Colleagues, members and partners,
With the majority of Australia currently in some form of lockdown, quarantine or isolation, I must again applaud and congratulate you all for your ongoing resilience, tenacity and leadership as you manage your respective institutions to ensure safe, compliant and efficient management of your Campuses, Estates and built environments. Your work is essential to the ongoing success of our sector, and whilst today is challenging, tomorrow will bring opportunities as we all reshape our portfolios to meet the new and future demands that Higher Education will bring.
Benchmark Survey
The login details for the 2020 Benchmark Survey have now been distributed to the Institutional Member of all participating institutions. Please follow up your Institutional Member to gain your institutional login for this current year, and remember the confidentiality obligations you must accept when using the data. If Institutional Members are yet to receive their access link, please contact info@tefma.com and we can provide assistance. Click here if you need to confirm who the Institutional Member is for your Institution.
In 2017 we finished the auditing process of all participating institutions in the benchmark survey. At the time, it was agreed that funds previously used for this would be re-invested into improvements to the online reporting tool. The Board have agreed we should recommence the audit in 2021. Following a tender process with relevant business partners, we have now engaged Slattery to undertake this task. 4 institutions will be selected and will work closely with Slattery and TEFMA through this process.
TEFMA Elections
With a pleasing number of nominations received again this year, an online ballot was held to elect our newest TEFMA Board Directors. Thank you to the Institutional Members who voted to elect your peers.
It is with great pleasure I confirm our elected directors this year are:
- Trevor Humphreys, Director, Campus Management, University of Western Australia. Trevor was co-opted onto the Board in 2019 and is the current TEFMA Vice-President .
- Emmett Mackle, Associate Director - Facilities, The University of Auckland. Emmett was elected onto the Board in 2019 and is the current chair of the Education Services Committee.
- Kathleen Packer, Director, University of Wollongong. Kathleen was co-opted onto the Board in 2019 and is the current chair of the Membership Services Committee.
I would also like to thank the unsuccessful nominees for their interest, and as discussed privately, we will be looking at ways to ensure continued engagement may occur. We invite other interested parties to also reach out as we look to expand our webinar, research and knowledge offerings for our members.
TEFMA Events
At the end of June, we all gathered in person (where able) for the Strategic Asset Management Workshop / Guideline Launch. It was the first hybrid regional event we had done and was well attended across Australia and New Zealand with approx. 40 universities represented together with various TEFMA partners and services providers. A brilliant recap on the workshop was written by Kris Greenwood, GJK Facility Services (TEFMA's Education Partner), and I encourage you to read her report here.
The annual TEFMA Directors' Forum was held on 26 July. Although again unable to meet face to face, it was a great result to see so many people able to join us virtually over the course of the 4 hour event as we heard from a variety of insightful speakers covering sector relevant key priorities including energy, sustainability and big picture commercial, development and contractual areas post COVID. We shared a Board annual update where our committee chairs highlighted key achievements from the past 12 months and our future plans.
And finally, we are again gearing up for TEMC 2021. As much as we would all love to see this event return to face to face in 2021, the decision was made early this year that the postponed 2020 Brisbane event would still not be able to take place in person this year due to travel restriction uncertainty. Instead, the event will be online, running over the course of 3 days (11 - 13 October). This year we are making it easier for our institutions to connect and offer professional development opportunities for your entire team by offering Institutional Registrations. For a $5,000 investment, anyone within your institution will be able to receive an individual login for the event. We strongly encourage you to view the TEMC website and to take advantage of this offer. We hope to see you all online in October.
Corporate Partner Whitepaper - Cleaning for Wellbeing and Productivity
One thing highlighted by COVID-19 is how important good hygiene and cleanliness is to preventing illness caused by viruses and bacteria. Even before COVID-19, the cost to the Australian economy in lost wages and productivity from the influenza virus alone was $94 million.
Unclean and unhealthy buildings can spread viruses, make people unwell and unproductive, costing businesses money. So, for any workplace – tertiary institutions included – it is incredibly important that we are vigilant with hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness; not only while we continue to battle COVID-19, but beyond. TEFMAs Education Partner, GJK Facility Services, share their whitepaper “6 Essential Ways to Optimise Cleaning for Wellbeing and Productivity” which explores how cleaning enhances the wellbeing of employees and the effect it can have on productivity.
TEFMA Awards and Scholarships
Reviews are currently underway for submissions received for this year's Awards and Scholarships. It is encouraging to see our members continue to put forward such high quality applications – which is testament to the innovation, entrepreneurship and best practice that our institutions continue to deliver. It is a great opportunity for institutions and associate members to share their achievements, create awareness and to continue their learnings through networking and connecting with recognised exemplars across our sector. Discussions are taking place around the 2021 Awards Dinner and how we may best facilitate this in some capacity for our members. Further details will be shared when available - Watch this space.
TEFMA's 2021 Charity Partner - Housing All Australians
It was announced at the Directors' Forum that TEFMA have a new nominated charity for 2021. TEFMA will support Housing All Australians to raise awareness, fundraise at events and by donating to the charity in lieu of speaker gifts at TEFMA hosted workshops and forums.
HAA is a private sector group using a commercial lens to help address Australia's chronic shortage of low-income affordable housing.
It was established in 2019 as a ‘for purpose’ organisation, to facilitate a private sector voice, and re-position the discussion and action on social and affordable housing for those on low to very low incomes. Their commercial lens is like no other charity in this space. Their mission is to harness the ability of the private sector and collaborate to address this issue.
HAA provides short term shelter in under-utilised infrastructure (pop-up shelters) – delivering short term transitional housing in existing buildings that are sitting idle and going through a long redevelopment process. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch a short clip here to give you an overview of HAA and the work they do.
Job Board / Tender Board
You can view the latest jobs advertised on the TEFMA Jobs Board here. We encourage our Members to contact the TEFMA Secretariat if your institution has position(s) currently available.
Similar to the Job Board, we would like to develop a site for our institutions to display open tenders, to ensure appropriate engagement with our Business Partners (and to help ensure you get strong responses to your tenders). If you have upcoming tenders or links you wish for us to advertise on your behalf, please contact the TEFMA Secretariat with the relevant details and we will be sure to promote your activities.
Until we touch base again, please keep yourselves, your loved ones and your teams safe. Keep fighting the good fight and connect with someone from our network – our brains trust is strong and will continue to help you into the future. Our business partners are all too happy to assist and we encourage you to explore their current work and innovative solutions that will provide innovative and efficient solutions to help you have a win every day.
Regards,
Glenn Mowbray
TEFMA President
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