The Conference for Catholic Facility Management is all about members connecting to share problems and solutions with other members across the United States and Canada. A beautiful example of that happened last fall in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. After the Annual Conference in Denver, Tom DuBois, Director of Building and Real Estate at the Archdiocese of St. Louis, was contacted by Ray Tiedemann of John Tiedemann Restoration. Ray wanted to visit and meet with the new crew in St. Louis which included Tom, Doug Lueke, Project Manager and Jim Arnet, Facilities Manager. Once a date was picked, Doug reached out to CCFM to find out who the members were around the St. Louis area.
“Since Ray is coming all the way from New Jersey,” Doug reasoned, “it seems we could extend the invitation to all CCFM members within driving distance of the St. Louis offices.”
The meet and greet morphed into a 90-minute Lunch and Learn and was scheduled about four weeks out to allow for planning.
The National Office pulled the surrounding members contact information and 37 invitations were sent to members up to a four-hour drive from St. Louis. Several CCFM members accepted the invitation and the presentation on Historic Plaster Repair and Restoration was presented in the Archbishop May Board room at the Cardinal Rigali Center in St. Louis. Several facility managers were present, but for those who could not make the trip, the presentation was set up as a zoom meeting so they could join virtually. Dan Himmelberg, Director of Real Estate and Construction with the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas, attended virtually and emailed:
“Thank you so much. This was very helpful and great information. I currently have two small churches contemplating this very thing.”
It should be noted that Ray arrived with two others from John Tiedemann. They drove 15 hours from New Jersey after their flight was cancelled, “I didn’t want to disappoint them,” Ray explained. That’s commitment! Ray generously supplied some great St. Louis barbecue from Pappy’s Smokehouse for the Lunch-n-Learn.
The punchline is that following the informative presentation, Ray received the contract to do the repairs and restorations at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Read more about the project in the July issue of the St. Louis Review here.
This is how CCFM works – collaborating, sharing resources, connecting with those around us. Whatever is going on in your organization, chances are there are other CCFM members dealing with the same or similar. Sharing our problems, challenges, and resources are why we exist!
