During our IREM Spring conference, which was held in Washington DC, Kimberly Morgan, CPM of the Austin, Texas Chapter on how valuable senior members guidance is to the younger thirty and forty something, gave managers coming on board a lecture. That lecture was informative and made a very good argument for this article about individuals in our Boston Chapter.
In the 20 years I have been a member of this chapter, January has been designated as past presidents meeting. These individuals are invited to attend the meeting, which by tradition is the Economic forecast. These individuals are recognized for their service to the chapter during the meeting. What is not mentioned is these individuals continue to support our chapter in many ways such as attending events, donating to the IREM Foundation, supporting the mentoring program, playing in our annual Charity Golf Tournament, and supporting educational offerings.
Boston Chapter 4 has 30 networking events each year. These events are held in Boston and New Hampshire areas and are held in addition to the four meetings per year. Past presidents are always there to answer a question, suggest a new position to apply for, or just to talk about a difficult day. These events have costs, which are borne by each of the members of the chapter too.
The IREM Foundation is the main source for scholarship money to attend classes by individuals in the ARM and CPM tracks. Recently, Boston received an award from the foundation for receiving the most donations by members of a chapter. Quietly over the years, the past presidents have supported this excellent way of giving back to IREM and our new members.
Our Boston mentoring program is huge. Each board member and past president takes one to two members under their wing. Calls are made to give that last bit of encouragement to the track tests. By March if the application for scholarships are not in, emails are sent out. Past presidents are also known to help new company owners wade through the software available or offer guidance in how to go about starting a new business.
Each year Boston runs a Charity Golf Tournament. The event has grown into tennis and golf lessons as well as members just attending the dinner. Half of the foursomes have been playing since I started in the chapter! Both female and male players are hard to beat. Yes, you guessed it... past presidents support this event too.
IREM is education. Our past presidents consistently send their employees to our educational offerings. New members meet other new members at classes and the cycle of the chapter begins again. Many are IREM National instructors thereby saving the chapter travel funds if they can teach the class requested.
Therefore, with that I want to applaud the Boston Chapter 4 past presidents.

Colleen Costa, CPM, ARM, is the 2015 IREM Boston president and president and principal of CPC Management, LLC, Kingston, Mass.