I have been a member of BOMA NJ (Building Owners and Managers Association) for over 20 years. In December of 2019, I was asked by the President of BOMA NJ if I wanted to be the Allied Services Rep. After getting approval from Jack Harris, I happily took on this highly visible position. There is only one Allied Services Rep, which is the person who reports to the Board of Directors at the monthly meetings with the thoughts and challenges facing the 200 Service Providers of the membership. During our January 2020 BOMA monthly meeting I was sworn in.
Within a few months the world shut down and we had to reinvent a way to allow our Federated Members and Allied Members to connect. As Allied members and service providers, our goal is to create relationships with the Property Managers and Buildings Owners (Federated members) and this is the main task for my position. Challenge: How to do this during a global pandemic? At first the President, Dana Getz from JLL held weekly Round Table meetings on Go To Meetings. This allowed us a chance to see and speak to each other as well as pass on valuable information. As time went on, we wanted more but with over 80% working from home it was difficult to find ways to connect and many of our usual events were being postponed and eventually cancelled for the year. By December we recognized the overwhelming need to give back and the “Season of Giving” campaign was launched. I led a committee to organize and manage this new ground in a safe and positive way. On December 9 we held the first event called the Day to Donate. We provided 4 outdoor locations at Federated members buildings in Rutherford, Edison, Parsippany and Princeton, NJ for people to physically go to the location and have time to meet and speak to other members as well as drop off Toys, Hats, Gloves or Socks to be donated. This was a wonderful success!
The excitement and possibilities of helping others while having a chance to build relationships became a solution to our challenge of how to connect!
A second event was created called, “Give From the Heart”. Again, I took on the task of heading this committee and set a goal of raising $6,000 for the 4 Food banks we vetted out for donations. We set up the same 4 locations as we had in December to give us all a chance to meet and greet safely for a worthy cause. We were lucky enough to get a good weather day sandwiched between several snow storms. This very successful event raised over 1,000 pounds of food and over $6,500 in funds!
Anyone can see the results posted in the website….stay tuned for more events to come.
https://bomanewjersey.wildapricot.org/
Linda Licitra, Sales & Design Rep