Madison IFMA Chapter

VISION

The Madison Chapter of IFMA is an organization that fosters credibility and respect for the facility management professional in the business community.

MISSION

To provide chapter members with educational, networking and support opportunities that enable professional advancement and enhance facility management

Some Background on IFMA Madsion

The Madison Chapter of the International Facility Management Associaion is one of the oldest in the worldwide organization.

Madison IFMA is a very vital chapter. Several of our past presidents continue to be active, contributing members. Attendance at monthly meetings routinely is 40 to 50 percent because of our strong programs and networking opportunities. One of our chapter members is an officer of the international organization.

Our chapter has earned three international awards - educator of the year, excellence in education and chapter of the year.

Our mission is to provide chapter members with educational, networking and support opportunities that enable professional advancement and enhance facility management.

We have provided local support to Habitant for Humanity and we continue to provide support to Yahara House, a very successful organization that helps people with mental illness to integrate back into our local community.

We publish a newsletter 12 times a year and we meet 12 times a year. In addition we feature about six facility tours annually.

We participate in a major annual educational event with our sister Wisconsin chapters. We also provide workshops to help members prepare for the Certified Facility Manager Exam. 23 (15%) of our chapter members have obtained certification. We also provide monthly technical sessions on a variety of facility management disciplines.

The Madison Chapter of IFMA was chartered September 11, 1984, by several local "facility managers" including Frank Alfano (Oscar Mayer), Loren "Buzz" Buchanan (American Family Insurance), Dick Statz (Verex), and Jim Govier (Intervarsity). Our original charter included professional membership for the entire state of Wisconsin. A September 18, 1984, letter to the "fellow members of the newly formed Wisconsin Chapter of the International Facility Management Association" states "Our long range goal is to have three individual chapters in Wisconsin. One each in the Madison, Milwaukee, and Fox River Valley areas with joint meetings on a quarterly basis." Ten members were required to charter a chapter. Buzz Buchanan and Dick Statz are Lifetime members which was granted upon any active member's retirement at that time. In 1994 two members applied for the "grandfathered" CFM designation and got it. They filled out an extensive application rather than sit for the exam. To date we have 23 CFM's.

Presidents have historically held a one year term except when members declined to assume their term or the organization's fiscal year changed mid-term. Our presidents have been:

In recent years the chapter has established a regular monthly meeting time and place (third Tuesday), established morning networking breakfasts and afternoon tours, heard regular presentations from our own members at luncheons, had a Madison speaker at the International conferences every year, regularly had a 40% attendance rate at luncheons at no additional charge to the member, established regular executive committee meetings which included committee chairs, regularly published a monthly newsletter, established a charitable relationship with the Yahara House after preparatory work from Dick Pierce, increased CFMs within the chapter to 10% of membership through study sessions, local test taking opportunities and member suppor and increased chapter membership by almost 20% (over 2 1/2 years)

The chapter submitted and won Educator of the Year with Bob Bartholomew in 1989. In 1995 Dick Pierce was nominated and accepted as the North Central Regional Vice President which established Dick as a board member of the International Organization for two years. In October of 1997 in Dallas, with Ginni Baum as President, the chapter (Jim Whiteside and Rick Kurz) submitted and won Best Chapter Award and Best Educational Programming Award based on the chapter activities of the year before. At WWP in 1998, Chicago, the Chapter put forth Dick Pierce CFM as IFMA Member of the Year. He won that award. At WWP of 1999, Los Angeles, Dick Pierce CFM was elected to the Association's Executive Board, serving as 2001-2002 Chair. In 2004 Richard completed his service on the Association board and received the Chairman's Citation, the highest honor available from IFMA. We have a great chapter!