来自非营利组织新人的笔记

今年早些时候, I was incredibly fortunate to receive the 2014 BOMA/ Chicago 基金会 Full Designation Scholarship. The entire commercial real estate community has been very welcoming 和 I’ve met a lot of interesting people with all sorts of experiences, 个人和专业. A common experience I’m finding the more that I meet people in CRE is that many of us l和ed in this field 和 in our careers indirectly, 有时甚至出乎意料. Frankly, this came as a relief to me – I had gone to college for theatre, after all!

在获得本科学位之后, I spent five years overseeing the facility 和 operations of Botanicals, an event design firm that was located in a warehouse space at 2214 N. Elston. After years of executing special events of all sizes in countless buildings 和 venues throughout Chicago 和 the surrounding suburbs, I found myself eager to be a part of an operations team in a larger facility. 丰富多样的专业经验, 再加上十大网赌靠谱网址平台剧院的背景, led me to shoot for a job specifically at a venue. Working at a downtown venue felt like it would be a great fit because it would combine my experience producing events 和 我的本科专业是戏剧.

During my tenure at Botanicals, I had overseen the installation of several events at Symphony Center. I always made a mental note of how Symphony Center was an expertly run venue with an efficient 和 impeccably professional environment – not to mention a product that has always performed at the highest level. So, when the Operations Coordinator position opened up in the summer of 2007, I jumped at the opportunity 和 was lucky enough to be chosen for the position.

上个月, 我的BOMA/十大网赌靠谱网址平台同学, Kristine索伦森, posted a blog on the Elevator Speech that touched upon the importance of having a support system 和 the value of your peers 和 supervisors’ expertise. 我完全同意. I was fortunate enough to have that immediately in John Maas, 战/菲利普-马萨, 交响乐中心的设施主管. 从我上班的第一天起, he was very upfront with me – if helping run a facility was something I enjoyed, I should really consider pursuing an education through designation courses offered at 博马/十大网赌靠谱网址平台. His mentoring has been essential to my success at the CSO, my experience working toward obtaining my 战/菲利普-马萨 designations 和 my pursuit of the Full Designation Scholarship.

I’m finding that one of the main differences between the daily tasks of my peers in the designation program 和 my own is this: working on tenant’s needs is actually a pretty small part of our job on the Facilities team at Symphony Center. In fact, we only have one tenant, Tesori, a restaurant located inside Symphony Center at 65 E. 亚当斯圣. 提供意式美食. Tesori is operated by Blue Plate Catering/Applause Food Services. Blue Plate/Applause is also the exclusive caterer to Symphony Center. The Symphony Center staff works very closely with Blue Plate/Applause, as they provide all food 和 beverage for rental events, 内部会议, events 和 the concessions for all our concert programming 和 third party concerts. It’s really more of a longst和ing partnership than an owner-tenant relationship.

While we only have one tenant, we do have hundreds of rental clients. As a non-profit organization, the CSO is always looking for opportunities to support the bottom line. One way of doing that is from renting out Orchestra Hall 和 the various event spaces at Symphony Center. Renting event space comprises at least half of my daily work: from marketing the space, to contracting 和 invoicing rental clients as well as producing the concert or event.

The relationship with our patrons is a tremendously rewarding one as well. As the CSO has been a pillar of Chicago since 1891, our concertgoers take genuine pride in the orchestra 和 its historical building. We get to preserve that history for generations to come 和 help the organization thrive.

Everything we do is for the support 和 advancement of our single biggest asset: the Orchestra. As an arts organization, the CSO is lucky to own its own facility. 在操作中 & 设备部门, I have the privilege of helping make that facility run at the very highest level. And my 战/菲利普-马萨 education through 博马/十大网赌靠谱网址平台 is proving invaluable to that experience every day.