On October 25th, the Annual TOBY Awards Gala will take place at the Inn at Longshore in Westport. Six properties will be awarded a TOBY in recognition of their excellence in property management. The winners this year are: 8 Shore Dr., Merritt on the River, UBS, Stamford Executive Park, High Ridge Park Corporate Center and 4 Corporate Dr. We expect this year's event to surpass the over 210 attendees that attended last year's event. This year, we added a new Honoree award, the Engineer of the Year, and we are pleased to announce that James Riordan of George Comfort and Sons was chosen. We will also honor the Member of the Year, Art D'Estrada of Newmark Knight Frank, the Corporate of the Year, R.D. Scinto, Inc., and the Allied of the Year, Susan Rosen of ABM. Come congratulate all of the TOBY winners and honorees. Mark your calendar now for October 25th. Contact the executive office if you aren't a Southern CT BOMA member to register for this great event. Our November 15th program will discuss purchasing energy. With energy prices so high these days, how do we decide on whom to purchase our power from? Do we sign a short-term contract, hoping the price will drop even lower, or do we sign a long-term contract to keep the locked-in price and not worry about rising costs? Join us as we put together a panel of experts to help us answer these, and other questions about one of the largest expenses our buildings have. This luncheon program will take place at Giovanni's II. Mark your calendar now. Become a Southern CT BOMA member now as we offer our "15 for 12" membership. Pay your dues now for 2008 and receive the remaining months of 2007 for free. You will be able to attend all the great events at the member rate, network with some of the best real estate professionals in the area, and hear about some important information concerning the industry. Welcome back from the long, lazy days of summer. We're off and running on great programming and events for the fall months and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events. Robert Hartt of The Ashforth Company is president of Southern Connecticut BOMA.