CFTA Starts Membership Drive!

Campus FM Technology Association (CFTA) began its initial membership drive at its annual conference in Los Angeles on August 21, 2008.  The beginning of the membership drive comes at the end of a yearlong process of reorganizing our not-for-profit corporation into a professional association whose membership is made up of institutions and their staff members who plan, develop, maintain, and manage campus infrastructures.

The primary focus of our constituents always has been the development and application of tools of technology used for carrying out their work.  The initial application of modern computer technology that brought CFTA constituents together in their first series of annual conferences was that of Computer Assisted Drafting and Design (CADD) systems used for designing, modeling, and maintaining campus facilities in the late twentieth century.

The advancement of CADD technologies was an important step in the development of several other vector-based graphics and database-related technologies now in use.  As time passed, CFTA constituents began developing and embracing these technologies; and these technologies have now become essential tools used around the world to plan, design, maintain, and manage campus facilities and infrastructures.

These important tools now include more advanced CADD applications, Computer Assisted Facilities Management (CAFM) systems, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS), and Building Information Modeling (BIM).  The development, use, and integration of all these systems are important topics of conversation and education at every CFTA event and at the center of CFTA’s services to its constituents.

If you are involved in the development of these tools; or if you are involved in implementing, managing, or using these tools in your work; or even if you are simply interested in these tools and are wanting to stay up with FM technology in general, all CFTA members extend to you a friendly and helpful hand to welcome you to membership in Campus FM Technology Association. 

To find out more about membership in CFTA, please follow the Membership links on our web site.   

Lola Van Wyk
CFTA Director and Chairman of the CFTA Membership Committee

Manager, Design Services
Iowa State University