EFMA BC 2019 Conference in review

By GLenn MILLeR, exeCutIVe DIReCtOR, eFMA BC

The 2019 EFMA BC conference was held once again in the sunny Okanagan city of Penticton and was much more this year than just an annual general meeting, professional development workshops, and an extraordinary interactive trade show. The conference was held May 27 to May 31, 2019 and marked the anniversary and celebration of our association’s 55 years of service.

The conference theme was “Working Together to Help Build the Future in Education”. With that in mind and with 38 new members joining our association in the 2018/2019 season, the EFMA executive continues to support professional development as a major part of our mission and future. The topics at this year’s professional development sessions on the first two days of the conference were Advanced Project Management (two days), Workplace Incident Investigations Principles and Practices, and Optimizing the Work Environment for Complex Learners.

Opening ceremonies on Tuesday evening kicked off the start of the trade show and the beginning of three days of lectures, courses, and presentations. The wide range of topics covered in the conference program were intended to provide something for everyone who works in facility management, whether you work in the K-12 program, post-secondary school system, private schools, catholic schools, independent schools, or First Nations schools in British Columbia.

One of the sessions that are of great importance to our association and fundamental to our success are

the zone meetings that happened on the Wednesday morning. Six zones around the province of British Columbia led by the zone representative who is appointed by the zone members met to discuss the agenda for the upcoming year. Each zone typically meets twice per year in one of the selected districts within their zone. It is at these local zone meetings that as they say, “the rubber hits the road” and the real productive work is done. Our executive is very grateful to all the presenters, suppliers, and all those who take the time and cost to travel to our zones to keep our members informed and educated on relevant facility management topics. To all the zone representatives in EFMA, thank you for all your time and effort in helping to keep our zones thriving and your colleagues informed.

The conference sessions wrapped up Friday afternoon with the always anticipated and well-attended ministry update. When we celebrate our success and recognize the importance of our partners in education, the Ministry of Education Capital Management Branch continues to provide our facility managers with up-to-date information on ministry capital planning initiatives and programs, as well as information about other government decisions that have implications for education facilities.

Our executive is now working on the 2020 conference in Penticton as directors Harry Kumar and Glen O’Keefe will put together a program that will surely benefit your school district directors, managers, and supervisors.

If you have any questions on becoming an active member of EFMA, please contact myself or Molly Shipowich, our executive assistant, and view our website for details.

Hope to see you in Penticton in 2020! n