FMCC President’s BLOG – October 2019

Saturday, October 5th, 2019

Welcome to our seventh newsletter, in the twentyeth year of FMCC. This month’s EARLY EDITION previews the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of FMCC, which will take place on October 16 at World Workplace in Phoenix, at 9:00 AM in the Convention Center. If you attend World Workplace, please drop in? We will be done in time to attend the welcome and opening keynote. The meeting will be fast moving, with 10 to 15 minutes at the end for open discussion.
If you would like to attend remotely, we plan to use GoToMeeting, just as in two previous years. Several Board members plan to attend remotely. We should have a connection if all goes well. There should be ten or more remote seats available. If interested in attending this way, send a note to president-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org to receive a link? Again, I am not certain that this will work, but it has in the past.
This month’s feature, FMCC at World Workplace –
In view of World Workplace coming up, we published the an early edition of the meeting presentation slide set including notes. The actual talk will be recorded, along with (we anticipate) 10–15 minutes of open discussion afterward. Recordings will be made available on the web site within a week or so after the meeting.
Here is the back story. In 20 years, FMCC made networking, knowledge-skills-competence, and building FM consulting business its themes, always in view. At the same time, the emphasis of Council initiatives and projects varied from time to time for a variety of reasons. Several years ago, member volunteers began to experience progressively less time available for ongoing commitments to FMCC. Still, individuals and groups were able to begin and complete well bounded projects dedicated directly to developing consulting work, from the point of view of both client and consultant. Need a Consultant; Here’s How is one such, now regularly supplemented and updated on its own web pages on the FMCC web site by Karla Reid.
Where does this year’s AGM report – the slide set and talk – lead us?
First, at considerable expense, we have overhauled content and organization of the web site, hosted for FMCC by IFMA. This has been a slow process, with triage and questions – made more difficult by the involvement of an outside contractor engaged to help with outreach via the web and producing a newsletter directly from website content. FMCC is maintaining the web site regularly. Doing so is an ongoing but necessary expense. Admin Terry Cocherl is the point person. She is capable with WordPress and posts as often as a few times weekly. She loads and launches the Newsletter which brought you here.
We are also keeping up an FMCC Engage page and a consultant directory Engage feature. We do not know the traffic levels in these places but suspect that they are low and not yet helpful in our purpose of having FM consultants looked upon as a familiar, reliable, available, altogether feasible resource to line FMs. We think that keeping up at least LinkedIn can help, and will get back to that, time permitting – or a committed volunteer emerging.
Last, budget and sponsorship –
Our current adopted budget is modest and financially sound re: expenses. Income includes $2000 USD from sponsors and $6500 USD from dues. In the past, large scale FM services companies were donors, along with donations from members who also served in volunteer roles. Markus Groll of isar1 is one such, FMCC Vice President Chris Gardner will be reshaping how we
Ask the Experts Seeking a New Coordinator – Ask the Experts has appeared bimonthly in FMJ (recently in the extended edition) for years. Mark Sekula, IFMA Fellow, now retired (an FMCC founder, coincidently) poses a hypothetical problem to all FMCC members by mail about a month in advance and asks for short responses, selecting several to publish. Reading Ask The Experts gives an impression of remarkable diversity in approaches, priorities, risks, interpretations, and opportunities to be expected when working with FM clients. At the same, the responses come together around unified FM knowledge and competences.
FMCC seeks a coordinator to take over from Mark, beginning with the 2020 January-February edition of the FMJ. The post comes with a procedure, Mark’s willingness to answer questions at the start, and prominence as an FMJ contributor and an outstanding FMCC volunteer.
If interested, please contact David Reynolds (president-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org)
New Member Interview opportunity – If you are relatively new as a member of FMCC and would like to give an interview, please contact secretary-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org or president-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org , or any FMCC Board member. Outside of the U.S., FMCC Regional Directors are available and may better appreciate your circumstances and styles of communication.
The FMCC Board welcomes comments, suggestions, and reports of error or malfunction. We keep a to-do list and rework it often. Contact webmaster-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org or editor-newsletter@fmcc-ifma.org.
The Newsletter editors gratefully accept commentary, news, and anecdotes about your own work, projects, and even problems. The newsletter derives directly from the web site, so your material will appear there, in news, blog, or events.

FMCC BLOG, October 2019
David Reynolds
president-fmcc@fmcc-ifma.org
c: +1 504 481 2627