Members of the Administrative and Professional staff (later renamed Management and Professional staff in 1987) founded the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) in October 1977. At first, AAPS was a voluntary association and had four representatives on the Liaison Committee, which met with senior members of the University to discuss such matters as salaries, benefits and other working conditions until the University cancelled the meetings in 1989. In 1990 an elected committee called the President's Advisory Committee on Management and Professional Staff (PACOMAPS) met to deal with staff issues. AAPS ran a six-member slate that subsequently won the election. Thus, PACOMAPS became an avenue to maintain a dialogue with the University. AAPS conceived the objective of a voluntary agreement to negotiate terms and conditions of employment and pushed this concept at PACOMAPS for over a year. In May/June 1991, staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of a voluntary agreement to govern their terms and conditions of employment. Before negotiations began, AAPS requested a mandate from staff members to represent them; the vote of 1992 was 67.69% in favour. The Framework Agreement defining the relationship between AAPS and the University was finally ratified in May 1995. It is a voluntary agreement under common law that recognizes AAPS as the bargaining agent for all Management and Professional staff of UBC.
At present, the Association's purposes are; "to promote the welfare of the Association's members employed by UBC and the welfare of the University of British of Columbia, to act as the bargaining agent of management and professional staff employed by the University of British Columbia, and to govern relations between the management and professional staff and the University through collective bargaining." The Association has an Executive Board composed of President, First & Second Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and Members at Large, seven committees including Advocacy, Communications, Development & Education, Finance, Membership, Negotiating, and Recruiting, and representatives on several University committees.