The FM Pipeline Team and their Facilithon high school student Facility Management intro program welcome Georgia to the world of Facility Managment!
In Early December 2023, Georgia State Director Ashley Acuff and her board approved an inaugural Facilithon competition for the 2024 SkillsUSA GA season, saying “I think this would be a great leadership competition to add to our slate of competitions at SkillsUSA GL state leadership and Skills Conference in 2024.
Kenneth Stephenson, Facilithon-Georgia state champion shared “I’m ready to share this with our Atlanta IFMA chapter and I hope Suzanne (Hearther, USGBC Nat’l Mkt Transformation coordinator) can share this with USGBC likewise”.
The Facilithon Georgia team took actoin immediately to make their presence known at regional GA conferences, where as many as 25 high schools bering their competitors to hone their skills. The Facilithon team set up their table with the 1 in 30 presentation materials for students and instructors to experience. Regional and district events allow students to hone their skills prior to the all-important state conference, where winners advance to nationals later in June 2024.
Volunteers at these events included Michael Barcarse – Instructor/ Advisor MHS
Tim Chamblee – IFMA Atlanta
Ken Stephenson – FMPipeline
Cheryl Waybright – IFMA Atlanta, IFMA Fellow
Kim Richards – IFMA Atlanta
Lyle Gladney – IFMA Atlanta – Previous National Volunteer
Clara Smith – IFMA Atlanta – Previous National Volunteer
Les Wilson – IFMA Atlanta – Previous National Volunteer
With the success at the Marietta Regional event secured, SkillsUSA Director Acuff said, “I look forward to working with you to bring Facilithon to SkillsUSA Georgia and provide our students with this learning opportunity”.
The Facilithon program’s mission is to Engage, enlighten and Energize our #NextGenOfFM, creating an entirely new class of facility managers to make wise descisions about our existing built environment. SkillsUSA is the fastest-groeing high school and post-secondary Career Technical Student Organization, popularized by Mike Rowe of Discovery Networks. SkillsUSA delivers young talent through an ethos of being the best workers and success in trades, technical and leadership roles.