Q&A WITH RAY COYNE, 2013 ABOVE AND BEYOND AWARD RECIPIENT

Q: What does being chosen to receive the Above and Beyond Award mean to you?
A: I guess the value of the award that is if you donate a lot of time, energy and money to a process, someone might notice sometime!

Q: What are your thoughts on the value of Service Associates as partners in the profession?
A: When I first started, school business managers were faced with balancing budgets and they were the only person saying “no” in a lot of communities. When they would come together at the spring Illinois ASBO Conference it was like a great big validating exercise that what they were doing what was needed even though they weren’t appreciated in their own districts. It was validation that school business officials had necessary and validated roles.

In the era before accreditation concerns, Illinois ASBO was a mechanism for making people engaged in the difficult process of keeping districts financially solvent. They helped each other a lot and we (Service Associates) were a part of that partnership in helping people function and do what needed to be done to stay afloat.

Some districts were on the verge of being shut out of the financial market, and we helped get through to investors to keep doors open. We were like one force back then, not school district members and vendors. Even now, I was at a Regional Association that was talking about excluding vendors, and I said, “This is what I do with organization, and you don’t want me to come anymore?” Their response was, “We don’t mean you, we mean the vendors!”