September Meeting:

Our September production was the joint venture with BOMA-- The Building and Facilities Show. There was food, seminars, and vendor booths for all the visitors. Amy Bowman, Jack Drummond and their co-conspirators did a great job. It takes a lotta work over several months to get a production like this to fly smoothly.

The first part of the schedule was the opening of the food booths at high noon. I was there promptly. Bon Fresh Food, Marriott Corporate Services, and Eventures provided outstanding edibles. Eventures had fresh fruit & berry cascade, vegetable cascade w/tomato basil dipping sauce, pisto potato salad, Chinese chicken salad w/cashews, and white chocolate & macadamia nut cookies. I could go on and on.

The schedule was tight with the opening seminar at 1330 hours on handling Change, Choice & Champions by Jim Bearden.  For you civilians, subtract 1200 from military time.)  All of us are presented with character building changes. His thrust was for us not to respond like a victim.  The victim goes through denial, fear, and maybe anger.  We should GOI & GOWI. Get over it and Get on with it.  His process for making better choices was through inquiry, dialogue, understanding and effective communication.  He provided us insight to change and the process while entertaining us with his examples.  He is available for training and consulting services.

There was only 15 minutes before the next seminar, but I carefully planned the required stops before attending Secrets to Success in Facility and Building Management.  I really enjoyed listening to suggestions from Stuart E. Smith, Dusty Tudor, Ann Morgan, Barb Etchieson, Becky Heston, Jim Smith, and Peter Kaharl. Two of the subjects talked about were outsourcing and walls.  Besides economic, considerations for outsourcing are recruitment, training, retention, liability, and ownership.  "If you can't do it cheaper in-house, you had better look at management... Write a tough RFP and then compete with it. You will be amazed at the improvements.... Even if you outsource, you should have an inside expert.... Check their insurance carefully."

One of the speakers reported a churn rate of 100% (you gotta be flexible). Cubicle standardization is very important. One company had one size fits all, while another based the square feet on need rather than rank.  Moveable walls can pay for themselves after the second move.  Regular meetings with the customer is important.  Once the herd gets going in one direction it's hard to turn their head.  JC Penny in Plano has a great sound masking system.  The TNRCC has it in their building A.

This seminar was over just in time to visit the Marriott booth again.  They had the best looking palm trees. . The decorations were great, and Amy was having a lot of fun.  I did manage to talk to people about roofs, water treatment, building controls, moving and furniture.  My only regret was that I didn't have time to do the Treasure Hunt.  I had to make some tough choices.  Thanks again to the worker bees for their dedication, to the vendors for installing their booths, and to the sponsors for their donations.  It was a great show.

By J. Robert Howard