IFMA And GEFMA Announce International Partnership Agreement

The International Facility Management Association and the German Facility Management Association are pleased to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations outlining plans to work together to promote facility management education, credentials, and research internationally. Executives from the two organizations met in Vienna, Austria, during the 2011 European Facility Management Conference to sign the agreement. Representing IFMA were Tony Keane, CAE, president and CEO; Francis Kuhn, CFM, CFMJ, board chairman; and Kathy Roper, CFM, CFMJ, LEED AP, IFMA Fellow, board first vice chair. Representing GEFMA were Prof. Michael May, Ph.D., board member, and Elke Kuhlmann, Ph.D., general secretary.

The MOU was drafted with the assistance of IFMA board member Joachim W. Hohmann, MSc, Ph.D., CFM. The agreement calls for a five-year period of collaboration where both parties will:

  • Work together to promote good facility management practices, education and research, and magnify the importance of the profession worldwide;
  • Influence facility- and workplace-related issues under consideration in the European Union;
  • Identify potential joint educational offerings, certifications, guidelines, white papers and surveys, and work together to translate program materials;
  • Offer facility-related knowledge and benchmarking information to each organization’s members;
  • Actively participate in each organization’s facility management conferences;
  • Publish joint books and articles on relevant topics in each organization’s publications and websites; and
  • Look for greater networking and collaboration opportunities in education, research, and practice.

“With the enactment of this memorandum of understanding, we strengthen a unique and valuable partnership that benefits both organizations’ respective members and serves to advance the profession worldwide,” said Kuhn. “We look forward to capitalizing on the tremendous opportunities to improve FM education, credentialing, and research that this agreement presents. IFMA is proud of our relationship with GEFMA and pleased to extend our knowledge and best practices to our fellow facility professionals in Germany, as well as the rest of the world.”

“This memorandum of understanding helps the level of collaboration between our associations achieve a new quality,” said May. “We seek to learn from each other’s experiences and work together in FM-related areas of joint interest in ways that are mutually beneficial. GEFMA members are increasingly taking an international perspective on matters of FM education, research and services, and we look forward to sharing our best practices and approaches with the international FM community.”