Southern Connecticut BOMA President's Message

Happy New Year to all Southern Connecticut BOMA members! Hopefully, 2012 will be a very successful year for all of you. I am very excited to be your new president and think that Southern CT BOMA has a great board that will continue to provide our membership with new programs and social events in 2012. As always, we would welcome member participation in our various committees including Membership/Marketing, Programs, TOBY, Emergency Preparedness, Softball/Fishing/Golf Tournaments and Legislative Issues. If you are interested in joining one of these committees, please contact Sharon Moran and she will put you in contact with the committee chairperson. I would like to thank all board members and committee members for supporting our chapter over the last year and look forward to working with all of you in 2012. Our board includes: Victor DeCicco - The HB Nitkin Group - vice president, Bill Rifkin - Mack-Cali - treasurer, Rona Siegel - Collins Enterprises - secretary, Jodi Gutierrez - George Comfort & Sons, Inc. - immediate past president, and the directors: Art D'Estrada - Newmark Knight Frank, Lee Van Deusen - Jones Lang LaSalle, Mike Brown - Matrix Realty Group, Rich Hillgardner - Cushman and Wakefield and Paul Senecal - United Services of America. The year has already started off quickly for me as one of my first responsibilities was to attend the BOMA International Winter Business Meeting and National Issues Conference held in Washington, D.C. in late January. The conference was a great way for me to introduce myself to BOMA members from around the country and it is always interesting to hear what programs, events and training initiatives the various BOMA locals provide to their members. I have been able to bring back some new ideas which will be presented to the board for consideration. As part of the conference, executive director Sharon Moran and I had the opportunity to meet with two for our representatives - Congressman Jim Himes and his legislative assistant Ben Turner as well as David Sitcovsky, legislative assistant to Congressmen John Larson. During these meetings we discussed a variety of issues relating to the commercial real estate industry, including energy efficiency incentive programs, leasehold depreciation (length of depreciation for leasehold improvements has reverted back to 39½ years from the former time frame of 15 years), ADA Notice and Compliance (concerning providing business notification of any possible lawsuits for non-compliance with ADA requirements) and Carried Interest Tax Treatment for a partner in a real estate partnership. All of these concerns are on the docket for the 2012 session and BOMA International continues to lobby to ensure our best interests are met concerning these issues. This was a great experience and we should all consider contacting our local congressmen and senators regarding these issues in support of BOMA International. As always I would like to thank our entire membership for their continued support of our chapter which has allowed us to continue to prosper even during these tough economic times. I would like to especially thank our sponsors for providing their financial support. This support allows us to offer many events and programs throughout the year.