Committed to excellence.(PRESIDENT'S INSIGHTS)

It's hard to believe that we're more than halfway through 2009. The year has been full of challenges and success stories; and IREM has been there through it all. In the last few months, we responded swiftly to the H1N1 flu outbreak, providing a "Swine Flu Resources" page on IREMFIRST (www.iremfirst.org). We went to Capitol Hill to urge our Congress and the federal government to provide favorable relief to the commercial real estate industry through commercial market liquidity, with the goal of abating rising delinquencies and foreclosures. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

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As real estate managers, we know we must meet the expectations of evermore sophisticated tenants, lenders, regulators and, most of all, our property investors and owners. Professional real estate managers in the 21st century still must find, sign and retain tenants. They must recruit, train, reward and discipline staff. They must create, solicit, evaluate and enforce bids for services and products. And they must inspect, maintain and upgrade sites from curb to rooftop. Across the board, we require successful trouble-shooting and communications skills. Increasingly, too, we are expected to be experts in the underlying valuation of investment real estate in what currently is a volatile market and is likely to stay that way for a while.

IREM is positioned to help us keep up with state-of-the-art best practices and, at critical times, respond to the surprise demands triggered by accidents, fires, power and other utility failures, natural disasters and crime: Take for instance an article in this issue about how IREM Members successfully have dealt with natural disasters (see "Dealing with Disaster," p. 32).

In addition to sharing the value our members impart for managing natural disasters, this issue of JPM presents dynamic strategies to maximize your financial resources (see "Capital Investment," p. 26) and handle tenant demands in this market (see "How to Negotiate with Tenants in a Tough Economy," p. 42), to name a few. These are challenges that many of you have dealt with or will deal with in the future. Your IREM leadership remains committed to helping you navigate these demands as we fortify our community of committed property managers.

I look forward to seeing the U.S. chapter leaders at the Chapter Leadership Conference in Chicago at the end of this month. We will plan for the future and work to enhance the coming year's meaningful member experiences even more for all IREM Members. Remember, there is opportunity for us in this economic crisis. As your career partner, IREM is standing by at your side!

Pamela W. Monroe, CPM

2009 IREM President

PAM MONROE, CPM[R] (PMONROE@COMMUNITYREALTY MANAGEMENT. COM), IREM 2009 PRESIDENT. IS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AT COMMUNITY REALTY MANAGEMENT, INC., PLEASANTVILLE, N.J.

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