Building Owners and Managers Association of Ottawa

PLANNING & POLICY

Mandate

The Planning and Policy Committee fulfils an important role in overseeing the implementation of BOMA Ottawa's Strategic Long Range Plan and monitoring the Plan for results and modifications.

The Planning and Policy Committee has a further mandate to develop and update the Policy and Procedures Manual on an ongoing basis, review the various committees' mandates and seek input from Committees and update as required.

The Planning and Policy Committee has reviewed the Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP) for compliance, clarity and status. The members of this committee will next focus their collective energy on reviewing the Policy and Procedure Manual..

Members

View list of current Planning & Policy Committee members

Activities

The committee meets approximately once a month. The frequency of the meetings is adjusted to match the workload requirements.

The Planning and Policy Committee recently focused their energies on reviewing and preparing synopses of action items to be submitted to the BOMA Board. The following are but a sample of what has been forwarded to the Board for final ratification:

• Community Events Group (BOMA name logo usage);
• Tender Policy;
• Executive financial controls;
• Charitable Donations guidelines;
• Event refund Policy;
• M. Patrick Gillin Award (formerly President's Award); and
• Volunteer of the Year Award.

Changes ahead to BOMA’s International Affiliation
(posted: December 5, 2005)

Since 1999, BOMA International has funded the operation of a national office in Ottawa to service the 9 BOMA associations in Canada and Canadian BOMA members. At the time of its formation there were a number of issues that drove this decision, including the value of uniquely Canadian services that BOMA International could provide relative to the funds collected from the BOMA offices across Canada, the impact of exchange rates, the desire to create a national identity for BOMA in Canada and enhanced communication among Canadian members.

After five and a half years of operation, BOMA Canada has worked diligently to represent the Canadian membership on issues such as telecom, National Building Codes, Fluorocarbon Replacement, and at the same time has helped spearhead value added programs such as Go Green. As we finish 2005 we find ourselves at a point where to take on additional work that is unique to the Canadian market, both BOMA Canada officers and BOMA International have considered that a further change to this model may be required, whereby the BOMA Canada office would be fully funded by the dues paid in Canada.

The result of this would mean severing our current relationship with BOMA International (and the associated dues), and negotiating a fundamentally different one that recognizes that members in Canada have unique needs, and that Canadian BOMA offices will work together exclusively through BOMA Canada to meet these needs. Moving forward this means that we may have a disruption of services with BOMA International for a time while a new relationship with them is defined.

Fundamentally the BOMA Canada officers and the BOMA Canada Board have moved forward with a three phase plan which will require a more focused and better funded Canadian National office. The phases of the plan are designed to:

   (i) build the brand, improve communication and enhance services;
   (ii) re-affirm BOMA Canada's mandate and governance structure;
   (iii) negotiate a new funding model with BOMA International.

The prime objective of this three-phase strategy is to strengthen BOMA at all levels; locally, nationally and internationally; for the benefit of all BOMA members.

You can expect to see further information on this matter in the weeks to come.