Presidents Message
Greetings IFMA Family,
Today I write my last letter to you as President of this great chapter. Looking back, I am thankful for so much, and proud of everything we have accomplished and continue to do.
We have achieved monumental successes this past year. There is so much all of you should be proud of.
My four cornerstones are now well rooted. In some instances the seeds have been planted, in others, the seeds have sprouted and in some, the plants are now bearing fruit. All good.
1. Professional Member Involvement: This is the single most important aspect of our chapter that we need to continue to focus on into the future. Attendance continues to be high at monthly meetings and volunteering with the chapter still strong. The ‘Buddy System’ prototype has kicked off and we now have a program in place that will enable us to meaningfully track/measure, engage with professional members and get them more involved. The Professional Development Committee hosted a CFM training class and have two paid professional speakers to present to the chapter. Both of these speakers speak on topics that give CEU’s for the professional members. Scholarships covering the costs of the CFM exam have been issued to two Chapter members to support the Chapters focus on and support of education. We also awarded scholarships to the IFMA Foundation and Wake Tech-all reinforcing our supporting the growth of the FM profession. The chapter continues to maintain a healthy count of members with certifications: 43 CFM’s, 15 SFP’s and 2 SFP’s. Mike O’Brien’s continued involvement with ‘Advocacy Day’ every year helps us support and raise awareness of the FM profession with the government and the community.
2. Keeping it Simple: Almost all of the Chapters documents have made the leap to online only and off local hard-drives! Collaboration is now simpler and more streamlined with this move. The Balanced Score Card is now a single document that now tracks all Committee and Board activities and automatically roles them up into a single view. Rob Griffin has simplified the budget tracking by consolidating the budget document to map to the IFMA’s general ledger codes which will greatly simplify the chapters recertification process. There is a continued focus on ‘taking the work out’ and putting in work that is meaningful and less tactical. The goal, enabling the Committees to focus on strategies (not activities) that improve the membership value and sustain long term growth. This year we tried to be more transparent than ever. Once every quarter, the Board hosted a ‘virtual coffee with the board event’. The invitation was open to everyone that wanted to call into this forum to talk openly with the board.
3. Measurement: We have created the foundations of the chapters first ever dashboard, an integrated BSC and Budget system and the first Chapter Infographic. The basic framework of the chapters Dashboard is now in place. This will enable the present and future Committees to have a clear view of their Committees past and present metric’s and how it ties to the Balanced Score Card. This will enable them to make calculated strategies and plans based on meaningful historic data. This will further allow the Board and Committees to focus on what is most valuable to the membership based on past trends and themes. Average monthly meeting attendance is at a healthy 75. The chapter has been more involved with giving back activities-5 this year! A great way to serve the community with fellow members. Eighty members (25%) of the chapters membership serve on Committees-no small number and goes to show how vibrant and involved we are. Sponsorship counts have risen year over year-from 48 in 2013 to 54 sponsors in 2014 with a total of $71,100 this year compared to $52,250 last year. The website hits have grown from 594 in 2012 to over 700 in 2014 – a 20%+ increase. LinkedIn membership has grown from 83 in 2011 to 253 in 2014 with more members engaging via posts and comments.
4. Operational Excellence: We have greatly strengthened the Chapter’s brand both locally and at a National level. The work we do is now visible to IFMA’s International leadership team when we (the board and past presidents) hosted IFMA CEO Tony Keane and Second Vice Chair Michael Feldman in Raleigh and shared our Chapters operations and best practices. Their feedback to us: “We wish we could clone what you do and share this with all the other chapters”. We continue to focus on membership experience and have moved to a new email and registration system (CVENT) that will provide a much richer experience to the members. The Board and Committees actively use an online calendar that enables us to see all chapter activities and orchestrate them in a way that maximizes the time and value of both the Committees putting these events and activities together and the membership that reaps the benefit of these. We continue to offer scholarships to members to go to IFMA’s World Work Place and Facility fusion. Laura Shaw is leading an initiative to transfer our day to day tactical activities to a Chapter Administrator-this will greatly enhance the support we give all of you and help the Committees get out of the day to day task work. We invest almost 90% of all Chapter funds back to activities tied to the Membership with just 10% tied to operating expenses.
I want to take this opportunity to thank those that make this Chapter so amazing.
Programs
Communications
Membership
Community Outreach
Networking and Events
Sponsorship and
Golf!
These are the companies that have supported the chapter through their financial contributions. We thank them for their support without which we would not be able to provide the high quality of educational programs and events we have all enjoyed over the years.
As a Chapter we have so much to be proud of and so much to be thankful for.
At the end of the day, it’s about the people. And we at the Greater Triangle Chapter of IFMA have an amazing group of members.
I am grateful for everyone at IFMA that has helped make this year such an incredible experience. One that I have enjoyed thoroughly and will always cherish.
We now look to the very capable hands of the new board with Laura Shaw at the helm. I have no doubt that we will continue to see great successes and move to a ‘better next place’ under her tenure. Thank you Laura, Randy, Carol and Hayden for stepping up to serve as the next board.
Thank you for being involved, taking the time to engage and for giving!
Sincerely,
Neville.
Neville M. Devlaliwalla President 2013-2014 Better, Faster, Stronger
