A Year In Review
In March of 2020, when we had to make the difficult decision to postpone our annual FMForward conference we were sure we would be laying low for two weeks and would then be able to pick up right where we left off and move on.
We all did.
Little did any of us realize that nearly two years later we would still be in a state of limbo. We certainly didn’t have the opportunity to pick up where we left off, but we absolutely have moved on. Powered on as it were through the last two years without missing a beat.
For all organizations, this is the time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. What do we want to bring forward, and what will we leave behind? So in the spirit of that reflection, let’s look at our year in retrospective!
By the Numbers
In 2021, we welcomed 122 new members into the organization and saw a rising trend throughout the year in monthly membership numbers after experiencing a decline in 2020. Currently 61% of the membership of IFMA Boston are Facilities Managers and/or End Users.
Throughout the year we held 27 events with over 900 attendees—30% of which were live and in person.
Across all programming, 65% of the attendees were facilities managers and/or end users.
Our annual FMForward conference was held as a 4 day summit in conjunction with our 18th Annual Awards of Excellence with nearly 200 registrants.
We held our annual IFMA Boston Golf Classic to a sold out crew of 144 at Red Tail Golf Course in June.
Our most popular regular program was our Workplace of the Future: Reimagined with nearly 100 registered for this virtual event.
We added 7 more episodes to our FMForward podcast and more than 1,500 downloads throughout the year to bring us a lifetime download count of over 3,200.
We published a new white paper FMs Share Lessons Learned (So Far) From COVID-19 and our white papers overall were downloaded nearly 300 times this year.
Our www.ifmaboston.org website had more than 26,000 monthly unique visitors.
And all of this was accomplished by a board of directors of 9, 1 executive director, 1 administrator and 50 volunteers.
Taking into 2022
Lessons that we have learned this year that we will bring forward into the New Year:
- Our FMs want current and relevant educational programming provided to them on their terms—virtually, on demand, and/or in print or replay.
- Our associate and young professional members seek out and need in person networking to succeed at their jobs and to build their networks.
- More and more of our FM members are stepping forward to volunteer, making up 56% of our total volunteer corps. They are seeking opportunities to step up, give back, expand their role, and have a say in what programming the organization is putting forth.
- Our membership is resilient and supportive and going strong nearly two years into a pandemic.
- Our annual partnership program is still appealing to both our associate and professional members with 5 new partners joining the program in 2021.
Check out all of our program replays at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8B-650rmlInYZRc-hsbJPw and listen to our FMForward podcast at: www.ifmaboston.org/podcast
