Message from the president of EFMA, Heather Simm

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF EFMA

Heather Simm

It’s October so that means we have all survived the madness of both summer construction season and September start up! The EFMA executive is ramping up once again and well on its way to planning for another great year and another great conference! We started the fall off with an excellent meeting in Penticton which included our zone chairs. We reviewed some strengths and challenges that were brought to the meeting by all zones and also reviewed our strategic plan. We will be setting aside some time in the near future (and asking for more input from other members) to assist us in revising and revitalizing both our strategic plan and our standards and practices. The conference is shaping up nicely, so mark your calendar for Penticton, May 27-31, 2019!

Our theme for this year’s conference is teamwork; “Working together to help build the future in education”. Our zone meetings are a vital part of our organization and I encourage everyone to participate as this is where the groundwork for teamwork within our association begins. The round table discussions that are a part of every zone meeting have solved several problems and the knowledge gained is invaluable. Your coworkers from other districts are the most valuable resource out there. Furthering the teamwork aspect, I want to invite all our members to participate in the development of an EFMA mentorship program. Watch your email for more information on this, as well as a directors’ workshop that will be open to everyone that is interested.

It is an honour to be president of an association that has been going strong for 54 years. We continue to honour that history and experience as we strive to be on the cutting edge of facility management for the K-12 sector. We are well situated to meet those objectives with the excellent group of dedicated people within our organization that includes our executive, zone chairs, various other committee volunteers, and of course our executive director Glenn Miller and (most importantly) our executive secretary Molly Shipowich. Thank you to all of these people.

Our members are the backbone of this association so please remember to participate in your zone meetings and plan to attend the conference in the spring. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any ideas or concerns. I want to honour the history and knowledge that we have as an association, but also harness all the new ideas and energy we are lucky to have with all our new members that have come from all different backgrounds. Thank you for the opportunity to be the president of this amazing group; I’m looking forward to a great year! n

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