"In December of 1945, the Commissioner of the War Assets Administration asked the Governors of the several States to create State Agencies for Surplus Property.  Most of these State programs were lodged in the State departments of education since, at this time, discounted and military surplus property was made available only to educational institutions. As War Assets and the armed services expanded their operations, with the several States developing an intensified interest in the program, it became apparent that there was no equitable distribution of property between the States.  This condition was one of the primary reasons why the State agencies decided that it would be desirable to create regional unions of the several States - and eventually a national association of these unions. Periodically, before the establishment of any union, State representatives met with Federal agents and divided lists of property between those States located in the jurisdictional area of the several WAA regional offices.  During this same period of time, surplus military property of the Army, Navy, and Air Force was also made available, by separate acts of Congress, to State agencies for distribution to educational institutions. The State agencies and the Office of Education were aware of inequitable interstate distribution of both WAA and military surplus property since no national or regional pattern existed. As a result of the foregoing problems, the State agency representatives of Indiana, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia held a meeting at the Hollenden Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio on September 25 & 26, 1947, with representatives of WAA and the Office of Education.  Following this meeting, the State agencies representatives, in an executive session, decided that it was necessary to form a regional union of these States patterned after the boundary lines of the Second Army Area.  They asked Mr. James L. Reid of Maryland to arrange for another meeting of these States with the Second Army Area Headquarters in Baltimore in October.  This group also asked Mr. J. B. Williams of Kentucky to meet in September with the State agencies in the Third Army Area in Atlanta to explain the action taken by this group in forming a regional union. The Cleveland group decided to call their union the "Educational Agencies for Surplus Property of the Second Army Area and the Military District of Washington".  The organization also drafted a suggested Plan of Operation or Constitution for forming regional unions for the entire country to be patterned after the six army areas.  This information was made available to the other States.  Anticipating a nationwide call of the State agencies by WAA for the purpose of resolving the problems on the items of property that could be discounted to education, the "State Educational Agencies for Surplus Property" on October 6, 1947, called their first national meeting in the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC.  The minutes of this meeting read: After a round table discussion, it was decided that a loose organization would be formed of the State Educational Agencies for Surplus Property and an outline of the organization was adopted. During the first few years, all meetings of the national organization were held in Washington.  In these earlier years, the States developed and strengthened regional unions patterned after Army Areas.  Each of these unions met periodically and elected their own officers, known as Area Chairman and Vice-Chairman.  These officers made up the National Committee of the National Association.  As a result of the formation of the National Association, the States convinced Congress of the necessity for further legislation, which resulted in the passage of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949.  The National Association changed its name from the "National Association of State Educational Agencies for Surplus Property" to the "National Association of State Agencies for Surplus Property" as a result of the passage of Public Law 754, Eighty-first Congress, which made surplus property available to health organizations."