The Span of FM Consulting and FMCC – Member Perspectives

Monday, August 22nd, 2022

In the next newsletter issues, we take an individual viewpoint, glimpsing perspectives and circumstances around FM consulting, networking, and learning in FMCC.

FMCC members number over 300 and the Council continues to grow. Why? Member locations, jobs, roles such as internal or outside consultants, vendors or users of consultant services… are in the roster. They comprise a big picture of who, where, and when, but not so much why, beyond thinking of FMCC a tribe.

Consulting in its most basic sense is to participate in an FM organization that is the home base of someone else. This and newsletters to follow will include observations and perspectives from FMCC members in their networking and have written about themselves for this feature. An objective is to feature members of all career stages and all over the globe. Associates, please join in. You constitute an appreciable portion of FMCC membership and are essential to the work of consultants and all FMs.

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Richard Buzard* founded an independent consultancy at about the same time as he joined FMCC two years ago. He is still getting established, networking and adjusting.  A Certified Energy Manager® in solo practice, his company, Virtual FM LLC, is an ENERGY STAR® Partner offers consulting services in energy management and related FM throughout South Carolina.

Why FM? Why consulting? While a U.S. Navy instructor in Colorado, Richard learned of an FM program at Colorado State University in Pueblo that was recognized for excellence by IFMA. He earned a BS in 1998 after retiring from the Navy two years before. He worked in a variety of FM positions for the next two decades – notably in contractor roles for Air Force and Army, where he encountered and developed a close interest in energy issues. The crucial point that leads him to go on his own in 2021 was desire and to have more control over services that he would provide and their end results.

He reflects that, on the one hand, he can dedicate additional time to a client to ensure requisite quality and utility of what he delivers. On the other hand outside, independent, consulting work requires income to match expenses and personal flexibility to find and respond to opportunities. For the present, short term projects best fit in becoming known and producing income.

Looking ahead, he has ample experience with energy and now a growing network encouraging him to seek longer-term engagements, such as subcontractor and support roles for Utility Energy Savings Contracts and similar large scale, long duration, programs.

On a career favorable to consulting, he finds his military background an advantage for its characteristic focus, discipline, and orientation to mission. In FM, these three evidence as clear, well bounded, competently derived results matched definitively with client expectations and strategic objectives.

*FMCC Member Richard Buzard is a Certified Energy Manager® with the Association of Energy Engineers, and his consulting firm, Virtual FM LLC is an ENERGY STAR® Partner and VA-Verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business providing consulting services in energy efficiency and facilities management throughout South Carolina.

Editor’s notes

In the next newsletter – so far, Steven Ee and Preety Arora have agreed to sketch their circumstances re: FM consulting and advising.
Please feel free to join in by contacting the Newsletter editor