2011 Annual Meeting and 25th Anniversary Celebration

Annual New Members Meeting April 28, 2011

"Chesapeake Chapter members attending the 2010 IFMA-World WorkPlace Conference in Atlanta, GA. Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Association, IFMA"

General August Meeting at Gensler Building in Baltimore

The August 26, IFMA Program was held at Gensler’s  beautiful downtown office on Pratt Street.  This creative working environment made for a delightful setting for a most interesting meeting.  The open space and the many windows provided a outrageous view.  Scott Openshaw of Allsteel presented a very informative topic on Office Ergonomics.  It was fascinating to learn about the changing trends; learning about the Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y and how each generation is unique in their own way.  The humorist way Scott presented the demographics of the age shift, population shift and the size shift over the coming years made a delicate issue very comfortable.  The audience was entertained from start to finish and gathered a tremendous amount of information.  We want to thank all our sponsors, our host and our wonderful presenter for a fantastic evening. 

2010 Annual New Members Drive and January Monthly Meeting

The 70 plus attendees at Thursday, January 28^th meeting “How Facility Managers provide strategic value to their respective organizations; Insights from the C-Suite were treated to an outstanding presentation, with the CFOs of three major businesses sharing their valuable experience with us.  Our panelists, Richard Grossi, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Ken Moreland, T Rowe Price, and David Young, TESSCO Technologies, answered a variety of questions regarding the value of Facility Managers.  They each had a story to tell about unusual and unexpected situations such as lack of water or too much water, which were addressed quickly and very efficiently, with forethought, and planning by their Facility Managers.  A Facility Manager has many titles and the CFOs rely on them for more than just the simple day-to-day operations of the building.

Today’s FM has to be a strategic thinker with knowledge of developing trends, space planning, contract negotiation, and a procurement expert, informing and leading the C-suite with a long-term vision for their building(s.)   

They ended the discussion with a forecast for the economy and while they all agreed that we are heading in the right direction there still will be challenges that must be met. 

We are very grateful to the gentlemen on our panel for taking the time to provide the group with some very valuable information.