President’s Newsletter: February 2025

Build your Knowledge, Build your Network

Dear Colleagues,

With 2025 well underway, I hope you had a well-earned break and have returned refreshed for what will no doubt be another busy year across the sector. The year has commenced at pace for the Board, with the first Board meeting held and a successful Leaders Forum and Projects Workshop undertaken in Sydney last week – more on this below.

The Board also convened to refresh TEFMA’s Strategic Plan, to ensure the purpose and vision of the Association remains relevant and it continues to provide value and remains flexible in our service delivery to meet the needs of members in a challenging higher education environment. As part of the refresh process, we interviewed and surveyed institutional members, business partners and a number of Board members, to ascertain if our current offerings are valued and the opportunities to explore and improve upon. Draft key initiatives from the strategic plan refresh session include:

Development of sector groups: Establishing dedicated groups to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing among institutional members on high-impact topics.
Improved engagement of business partnerships: Strengthening engagement with business partners through new and enhanced channels that connect them with institutional members.
Introduction of lifetime learning: Launching a structured professional development program catering to those new to the sector, in middle management and senior decision-makers in the sector.
Development of a knowledge hub: Expanding TEFMA’s existing benchmarks and guidelines into a centralised, accessible knowledge platform.
Digital transformation: Over the next three years, TEFMA will develop an industry-leading online platform to support virtual networking, event management, knowledge sharing, and professional development.

TEFMA enters the next 3-year period in a financially strong position and is well placed to deliver its strategic plan initiatives. We look forward to working with members to bring these initiatives to fruition.

TEFMA Leaders Forum and Projects Workshop

On behalf of the TEFMA Board, I would like to extend our appreciation to those that attended the Leaders Forum and Projects Workshop held on 18-20 February 2025 in Sydney. We had many institutions and business partners represented and the level of engagement across the three days was fantastic. Feedback to date has been extremely positive, and we wish to warmly thank the organising committee, keynote speakers and session presenters, our event organiser, exhibitors and sponsors, and all delegates. The Leaders Forum and the Projects Workshop presentations have been loaded into the TEFMA Community Portal for members to access.

I would also like to thank the University of Technology Sydney for investing their time to take members on informative tours of some of their outstating facilities. We very much appreciate you sharing your knowledge, experience and lessons learned along the way.

Following each TEFMA event, we survey participants to gauge feedback on how we can make these events even better, so I encourage those who attended to take a few minutes to complete the survey.

Annual TEFMA Benchmarking Survey

The Information and Knowledge Services Committee is preparing for yet another year of benchmarking (the 13th March in fact)! Confirmation of the relevant institutional contact for the benchmarking survey has been released for response by early March 2025. We look forward to working with institutions on this year’s survey, which continues to provide rich data for consideration and decision making.

Scholarships and Awards

Applications for the 2025 Scholarships and Clever Campus Awards will open late March 2025. This is an opportunity to grow your network and knowledge and recognise the great work undertaken at our institutions. Further information will be circulated shortly, but as a reminder, TEFMA provides the following scholarships and award opportunities:

Publications

I am pleased to advise the TEFMA 2023 Benchmark Insights Publication was completed and made available in the TEFMA Community Portal in December last year.

The updated TEFMA Space Planning Guideline was finalised in mid-February and will be posted on the TEFMA Community Portal.

The TEFMA / ACTS Scope 3 Emissions Guideline remains on schedule for completion in late March 2025.

On behalf of the Board and members, I sincerely thank all special interest groups who were pivotal in developing these informative publications. These members are duly acknowledged within the Publications.

Upcoming events

Monthly Webinars

TEFMA’s monthly webinar programme continues to be popular, which is a credit to all members. Details of upcoming Webinars are provided below and you can register here:

Events

TEFMA will continue to provide a variety of informative and engaging events in 2025 with the opportunity to collaborate with your peers and those that contribute strongly to our sector.

Please accept the Save the Date invitations for the following events when circulated.

Business Partners

If you have not done so recently, we encourage our member institutions to view information on the TEFMA Business Partners list on the website here to understand how they can assist you with the goals and objectives of your institutions. I am delighted to welcome the following new TEFMA Business Partners:

Fifty Five Group - Fifty Five Group - Property Technology Solutions – Fifty Five group specialises in property technology solutions for large, complex assets, developing customised strategies and delivering impactful solutions for your portfolio.
TK Elevators - https://www.tkelevator.com/au-en/ - TK elevators is one of the world’s leading elevator companies with unique engineering capabilities and installs, maintains and modernises elevators and escalators in Australia.
Greenworx - Greenworx | Landscape Management - Greenworx delivers a range of landscape and turf management services to a diverse group of facilities, including commercial and industrial properties.
WT Partnership - WT Australia | Cost Management and Advisory Services – WT empowers clients to grow, inspiring confidence through independent cost management and advisory services, with expertise in the building, construction, and infrastructure sectors.
Grosvenor Performance Group - Management Consultants | Grosvenor - Grosvenor is a management consulting firm specialising in public sector, procurement, and property advisory services.

We extend a big thank you to all of our Business Partners for their continued support - you are crucial in bringing relevant services and educational offerings to TEFMA members and appreciate the contribution and value you provide to the sector.

TEFMA Community

Please remember to view the TEFMA Community portal with the aim of fostering a culture of collaboration through sharing and engaging with the resources available in the library. The information is intended to generate discussion, build relationships with peers and learn from one another.

Wishing you all the best for the year. Should you wish to contact TEFMA, please email info@tefma.com

Kind Regards,

Jo Riley

TEFMA President

For all enquiries, please contact:

TEFMA Secretariat
E: info@tefma.com
Ph: 02 9431 8692

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