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Message from the president of EFMA, Steve Smoroden
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF EFMA
Steve Smoroden
What a challenging summer campaign for facility and custodial divisions, AFG projects, summer clean up, new classrooms, and portables to meet restored class size limits. This certainly created a challenging season with competing priorities that made the projects go right down to the wire, and in some cases, into the school year. Several school districts were impacted by the forest fires that raged through the province this year with forced evacuations, which meant a loss of several productive weeks to do these tasks.
This year as an association we donated on your behalf $1,000 to the B.C Red Cross to help people affected by the B.C forest fires. We are all in this together and it is important to come together as a community, just as we do in our workplace to complete the projects that need to be done. Many hands make light work.
Although some of these challenges are new to us this year, we somehow as a group of dedicated professionals have always been able to overcome the obstacles thrown our way and complete the tasks at hand to create a welcoming environment for staff and students upon their return from their summer break. This is done by the teamwork through all the departments, although we all have different roles from directors to managers to tradesmen and caretaking staff. We are all interdependent on each other to complete the projects and have a successful outcome. We are not competing with each other, but working in partnership for the desired and common goal.
The executive team is busy working together to put on the 2018 annual conference and we would like your ideas and suggestions to make it better than ever. The conference is a great event for learning about the newest technologies and products, as well as professional development opportunities for new and old members to keep up to date. It also provides a great networking venue as you get to meet your counterparts from across the province and these people not only become a source you can contact to share and discuss ideas with, but they also become your friends. Is it not easier to phone a friend?
I would like to encourage all of you to pay it forward, share your knowledge and your expertise with all our members by participating in your zone meetings, sharing your successes with fellow members, or perhaps submitting an article idea for Ops Talk magazine.
Our association succeeds only because of you, the members, and your willingness to participate and engage with each other. I think that makes us unique. I also want to thank all the EFMA directors for their dedication and willingness to put their name forward and help keep this association strong and vibrant.
Lastly, I want to thank you all for the honour of being your president once again this year. It truly is a great association with great people. I wish you all the very best in the school year ahead. n
