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Three on-site building tours took place for staff to see the firm’s projects under construction first
hand. The projects included the Wheaton College Music Conservatory, the Addison Consolidated
Dispatch Center, and the Wiss Janey Elstner’s new technical center.

FGM’s commitment to providing an atmosphere of professional growth and development through
our committees, management style and licensure support has earned us the 2017 Emerging
Professionals Outstanding Friendly Firm Award in the Central States Region. This Region includes
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The program is a committee of the American
Institute of Architects. Special thanks goes out to our own, Danny Matchett, for pointing out this
opportunity, filling out the paperwork and giving us a winning submission!

FGM’s Professional Development Committee and Technical Advisory Group (TAG) continued its
focus in 2017 on professional development training. These will be discussed more in depth under
Committees later in the report.

Technology
The IT Department continues to operate as an army of one. Mike Caraker has remained very
busy throughout 2017. Mike has done a phenomenal job keeping up with the day-to-day
support items, as well as, managing the remainder of his job as IT Director. Mike, we again thank
you for your support throughout the year.
During FY2017, Mike has managed to address over 1900 user support requests while completing
the following:
1. Installing new Firewalls in every office, which has given us enhanced security while allowing
easy access for everyone remote accessing the firm.
2. Upgrading Newforma from 11.7 to 11.8 and then to 11.9.
3. Preparing and launching a Vision upgrade from 7.3 to 7.6, which also included new virtual
servers.
4. Upgrading the office connections from a 50meg line to a 100meg line, doubling our speed
while reducing our costs.
5. Outfitted the Oak Brook Commons TV and Skype.
6. Relocating the Chicago office.
7. Working with Mastergraphics on a study of our BIM Process and use of our Architectural
support programs.
8. Cleaning up from a hijack intrusion. Our virtual servers and Panzura (cloud based) file
systems made this cleanup much simpler than it would have in the past.

The coming year will most likely bring us additional upgrades of our software and our
workstations. The only constant that will remain in the IT world is continuous change!
Committees

The Professional Development Committee (PDC) continued to move the 2020 Firm Vision of a
learning and mentoring culture by continuing the FGM U programs. The feedback on these
programs have continued to be positive from both the presenters and the audience. Learning is
happening at all levels of these programs. We thank the PDC for all their efforts and look to you
continuing this program in FY18. Thank you all for your support and efforts!

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) also made great strides in FY17 with the evolution of
“Lessons Learned” into a firm-wide program, as well as “TAG Tuesdays” where staff learn more in-
depth about the firm-wide standards in place at FGM. We believe we are a leader in our industry