While the double eagle was the talk of the tourney, there was still plenty of other excitement for the 96 chapter members and guests who participated in the event planned once again by Jim Yankle with "outstanding assistance" from Craig Thomas, Mark Haberman, Bill Luallen, and Simons.

And once again Yankle's prediction of a year ago -- "It never rains on the golf course when the IFMA organization gets together for an afternoon." -- held true. The rains did come, but not before play on and off the course was concluded, members and guests fed, prizes awarded, and most on their way home.

The winning team in the four-person scramble was composed of Wes Siegenthaler, Frank Hook, Tim Bartholomew, and Bill Sopira. They shot a 17 under par 55 and received golf towels and hats that would be inscribed with " IFMA 2001 First Place."

Other "skill prizes" of $45 each went to: Ron Black, closest to the pin on number three; Bob McKelvey, closest to the pin on five; David Walton, closest to the pin on seven; Craig Thomas, closest to the pin on 11; Tom Pauline, closest to the pin on 13; and Kevin Crowley, closest to the pin on 14. Ron Black also won a driving iron donated by Contract Interiors for the longest drive on 15 of 325 yards.

Major prizes won during the raffle included a certificate for golf and lunch for four persons at Darby Dan Farm and the Darby Dan Conference Center, and a golf bag donated by Knoll. The golf package, donated by Andy Schmidt of Schmidt's Restaurants and Catering, was won by Yankle, and the bag by Simons.

Among the luckiest persons at the raffle, which followed a buffet dinner of hamburgers, sausage, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, cookies, and drinks, was Dan Ferguson, regional facility manager for central and southern Ohio for American Electric Power. Ferguson, a guest of King Business Interiors, held the winning numbers for an OSU golf shirt, IFMA golf towel, IFMA golf shirt, King Business golf package (balls, towel, hat, drinking cup, and tees), and 15 golf balls from Contract Interiors.

Other raffled prizes and donors included:

Golf towels, knit shirt, windbreaker jacket, tees from Chemical Abstracts Service; golf packages, King Business Interiors; golf balls, Central Business Group; tees, golf shirts, towels, IFMA; golf balls, hat, and towel, Re:Source Ohio; shirt, gym bag, golf balls, Ashland Distribution and Specialty; notepads, drink containers, Duralite table, Krueger International.

Golf balls, Ross Products Division of Abbott Labs; golf balls, Construction Systems Inc.; six golf shirts, Designed Moves, Inc.; golf balls, golf shirt, freightliner cab with trailer (ERTH collectibles), AllSteel; four $25 certificates for golf merchandise, Haworth, Inc.; Swiss army knife, combination memo pad, calculator, pen sets, business card holder, Thomas Ruff; golf balls, sports bag, golf towels, umbrella, Nationwide Insurance.

Money raised from the sale of raffle tickets will be used to help support the chapter's Adopt-a-Family program that assists needy Columbus families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The following companies provided the buffet:

Excel Interiors, Inc.; Robert S. Davis Ltd; Designed Moves; Thomas Ruff; Central Business Group; Contract Interiors, Inc.; Knoll; Siebold & Associates; Dan Binford & Associates; Bill Thomason & Associates; Continental Office Environments; Continental Office Moves; King Business Interiors; Re:Source Ohio; Messer Construction; Steelcase and Steelcase Design Partners; and Commercial Movers.

James Martin is a man in the middle, but not for long.

He's in the middle of leaving one good company (URS Corp. on June 15) for another (NAI Welsh on June 25).

URS Corp., which operates here from 277 W. Nationwide Blvd., is a global full-service organization with more than 15,600 employees throughout the U. S. and in some 30 foreign countries. The corporation is headquartered in San Francisco.

NAI Welsh, based in Minneapolis, was founded in 1977 and extends its expertise into virtually all aspects of commercial real estate. NAI Welsh is one of the largest affiliates of New America International (NAI), a worldwide commercial real estate organization of more than 3,400 commercial property professionals in over 230 offices in over 300 markets around the globe.

In Columbus, NAI Welsh, which operates from 250 E. Broad Street, is involved in leasing, investment sales, property management, corporate real estate services, tenant representation, site acquisition, consulting services, market research and analysis, and real estate development.

It is here that Martin will hang his hat as director of planning and design for Genesis Architecture, a Welsh Company. He will work with companies interested in moving into NAI Welsh represented properties to determine how to create an environment to meet their specific needs.

For the past six months, Martin has served as manager of URS' interior design department in its Columbus office where his responsibilities have included marketing, project scheduling, fee estimates, staffing issues, design direction and conflict resolution, and team building.

Prior to his promotion to department manager, Martin served for two and one-half years as an interior design project manager for URS and was responsible for specific project schedules, budgets and deadlines, project profitability, building code compliance, design intent and execution, client relations, invoicing, and payment collections.

Martin said his decision to leave URS was not an easy one because of the "professional relationship I have with the people here. The high caliber and quality of the people at URS is unsurpassed.

"I leave behind a strong and dynamic group of interior designers whose dedication and skill have helped to complete many successful projects. The work of the interior designers along with the tremendous support from the architects and engineers at URS is a resource that I will never be able to duplicate. I will miss the interaction with such knowledgeable and talented individuals.

"But I look forward to returning to my design and planning roots in the real estate industry. I enjoy the interaction with real estate professionals and assisting people that need to change or relocate their corporate staff and resources."

Before his association with URS, Martin was employed for nine years by Pizzuti Development, Inc. where he was responsible for design and construction of tenant improvement projects. He also worked with property managers and office managers to cost effectively operate corporate offices and other facilities.

While attending The Ohio State University, Martin worked for Karlsberger & Associates where his primary responsibilities included intergraph computer aided design and drafting; interior space planning; finish selection, specification, and application; and furnishings selection, specification, and placement.

Martin received a bachelor of science degree in industrial design from Ohio State in 1988. He lives with his wife, Melanie, a part-time nurse at Children's Hospital, and sons, Craig, 7, and Christopher, 4, in Hilliard.

He became a member of the central Ohio IFMA Chapter about six years ago because of his association with other chapter members, the educational programs the chapter provided, and the opportunity to visit the many facilities throughout the area that membership opened for him.

"And I have benefited tremendously from the educational programs, the business contacts, and the social functions that the chapter offers," Martin said.

He also is a member of the National Council for Interior Design Qualification and the Coalition for Interior Designers for Licensing in Ohio, Inc.

Sponsor Spotlight Construction Systems, Inc.

Construction Systems, Inc., a 35-year-old Columbus company, quite possibly touches the lives of more central Ohio residents each day than any other commercial specialty contractor.

And Construction Systems does this without most knowing it.

Since its beginning in 1967, Construction Systems at 2865 E. 14th Ave. has completed over 10,000 projects, providing products and installation services with a professional, flexible, individualized, and cost-efficient approach for manufacturers, retailers, institutions, businesses, and professional groups and organizations in a multi-county area.

The company offers a wide range of interior building services that includes demolition, framing, carpentry, drywall, plaster, ceilings, doors, frames and hardware, operable and folding doors, demountable partitions, toilet partitions and accessories, and commercial window treatments.

For the exterior, Construction Systems provides services such as synthetic plaster, structural metal framing, sheathing, siding, and composite panels.

The company, owned and headed by J. D. Flaherty, is a perennial award recipient, walking away with Build Ohio awards in 1998 and 1995, and being selected as a Build Ohio finalist on six other occasions. The company also has been selected for the Sto Wall of Fame three times and has received six Builders Exchange Craftsmanship awards. Construction Systems is equally proud of its safety record, which, according to Flaherty is "second to none." Flaherty maintains Workers' Compensation rates are the true test of job safety over the years, and "Construction System has maintained a merit rating of -55 to -67 for the past 10 years. This means we are more than twice as safe as the industry average."

Flaherty said the company's mission is, "To provide high quality construction services to the industry and to our private customers. We bring knowledge, creativity, honesty, and 35 years of experience to achieve the task, but most importantly, we bring determination. We are determined to give the customer more than is paid for, and to provide a value. We have learned how to provide high quality and performance at the lowest possible price."

Construction Systems employs 160 people and is currently involved in several major projects, including ones at Easton Town Center, Columbia Gas System Service Corp., 1600 Dublin Rd, and the Polaris Shopping Center under construction in northern Columbus.

At Easton, the company is applying an exterior insulation finish system (EIFS), or synthetic plaster, to the buildings that make up Phase II of the development,

and is also participating in the interior build-outs of several of the 120 retail shops. Synthetic plaster also is being applied to the Lazarus and Penney buildings under construction at Polaris.

It was the application of synthetic plaster to the Longaberger Basket Building in Newark that earned the company its second and latest Build Ohio award. The company's challenge was to develop an effective way to make the finished building resemble a wooden basket.

Flaherty said through exhaustive research and multiple testing processes, including full size mock-ups, Construction Systems recommended a specialty tinted synthetic plaster that was light and flexible that could be used successfully on the building panels that became the weaves and splints of a seven-story basket.

While this project was the largest and most challenging synthetic plaster installation ever attempted in central Ohio, Flaherty said the "real trick was in figuring out how to construct and attach the 140 panels that give the building its distinctive basket look. The panels are 27 feet long and seven and one-half feet high."

The company's first Build Ohio award was for exterior work on Phase III of the Jeffersonville Outlet Mall. There, Construction Systems was faced with completing 600 days of labor in 13 weeks. An added problem was the owner's dissatisfaction with the installation of synthetic plaster by another company on a previous project.

The outlet mall is recognized from I-71 by horizontal bands that run the quarter-mile length of the façade. The bands had to be aligned in four-foot intervals at various elevations and then had to come together so as not to appear wavy. Construction Systems' job was to ensure that the banding was in complete alignment. By using a high level of craftsmanship, the company created the appearance of one whole piece rather than many four-foot sections fitted together.

However, Flaherty says projects such as these represent only 20 percent of the company's business. The vast majority of its work consists of new buildings or rearranging existing buildings or departments to meet the needs of the current or new owners of the property.

Several of these projects take months and even years to complete. For example, Construction Systems has been involved in retrofitting at Chemical Abstracts Service for about 18 months and at Grant Medical Center for three to four years.

"At Chemical Abstracts," Flaherty said, "we are rearranging departments, enlarging some and minimizing others. We are taking down walls and rearranging them to meet the needs of the company that houses the world's largest and most comprehensive databases of chemical information. To keep from disrupting the daily operations of the company, the retrofitting is being done at night.

"At Grant, Construction Systems is transforming areas of the downtown hospital that were once used for patients' rooms into operating rooms, urgent care centers, and other treatment areas that are needed in today's medical centers."

Construction Systems has been an Initiator Level sponsor of the central Ohio IFMA Chapter for four years, and both Flaherty and his son, J. D. Flaherty III, property manager for the Huntington National Bank, are members.

"IFMA membership gives us a chance to work directly with people whose business and interests are buildings," Flaherty said. "We think the same, have the same interests, and the same goals. There's no question that we want to make our services known to the companies and individuals who belong to IFMA. We've been working with buildings for 35 years and we want to make certain they know we are available for them."

Sponsor Spotlight Dan Binford & Associates

In Columbus, the central Ohio IFMA Chapter refers to its highest level sponsors as Initiators.

In Cincinnati they're Platinum, and there is only one.

In Dayton it's Gold.

But regardless of the designation, the name Dan Binford & Associates is at the top of the list in each case.

Dan Binford & Associates is an 18-year-old Cincinnati-based company (2226 Gilbert Ave.) that provides quality furnishings to such major commercial institutions in central Ohio as The Ohio State University, Nationwide Insurance, Grange Insurance Companies, Public Employees Retirement System, and URS Corporation.

The company, with offices in Columbus, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, and showrooms in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, has many large and small clients throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Tim O'Neil, who represents the company in the Columbus area, said Dan Binford & Associates has been a central Ohio Chapter sponsor for more than 10 years, and has found the association a "great way to meet and get to know people. It has helped us immensely.

"Our association with IFMA lets us hear directly the concerns of facility managers. We get to know them in both formal and informal settings, and we get to see what they go through on a day-to-day basis. It is through this association that we get suggestions on products needed for their companies."

As manufacturers' representatives, the company spotlights furniture and office products from three divisions of Herman Miller, SQA for Small Businesses, Meridian, and Geiger International; and Lowenstein; CabotWrenn; Artemide; as well as from a number of smaller companies.

Though O'Neil has known Binford since he started his company, he has been associated with the company less than four years. He is one of 14 persons employed by Binford and works out of an office at Continental Office Furniture and his home.

O'Neil, and others associated with what he describes as "one of the largest representative firms in the country," works through architects, designers and end-users to fulfill a company mission of getting customers what they want when they need it whether it's furniture, lighting products, or modern and functional accessories for the office.