President's message: Reflecting on what has happened this year

Hello to all the Greater Hartford BOMA members and anyone else who may be reading this. I hope you are all enjoying your summer and have either had a chance to enjoy some summer fun, or maybe still have a little planned for the year. Never forget the importance of the work/life balance. It may help to keep you sane when things get hectic! I would like to take a minute to reflect on what we have done so far in 2014. On January 9th we kicked off our 2014 programming with a presentation by one of our own members, the State of Connecticut's own, Shane Mallory. Shane gave an excellent presentation discussing the State's "Hartford Acquisition Project." This program not only looked at the "how" and "why" of the acquisitions, but also gave some great insight into who would be occupying these buildings and when. In February, Northeast Utilities was kind enough to host us at their facility in Berlin where we heard all about lighting, retrofits, and energy savings. Thanks to Steve Robinson and Wattsaver for sponsoring this program- we had quite a crowd! Our March program featured Michael Saunders of the Connecticut Department of Transportation who filled us all in on the CTfastrak Bus Rapid Transit project that everyone has been talking about in CT. This program provided some great insight into a project sure to have an effect on Hartford's future. The Mid-Atlantic Conference was held in Boston this year March 30th through April 1st. The MAC this year featured several fantastic speakers including Roger Berkowitz, president and CEO of Legal Sea Foods, as well as the very entertaining Shelden Yellen, CEO of Belfor Holdings, Inc. and a former participant on the show "Undercover Boss." There were also several informative educational sessions as well as a fantastic tour of Boston, including my own personal "holy ground," Fenway Park. Next up for the local was a chance to be social. In early April, we hosted a BOMA After-Hours event at Spotlight Theater in Hartford in the increasingly popular Front St. district. But then it was right back to the learning and the never ending quest to save money with a fantastic program on CT's C-Pace program. Thank you to Genevieve Sherman from CEFIA for presenting this informative program, and a big thank you to VI Facility Services for sponsoring the event. May provided us a chance the chance to get out on the golf course and work on our game, both golf, and business networking. On May 15th we held our increasingly successful Nine/Wine/Dine program. This event was just about all-around perfect. The weather for golfing was beautiful. The food prepared (and wine pairings) were top shelf across the board. And of course, filled with Greater Hartford BOMA members, the company was A# 1 as well. June 12th was a return to education as we had a very informative program about The Blue Book Building and Construction Network. Thank you to Mark Souza and his group for sponsoring, hosting, and feeding us for this great program! Our most recent event was one of our biggest events each year, our Gus Johnson Annual Golf Outing. Special thanks to our Titanium Sponsor, New England Mechanical Services; our Graphite Sponsor, Interstate Restoration; our 19th Hole (cocktail hour) sponsor, Siemens Industry; and our golf cart sponsor, LAZ Parking. As you can see, we have been busy this year, but we are not done yet! We are currently working on our last few programs for the year. We are putting the final touches on a program that will include a tour of the new Jackson Labs facilities in Farmington as well as an always popular networking session at the Tavern in Farmington. Please keep your eyes out for the official invite once we hammer down the dates/ times. Another program we are putting together for the end of this year will be an in-depth look at a multitude of projects in and about Hartford. We will be looking to touch upon some topics we have already looked at such as Front Street, State of Connecticut purchases, and the Bus Line as well as some other projects such as I-Quilt, UCONN, and maybe even a little Rock Cats talk as well. Of course, we will also be holding our annual holiday party. We are currently looking at venues to hold this event. As many of you know we have been trying to get around to different locations, and would love to try a new spot again this year. I hope you will join us as this year as we will have a special presentation to one of our very own who will be recognized for his Lifetime Membership award from BOMA International. Here at Greater Hartford BOMA we are always looking at ways to improve and grow our group. 2015 will offer up plenty of opportunity for change within our group. We will be electing a new president, as well as redoubling our commitment to provide value to all of our members. We will be looking to re-energize our local educational programming, including holding some classroom style designation courses. We have a whole new year of event planning to undertake, including educational programs, networking events, social events, and just plain old good fun! I would like to wrap up this president's message with an appeal to our membership. As I mentioned, we are always looking to improve and we have a brand new year and president ahead of us. I would like to ask each and every one of you to be involved with shaping our future. Please consider joining a committee, as it is a great opportunity to be more involved and have some influence on our group and its direction. If you don't have enough time to dedicate to a committee, perhaps you can help to organize a particular event? Or provide the space to host an event? Offer up a topic? Share your expertise with the group? All of these things contribute to our success as a group. I would like to thank all of our annual Sponsors as well as all of our other sponsors that step up throughout the year. Thank you to everyone who has helped and participated this year. I hope you all enjoy what's left of the summer and I hope to see you all soon! Wes Nicoll is the president of BOMA Greater Hartford, and is with Griffin Land, Bloomfield, Conn.Wes Nicoll, Griffin Land