Category: President Messages

Happy New Year!  Already 2018 has been a challenge to Facility Managers with below normal temperatures creating havoc on HVAC systems, pipes, cement, vehicles, etc.  I am sure you are looking forward to spring as I am.

 

This year we have a lot of fun and educational events in the works, along with an opportunity to give back to our community by supporting Habitat for Humanity.  Our Program & Education Committee is working hard to provide you programs that fit your needs and will expand your knowledge base at the same time, so make sure to review the weekly email blasts.

 

Our Young Professionals Committee is looking to connect seasoned FMs with professionals just joining the field.  They are looking to do through developing and implementing a Mentoring program.  Be on the lookout for more information about this.

 

The Board continues it work to develop a Strategic Plan that will help us to support our Mission and Vision and provide our association with a framework to move forward and be accountable to our membership.

 

As always, we can use volunteers to help on all of our committees.  If you would like to lend a helping hand and build a network of knowledgeable professional please feel free to reach out to me.

 

Join us on LinkedIn and Facebook to see what you missed if you could not make an event.  Make sure to visit our website, which we are always updating and expanding.

 

I would love to hear from you and knowing how IFMA of Greater Philadelphia can support you in 2018 and I hope to see you at one our upcoming events.

Dear Members,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead
our Chapter this year as president. I look
forward to building on the work of my
predecessors.

I would like this year to be a year of digging deeper into needs of our professional members and
working with our associates and knowledge experts to fill those knowledge gaps.

Our Young Professionals (YP) Committee is now built a good foundation and has had a number
of successful events. Make sure to be on the lookout for their events on the calendar moving
forward. The young professionals are eager to network with our professionals so they can get
the insight from professional’s years of experience.

As in the past, we will work to provide scholarships to FM students and look for ways to
students and professionals to information share.

I am excited to work with the board to create a strategic plan and balanced scorecard for our
chapter as a guide for the next couple of years and using the feedback from the member
surveys, one on one conversations and events to improve what and how our chapter strengths
our members knowledge base.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,
Barbara E. Celia, FMP
President, IFMA Greater Philadelphia Chapter

I would like to thank all of our members for putting their confidence and trust in me to lead as President of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of IFMA in the coming year. It is an honor and privilege to take on this role and my goal for the year is to make the chapter a proud, educated, successful and fun group for all its members. I want you as a member to embrace our chapter, to attend our educational sessions, whether it be attending our CFM workshop to better prepare you for the exam, coming to one of our best practice sessions to learn how other members are tackling issues, or by coming to one of our events where we tour a building and learn about new innovations and technologies being implemented in buildings in your own backyard. Our chapters Mini World Workplace is a great place to meet our Associate members to learn and understand what products and services they can provide to you, they are here  to assist and support you and give you that personal touch you can only get from one of your neighbors. Our winter social is also a great place to network with your peers as well as let loose and have some fun, so don’t miss out on this. This year our past president Marcella Garwood, reignited our Golf Outing and what an event that was! With over 100 attendees on a beautiful spring day, they swung their way to a fun day of socializing and networking and at the same time helped raise funds for 2 student scholarships, allowing the selected students to further their facilities management education and an opportunity for to also attend World Workplace in San Diego this year. I want to see you coming away from an event, saying wow that was great, I can’t wait for the next one, and to spread the word to your colleagues. The more involvement we have from our members will allow us to provide new and greater opportunities for all, this year and for coming years.

As part of achieving these goals I would like to graciously thank all our board members for their long hours of volunteer commitment, without them this organization would not exist. Each committee holds its own monthly meetings, discussing topics, planning events and then all our board members, who steer these committees, meet monthly to bring it all together for you. You will often find many of our board and committee members at our events, please take the time to introduce yourself, whether you are a new member, a seasoned professional, a young professional or a student. We want to hear from you and promise to listen! If you want even more involvement we are always looking for new committee members to join and bring fresh and new ideas an assist with making our chapter an even greater chapter. In recognizing the value of our young professionals as our region’s future facility managers and chapter’s future leaders, there is a new board position and committee dedicated to young professionals to focus on this group, to mentor and get them more involved in our chapter. Chris Rios, a former Temple Student and of one of our past scholarships recipients has accepted the role to head up this group. As I write this, other than some guidance from some of or other board members, he is a committee of 1, so if you are a young professional yourself and want to be involved in your own personal as well as the chapters growth I encourage you to contact him.

In reaching this role as President, I would like to thank Steve Sable, our past president, for his leadership and drive in the past year and his dedication to the chapter and allowing me to learn as his Vice President. I would also like to thank Barb Celia as our new Vice President for accepting this position and working with me to run this chapter, her energy, commitment and organizational skills she has brought to the chapter in the past years will help assist me this year in attaining our goals. I would also like to thank Jeff Thomas as role of Treasure in helping to keep us financially on track and fiscally sound. Lastly, would also like to thank Alana Dunoff, who was one of the first people to talk to me and make me feel comfortable when I first joined this chapter over 10 years ago. A few years later she came to me and said, hey Dave, why don’t you help me with the Education committee, I sure could use the assistance. I had no idea what I was getting involved in, but what a rewarding and educational and enlightening experience it has been, and well here I am.

In closing I’d like to use a few quotes from Yoda, ‘Always pass on what you have learned’, and ‘Do or do not, there is no try.’ With that said, through determination and conviction, together with your help, we can succeed to make this chapter the best IFMA Chapter out there, to be respected and appreciated for what we do and achieve for many years to come, a Force to be reckoned with!!!

David Scolari

President Greater Philadelphia Chapter of IFMA

Letter From the President, September 2015

It is hard to believe that we are well into the dog days of summer already and hope that everyone has had a chance to enjoy!

I am honored and proud to become the new President of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of IFMA. Our chapter is rich in history and we are actually celebrating our 30th year, so please be on the lookout for a special year-end celebration.

Our industry is changing so rapidly that sometimes it is hard to keep up to date, and our goal this year will be to provide educational programs that focus on the 11 core competencies of Facility Management.

• Communication
• Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity
• Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
• Finance and Business
• Human Factors
• Leadership and Strategy
• Operations and Maintenance
• Project Management
• Quality
• Real Estate and Property Management
• Technology

As you may have seen recently, over the past year, our Communication Committee, under the leadership of Barbara Wojnowski and Sallyann Ferullo, has been working very hard on creating a brand new website which will be easier to navigate but also is mobile and tablet friendly.

There are some new faces on our board this upcoming year with the addition of Mike McIlhenny of Voegele Mechanical and Tim Capone of Hoffman Design as the co-chairs of the Program Committee. There will be some exciting programs announced shortly in addition to the yearly Mini World Workplace in November.

Also, some members of our board are in new roles this year including Mike Makofsky from Tech Reps who has agreed to co-chair the Sponsorship Committee, Barbara Celia from Trinity Health who will be leading the Retention Committee, Zahra Khaku (a recent graduate of the Temple FM program who is now working at Comcast) will be leading the Education Committee, Dorothy Scholnick will be our new Student Liaison and last but certainly not least, Alana Dunoff has agreed to chair our IFMA Foundation/Scholarship committee.

I would also like to recognize Marcella Garwood for her tremendous leadership over the past year as President as well as welcoming David Scolari from Cadapult FM as our new Vice President. In addition, Jeff Thomas has agreed to continue to stay in the Treasurer role and has provided incredible insight and assistance by insuring that our chapter is financially sound over the past few years.

With all this being said, this is the time to get involved and we certainly can use all the help we can get to insure our chapter continues to thrive. Please feel free to reach out to me or any of the board members with interest in volunteering on one of our committees. I learned during my early years with IFMA, that you get out what you give, so please let us know if you can spare some time to help.

Enjoy the rest of the summer and get ready to learn, celebrate and meet new people at our events this upcoming year. The only way forward, if we are to improve the quality of our chapter, is for everybody to get involved.

Hope to see you soon!
Steve Sable President, Greater Philadelphia Chapter of IFMA

Save the Dates November 4, 2015 – Mini World Workplace
December 10, 2015 – Chapter’s 30th Anniversary Celebration
More details will follow!

Letter from the President, October 28, 2014

It is so refreshing to be a part of an industry that is really moving and shaking.

Facility Managers are no longer considered “maintenance personnel” since companies are realizing the true value derived by the FM professional who is now responsible for optimally and sustainably managing buildings, as well as developing and nurturing the human element of an organization’s culture.

Over the last year, our Chapter has grown significantly, and we are very excited about this trend, especially with the boom of student interest. I am very proud to introduce two new board members, Miguel Martinez, and Zahra Khaku who are Temple students with majors in Facility Management and who now sit on the Chapter’s board providing valuable input from a younger perspective. Additionally, Mike Makofsky from Tech Reps signed on this year as the new co-chair of the Program Committee joining returning co-chair, Barb Celia, FM at Catholic Health East.

With strong leadership on the board including Steve Sable from Haworth as Vice President, Jeffrey Thomas from Vanguard as Treasurer and we cannot forget Alana Dunoff as Education Task Force co-chair and who was recently selected as 2014’s IFMA Fellow Class. We are ready to lead and serve our membership staying the course on education, expanding youth mentorship, and creating a networking pipeline to promote careers and businesses for the entire Chapter membership. This is a really exciting time to be involved with IFMA as we lead the way to a more sustainable and greener world.

This year, our Chapter has also created another committee focused on sponsorship. We are looking for volunteers interested in taking our Chapter to the next level in making our programs world class. Our mini-world workplace scheduled on November 20 will be held at Harrah’s in Chester, PA. You will want to be sure to sign up early this year as there will be continuing education credits with speaker panels sharing best practices. Plus, you don’t want to miss an opportunity to win some big prizes.

All said, please enjoy the remainder of the summer, and I hope to see all of you at our events this year. You will be really glad you came. If you don’t learn something new, you are sure to meet someone new who may end up changing your life for the better. After all most people look up, and admire the stars, but champions climb mountains, and seize them.

See you at the top,

Marcella Garwood
President
Greater Philadelphia Chapter of IFMA