The Office Building of the Year (TOBY) Award was created in 1985 to salute excellence in the office building industry. More than 20 years later, it remains the most prestigious and comprehensive program of its kind in commercial real estate, recognizing quality in office buildings and rewarding excellence in office building management.
The TOBY Awards (and now the Earth Award) have grown from a modest beginning into a notable and prestigious program at the local association, regional conference and international levels. Involvement in the TOBY program has more than tripled since its introduction and has enjoyed participation from a wide group of BOMA members. More than 500 buildings have been recognized as Regional winners and more than 100 of those have been recognized as International winners. The resulting press coverage and public relations opportunities have been nothing short of spectacular for the participating teams and their cities. The TOBY and Earth Awards have drawn attention to hundreds of office buildings across the United States and Canada, and to the owners, managers and architects who conceive, operate and design them.

In years past, entering the TOBY was considered burdensome because of the extensive amount of information that had to be collected and submitted in a binder. Now, the entire process is completed electronically. BOMA International has created a website (www.boma.org/TOBY) that helps the entrant complete the process. They have added resource links that are an enormous help to the entrant.

Winners at the local level advance to the regional competition and, if successful, then compete at the International level. San Antonio has had several regional winners in the past including one winner at the International level.

SABOMA is challenging all regular members to give serious consideration to entering the 2008-2009 TOBY competition. Not only is it a very prestigious award, it also provides great publicity for both your owner and management company at the local, regional and international levels.

Information on the competition is available from BOMA International at the TOBY and Earth Web site (www.boma.org/TOBY). Next year's local competition deadline is February 1, 2009.

Adrienne Cox, Property Manager of Nowlin Tower, was the 2007 local winner in the 100,000 - 249,999 Square Feet category. She had the following to share about her experience:

"Participating in the BOMA TOBY award process is enormously gratifying. Not only does it reconnect you intimately with your property, it is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with your staff as you all work toward a common goal.

In the past, the task was rather strenuous as the paperwork needed to complete the application was considerable; however, the new on-line application made the process very easy. Working within the guidelines provided in the on-line application helps you to remain focused on the critical items without devoting too much time to items that may be less prudent to the judging panel.

Two areas in the application particularly made me see our property and our level of management in a new light. Those areas were Community Impact and Environmental & Regulatory Policies. Both forced our staff to take a hard look at how our management of the properties can really reach not just locally but also globally. After addressing these two areas in the TOBY application, we began to stretch ourselves to see how we could do even more in the future.

I strongly encourage everyone to participate in the TOBY process. Win or lose, the BOMA TOBY award program really awakens your pride in your property."

This year the TOBY Committee consists of Chairperson Richard Alexander (ISS Facilities Group), Kim Webb (East Group Properties), David Webb (Beldon), Rose-Mary Raddick (Contract Building Services) and Rebecca Sims (Lillibridge Healthcare). Richard and Kim have been TOBY judges at the local and regional levels in previous year competitions. They have invaluable information about the process and judging. Richard and Kim can be reached at richard.alexander@us.issworld.com and kim.webb@eastgroup.com if you have any questions about this process. They would gladly mentor any person that enters the 2009 TOBY contest.