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It was the General Services Administration, the federal government’s manager of some 334 million square feet of office space that houses 1.1 million workers, that held the spotlight at the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter’s third FM Roundtable November 17 at the Grandview Café.
And as related by Jim Schmeizer, GSA senior property manager, the organization is working creatively to keep its customers happy and its buildings full in a time that can rapidly swing from downsizing to a need for space to accommodate growth.
Some of this ingenuity can be attributed to the government pitting its own agencies in a “bidding war” against private industry for the greatest operating efficiency, but a good bit stems from an even harder effort by GSA to meet its clients needs.
Schmeizer said, “GSA has national target goals it must meet, or it affects our budget. We are the only agency in the federal government that operates on a profit basis. We do not get operating money from the Congress. So, we are asked to keep our buildings full, and it behooves us to come up with creative ways to get people into (or keep them in) our buildings.”
To accomplish this, GSA surveys its customers (federal agencies with the exception of the Department of Defense and U.S. Postal Service) every two years, using as its guide an IFMA-developed format that asks a lot of questions and also provides clients an opportunity for their comments on minor problems they may be experiencing.
If a problem or need centers on capital improvements, it becomes part of GSA’s five-year plan, “and if it’s on the plan, we need to get it done because this is now a performance measure.”
In response to a question on survey frequency, Schmeizer said it was “too cumbersome and expensive to do more often. You have to live or die with what you get from the survey for two years.”
GSA’s “attention to business” appears to be paying off. Stan Kaczmarczyk, GSA’s director of innovative workspaces, reported at World Workplace in Salt Lake City last month that through his division’s major initiatives they are managing facilities more efficiently with costs 12 percent below the industry average, and are competing successfully with outsourcers.
Donna Byrom, an organizer and ardent supporter of the FM Roundtables, applauded the variety of building management viewpoints that were present for the November session. She said:
“Those who missed this roundtable missed an incredibly valuable experience. The discussion was insightful from many diverse perspectives. We had the big government view from GSA and The Ohio State University (Dorothy Leachman), and the private sector with large but downsizing MCI (Byrom), and small and growing NetJets (Barry Widder).
“We had the real estate perspective from Realty Finance Management (Tom Logsdon), the architect/planner perspective from BHDP Architecture (Vicki Simons) and the outsourced facility manager perspective from Timm Facility Management (Fred Timm).
Vickie Simons added, “The size and make-up of the group made for a lively discussion around the topics of performance measurement, virtual work, and ‘green’ buildings. We all agreed that ‘sustainable’ isn’t the best term to describe facilities designed with sensitivity to the environment and energy savings.
“Maybe Leadership in Energy and Environment (LEED) is the right term, but not everyone wants to go through the formal process of certifying their buildings. That is okay; the important thing is that we think about these issues and apply them where we can.”
The popularity of the three roundtables has prompted the Program Committee to include six on its schedule for 2005. The first will be in January.
