SPOA’s Mentoring Program

Physical plant directors use the software’s built-in cost data from RSMeans to realistically estimate the cost of facility projects. The “What-if” funding scenario tools allow users to see how a particular investment will affect a facility’s condition and additional funding requirements over time. With these capabilities, for example, the Ontario University System can now model how varying funding levels will impact future deferred maintenance spending.

THE RESULTS

With accurate information at their fingertips and sophisticated analytic tools to assist in making optimal planning decisions, the universities have promoted a better understanding make the case for long-term facility planning initiatives. Facility management and planning have become a compelling topic, attracting the attention of key funding sources – both internally in the universities, and externally in the provincial government.

Less than two years after the creation of the FCAP, the Ontario government awarded the OUS $93 million in deferred maintenance funding – an increase of $40 million from previous years. This funding level was based on requirements from only 20 per cent of the universities’ physical structures. Onehundred per cent of facilities had been audited by June 2005. Funding for the universities’ Facility Renewal Program has increased by an average of $80 million over the nine-year period since FCAP was implemented.

“High-quality, reliable data has enabled us to raise the profile of facility management and planning among university presidents, governing boards and government agencies,” Boyce says.

“Before our implementation of CPMS, deferred mainteof the impact of investment decisions, and can more readily

nance was an unknown term outside the facilities’ departments. Now, our provincial minister is talking about it and more importantly, understands the value of it,” he says.

LOOKING AHEAD: GOALS FOR THE FUTURE

The Ontario University System has set specific goals for the future, including continuing to report the problems, possible solutions and success stories to the funding agencies. The OUS will report on the status of deferred maintenance and recommend solutions to senior management, the governing boards and the province. Using VFA.facility®, it will effectively manage the OUS’s existing funding. And it will improve the updating of the data to reflect current conditions, thus facilitating accurate reporting in the future. ❏

BY CHUCK MORRIS

We have been promoting a Mentoring Program for a number of years now and have formalized the Spring Directors Workshop as being part of that Mentoring Program.

Recognizing the fact that a number of our members are approaching retirement and the fact some have moved on already, we saw people who were new, moving into positions that were new to them. Many were hired without the necessary experience that would assist them to adjust quickly enough to fulfill their roles as expected.

For a number of years we have spoken about sharing information between districts, between individuals, in an effort to encourage a forward movement. Why should someone in a neighbouring district have to re-invent the wheel when it was already thought of and being used?

Wishing all to succeed and become valuable not only to the district they worked in but also to our association, we decided some type of program needed to be initiated to provide that assistance. Mentoring does work and we saw a number of examples in use within other organizations. The School Super inten dents Association was ap proached and we entered into discussions with them to explore how their program worked. We looked at others as well. From that investigation we developed what is now an easy and simple-to-use format.

There is one form to fill out whether or not you want the services of a mentor or are offering to be a mentor. That form is available online on our website at http://www.spoabc.org/.

There is no cost to you as a mentee or as the mentor. We like to have both located within a geographical region as that cuts down on potential cost to the association. However, we have not restricted criteria to a geographical region as we want this program to succeed. Our association has hundreds of years of specialized experience in our members. That is so valuable, not only to SPOA but to the districts throughout the province that we serve.

We do have folks who have expressed interest and have filed the requisite forms with us so we are now on the move. We do not publicize who has applied for assistance or who is offering that assistance simply because success depends on quietly moving forward and learning. We all yearn to know more, to do better at our jobs. Most of us have seen a shift over time and now do more than ever before. We can work smarter. We can offer guidance and coaching to those who are new at the job or those who may not be so new but have had different duties added to their scope of work.

I would like to thank Ernie Lambert of Nechako Lakes School District for the amount of work he has put into this program. Without his help it would have taken much, much longer to get to the point we are at today.

Thank you Ernie! ❏