAP’s and who were happy to help. This saved our new member a lot of running around.
Why would I use the Procurement Concierge?
While you could push the question out yourself via social media or indeed, the member-member facility within PASA Connect, we believe there are times where you would like to put these sorts of question out there while remaining anonymous. The Procurement concierge can shop the market for you, without anybody knowing that it is you. You only become known when we connect you with another member who has offered to help.
What kind of information can we seek?
Almost anything except benchmarking data. While we will happily promote benchmarking of processes, strategies or tactics, we will not pursue benchmarking of pricing or margin data.
