Project Approvals Coordination | Division of Budget and Planning

Project Approvals Coordination (PAC) – Purpose and Stakeholder Responsibilities

Monthly Project Approval Coordination (PAC) meetings are jointly hosted by Facilities and Campus Services (FCS) and the Director of Capital and Space Planning (CSP). These meetings are the primary opportunity to coordinate capital project approvals amongst several dozen stakeholders from FCS, Budget & Planning, CIT, Real Estate, and college/division stakeholders. The primary purpose is to forecast project activity specifically related to approvals, including requested studies, the planned schedule for approvals through eBuilder, the Capital Funding & Priorities Committee (CF&PC), and the Buildings & Properties Committee (B&P) of the Trustees. The conversations at PAC are intended to promote a coordinated and clear approvals process for all stakeholders, including the transaction authorities in eB and the leadership of the approval committees. The discussion at the PAC meeting is essential to develop shared understanding regarding approval routing, particularly for projects that are not in the capital budget or that might request a variance and for studies. Approvals are forecast about 2-4 months in advance, depending on the size and complexity of the project. It is very important that projects requiring committee level approvals be identified as early as possible through the PAC.

The PAC meetings typically include discussions of project readiness, issue identification, and paths to resolution. Each discussion item is typically only one-two minutes. Any longer discussion items are identified for follow-up outside the PAC.

The PAC meeting typically occurs about one week before FPARs are due to FCS and about two weeks before the monthly CF&PC. The agenda is driven off the Project List Spreadsheet; it begins with a discussion of any studies that have been elevated to the PAC, then proceeds to discuss capital projects in a sequence that allows some unit stakeholders with infrequent and often short lists of projects to leave the meeting early.

Responsibilities

All invited staff	Communicate regarding required approvals through the PAC and not through other channels.
FCS, Engineering & Project Management, Administrative Manager	Provides primary administration for the PAC meetings, including scheduling, meeting reminders, and managing the Box site for the Project List Spreadsheet as well as the Spreadsheet itself.
Project Management Leads FCS Engineering and Project Management (E&PM) Other FCS unit leads e.g., University Architect, Energy & Sustainability College/division leads	Prepared to directly represent projects or make sure that other PAC attendees can answer questions and confirm details, such as schedules, budgets, and presenters at meetings.Unrepresented projects cause unnecessary follow-ups outside the meeting interface and risk the intention of effective coordination.
Project Advocates	Responsible for identifying the presenter for projects that must be approved at CF&PC and B&P. Responsible for identifying and discussing unit-initiated studies at these meetings.
Director of Capital and Space Planning	Facilitates the discussion and then identifies the projects ready for approval at each CF&PC meeting and brings those, in the form of a draft agenda, to a CF&PC Agenda Review meeting for further discussion of readiness for the CF&PC meeting. Responsible to communicate feedback to PAC attendees and iterate until project approval steps are confirmed.
Executive Staff Assistant to the Vice President of FCS	Identifies those projects that will be on upcoming B&P agendas.