The Government Accountability Office (GAO) includes federal real property on their high risk report. Read more about the issues found and recommendations here.

The Federal Real Property Association (FRPA)  kicked off our 2014 program with an all-star panel of GSA real property leaders.
Headed by Dr. Dorothy Robyn, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, the 90  minute panel discussion was loaded with insights into GSA’s agenda, priorities, and challenges.  I’ll plan to share highlights in the coming days.  
 
To start? 
Dr. Robyn shared two factors impeding GSA’s ability to better manage federal real property. The first issue, not surprisingly, is about money. Over the last three years, Congress diverted about $5 billion from the Federal Building Fund—GSA’s rent repository and primary fund source. The second issue is really more of what Dr. Robyn sees as a missed opportunity to get serious about disposition and
consolidation through a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process-like process. 

On funding, her plea was for Congress to stop raiding rent money to cover other programs and expenses. Losing about $1.5
billion per year over the last three years has hurt GSA’s ability to keep up with the repairs, moves, purchases, upgrades, and consolidations needed (and expected) by their federal agency customers. Part of the problem is that rent
for federal agencies is set specifically to cover operating and maintenance costs—not earn a profit.  So, there
is no slack built in. Diverting funds from this core account means revamping, rescoping, and cancelling investments in these facilities that have been planned and anticipated for many years. This is not only disappointing for their federal customers but introduces additional risk to their mission, inefficiencies such as wasted energy, and added costs to run facilities in “break-down mode” (only
fixing things as they break, as opposed to, on a planned replacement cycle.)

Her second message was really more of a forward-looking request for the legislative support to initiate a BRAC process.  This long discussed, seemingly politically tricky (or impossible) initiative, in Dr. Robyn’s assessment, would got a long way to address some inefficiencies and avoid future costs.

While she was speaking about GSA, these points really apply to all federal real property owners. An increased focus backed by
broader authorities for making sound management decisions is desperate needed.

Mention your professional association at happy hour and watch people squirm. Within our work circles, nothing brings on the wistful "if only I had more time" excuse faster. Actually, it's not an excuse, it's real.  Attending events is one thing-- and that's great-- but getting involved in driving and shaping the agenda and priorities is another entirely.

Involvement beyond membership in your professional association (typically conferences) can be hugely rewarding but a time sink
if you're not on your best defensive game when chatting up the volunteer board.  In addition to being exceptionally talented, nice, good
looking (and humble), they're constantly in recruiting mode trying to find extra hands to help.

I wanted to share some thoughts on how to get involved but manage your time in a way that benefits both you professionally, as well as, the organization.  When members are actively engaged, programming is better, conversations are richer, and networking opportunities are expanded. With that goal in mind, here are a couple of things you can do to help in an hour or less.

1. Speak! All organizations want quality programs. Good topics and good speakers keep members interested and energized. Quality goes up when there are more topics to pick from a diverse speaker set. So, what are you waiting for?  Volunteer to present a topic on which you already have the slides handy.  Easy.
2. Share some tech love. Technology savvy in any way?  Good for you. Chances are that your board is not.. If your social skills extend to social media, even better.  Share your tips by hosting a short "how to" for the board and event committee. Most associations aren't leveraging all of the tools available to them-- no shocker there. The people with the passwords need help updating their site, generating invites and event registrations, posting clever, enticing status updates to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and setting up massive online meetings and conference calls, etc.
3. Reserve a table for two.  At the next scheduled event, bring a friend.  Better yet, bring a gaggle of colleagues from your office and use the association event as a team building exercise. Some will like it, some will be bored.  That's ok. Membership recruiting is
   never done.  We always want more.
4. Save your links. For a week or so, save the links for topical articles that you find most interesting or relevant to your business.
5. Then, send this list to the board for distribution to the membership (or go direct if you have access to the group).  One of the greatest things members can do for each other is to help curate the ocean of information and resources out there on any given topic.  These book, article, and blog references are especially critical in times of change. Consider creating a designating tab on the
   association site for recommended reading.
6. Say cheese.  Offer to take pictures at the next big event.  No fancy editing needed, just snap and send. The board and event committees like to have photos on hand for use in future marketing.
7. Be a greeter for a day.  Have a little extra time to help check people in at the next event?  There is literally no better way to meet everyone in attendance than to control nametag distribution.

 
So do-able, right? Don't be afraid to volunteer for these or any other great things you think of.  Your contribution matters.

By Robin Camarote