Volunteers in action - Snow Ambassadors launches

SIMA Ambassadors is a training program to help members spread the word about SIMA to consumer groups, including facilities and property management professionals – through speaking, webinars and more...

This blog is part of our summer series 'Volunteers in Action' on how SIMA volunteers are taking action to improve the snow removal industry.

By Ellen Kobach
As anyone who was at the committee volunteer meeting at the Snow & Ice Symposium now knows, the SIMA staff is quite fond of the term “B-HAG.” For those of you who don’t know, B-HAG stands for “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” SIMA’s Director of Education & Outreach Phill Sexton introduced this term to the SIMA office…and now we even have t-shirts! (See above photo).

SIMA’s Outreach Committee, led by Phill and chair Matt Race, has established a major B-HAG for the coming year, centering around the Best Practices Checklist and outreach initiatives to facility and property management groups. This goal will be the focus of the committee’s work this year, and a new program is being developed to help reach it: SIMA Ambassadors. 

SIMA Ambassadors is a training program to help members spread the word about SIMA to consumer groups, including facilities and property management professionals – through speaking, webinars and more. The initial goal is to recruit at least 12 qualified Ambassadors across different geographic areas (Canada & US), and hold an in-person program for them to be trained on presenting key information to targeted groups. Ambassadors will then take the skills learned there and go out to present to a variety of property/facility management groups and organizations.

The Outreach committee spent much of last year creating the Best Practices Checklist, and this is just one more step in helping spread the word about SIMA and industry standards. 

While “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” sounds a little funny, it is a good way to describe the ambition of the Outreach committee members. Based on the success of last year’s committee (including revamping the SIMA Buddy Program to SIMA Advisors, forming relationships with consumer, groups and creating/refining Best Practices), I think this group is already well on its way to accomplishing this year’s B-HAG.

If you are interested in SIMA Ambassadors or outreach efforts, please contact Phill@sima.org.