September 2015
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The BOMA/NY Elections: Presidential Candidate Jim Kleeman's Mission for the Future

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BOMA/NY elections will get underway with ballots distributed in October and election results announced at our Nov. 12 Annual Conference and Leadership Breakfast. BOMAfacts spoke with presidential nominee Jim Kleeman earlier this month to hear his views on the future of BOMA/NY. 

Q. What’s your #1 focus as you look toward leading BOMA/NY as president?

A. I’ve been thinking about my mission for a long time: It always comes back to delivering value to the owners and companies we serve. Every program and event we undertake must benefit our members in terms of the time and money they invest in BOMA/NY.

Q. Value has many meanings; what’s your interpretation?

A. Value must be defined in tangible terms. A good example is our Issue Forums, where we bring in the best experts possible on the given topic, as we’re doing with Legionella compliance on Sept. 30, to give attendees hands-on information they can apply the minute they return to their offices.... Practical information to share with colleagues or brief senior executives. Company leadership then knows their team members are implementing cutting-edge strategies or tactics learned at BOMA/NY.

Another example is the work done by our committees—we have the best Energy/Sustainability, Preparedness, Codes & Regulations/Government Affairs, Professional Development committees... to cite a few... in the country. The issues they take on have direct influence on the bottom line; energy alone is one of the largest components of an operating budget.

We’re still conceptualizing an approach, but we’ll be casting a wider net, and looking to our strong talent pool to assist us in more effectively serving our membership.

Q. Tell us about the goals you’d like to achieve.

A. Before doing that I want to thank Tom Hill, our current president, for the outstanding work he has done to strengthen the operations of the Association. His leadership has been invaluable, and I am fortunate to be able to build upon it. It’s one of the reasons I want to keep the former presidents actively engaged in our governance and decision-making so that we continue to leverage their leadership and experience for the benefit of all.

One of my first steps will be to assemble a team to develop a Long-Range Strategic Plan that maps out our goals and member benefits for 1, 2, 5 years and beyond.

My immediate goals will be to invest in our people, technology and program excellence to bring value back home to the buildings.

Q. Let’s tackle the first goal: people. What are your plans?

A. I plan on having Town Halls with the Allied, Professional and Principal members to collect their ideas. Their feedback will be essential to creating our strategic plan and functioning at our optimal, member-responsive level.

I’m looking forward to addressing the needs of the Millennials and up-and-comers of our industry....to listen to their questions and needs so we can improve their BOMA/NY experience, their career paths and more, while providing them with a vital member benefit: the expertise and knowledge of our seasoned professionals.

We’ll need to maximize technology and social media, wherever it can serve us best. Technology benefits all members; we all know how difficult it’s getting to leave the office for meetings or seminars. In that area, I can see us capitalizing on the lessons learned by BOMA International, which has a very active and effective mobile technology program. We can leverage their expertise; the synergy I’ve personally experienced working with BOMA International to launch new programs is very effective.

I’m also looking forward to hearing the ideas of the committee chairs and bringing them to the Board meetings to enhance collaboration between all leadership components of BOMA/NY. That brings value to the leadership and the members; it’s all intertwined.

Q. Sounds like you will be calling for more volunteers?

A. Yes! Our members have a lot of talent and I encourage them to get involved on any of the committees right now—they are the engines that do the work and get the results that affect our business lives. If you’re interested in our industry and enhancing your career, then you’re interested in BOMA/NY. We’re the voice of our industry, and we need more volunteers to help strengthen and expand that voice.

My mission also includes creating a task force focusing on technology to help us implement our plans—we’ll definitely need volunteers for that!

Q. You’ve mentioned technology twice now; tell us more about your goals there.

A. Everything is still in the early stages, but I see technology as critical in many areas: growing our membership, expanding our social media presence and enhancing communications/education, bringing in more volunteers to contribute skills and insight, or giving our members more critical information as quickly as possible. Technology is a premiere resource for delivering value.

Q. And as for your goal of excellence?

A. It’s going to take effort, but let’s raise the bar across all platforms both within BOMA/NY and our outside relationships. We’ve built a strong collaboration with REBNY, for example, and we continue to strengthen our involvement with the city and state as we work together on industry-critical issues. For more than a decade, we’ve been the pragmatic voice and source of technical expertise on critical codes and laws—our work has helped the entire industry mitigate its exposure to unnecessary regulation. Today, our voice is stronger than ever; I want to keep that momentum going.

And I would like to see NYC raise its BOMA 360 profile. A BOMA 360 building is one that’s met the highest level of excellence in all key areas of operations/management. That recognition is increasingly carrying weight among the national corporations that make up so much of our collective tenant base. New Yorkers are among the best in the business. It’s time for us to claim that excellence as ours and deliver one more BOMA/NY value to the bottom line.