During October, Southern Connecticut BOMA held our annual TOBY (The Office Building of Year) Gala. We were pleasantly surprised with the large number of submittals for the TOBY awards. These awards range from awards for Best Building in certain size categories (100,000 to 1 million s/f), Best Corporate building, Allied Vendor of the Year, BOMA Member of the Year, as well as Earth Award, Corporation of the Year and Engineer of the Year.
These awards are the most prestigious awards that BOMA International gives out and each of the winners in the Best Building categories has the opportunity to enter their site to the next level of competition, which for Southern Connecticut would be the Mid Atlantic Region competition. The awards for the Mid Atlantic TOBYs are handed out at the Mid Atlantic Conference, which this year, will be held in Baltimore, Maryland. Should one of the Southern Connecticut TOBY winners win at the Mid Atlantic level, their building will be submitted for judging at the next level, the International competition. Southern Connecticut BOMA has had several winners at the Mid Atlantic TOBYs in past years, and this year we are hopeful that one of our local winners will decide to move on to the next level of competition.
There is considerable work required to submit your building for a TOBY award (even on the local level). The paperwork that is required includes general building information, any amenities you have on site, special projects or renovations that you have undertaken, security and safety information, maintenance information including PM schedules and records of service, cleanliness of building and of course, the curb appeal of the site. Members of the local TOBY committee visit each property that has been submitted for an award and scores them according to the criteria outlined above. Each building then receives a grade and in order to qualify to win a TOBY your location must score a minimum of 70 points. This is not an easy feat and it really is a learning experience for building and property managers to submit a TOBY. It really teaches the submitters about what they may be lacking at their facilities and have a better understanding of what is required to be considered a well run property.
Regarding the other awards (non-building related), nominees for Engineer of the Year, Corporate Member of the Year, Allied Member of the Year and Southern CT BOMA Member of the Year are all nominated by their peers in Southern Connecticut BOMA. These are also very prestigious in their own right since it represents that your peers appreciate your work and value to their organization. It also allows us to recognize those individuals that really go above and beyond in support of BOMA and all the values we stand for. It is always interesting to invite a person from outside the Facility/Property Management field to this Gala since it really shows the value of BOMA and how the field of Facility/Property management is key to keeping Corporate American running effectively and efficiently as well as ensuring the safety and security of all personnel that reside within our facilities on a daily basis. BOMA truly bonds all members of the field together and during times of need , and it shows how well we all work as a team to keep America strong.
Debbie Smith, president of Southern Connecticut BOMA, is with Cartus, Danbury, Conn.