Fabrice Chiche (Board Member), Tom Stuij (OMA Member), Jim Durfee (Board President), Paul Tracey (OMA Member), Doug Hollingshead (Board Member), and Roberty Koncelik (Board Member)

MIPIM
April 6, 2012

The Office Moving Alliance recently exhibited at MIPIM (the leading international real estate fair) in Cannes, France and was pleased to promote an increasingly impressive global presence for our growing organization. Over 20 people representing Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and the USA comprised our delegation and helped staff the OMA trade show booth for three extremely busy and productive days. In addition, OMA members hosted potential and current clients at an early evening cocktail party overlooking the famed French Riviera.

Thanks to wonderful planning by our French hosts from AMT, there was time set aside for our group to relax and enjoy many of the unforgettable sights, sounds and tastes of France. We experienced a walking tour of the Abbaye de Lerins on the island of Saint Honorat; an excellent dinner in Antibes with guest speaker Celine Gicquel of Groupama Insurance; an outing to AMT’s local offices in southern France complete with provincial music, wine and food; a bus trip to Monte Carlo (thankfully the famed casino was kind to a few of us); and a guided tour of the Chateau Chantilly outside Paris. We are eternally grateful for the unselfish effort extended by AMT and their staff - they went overboard to assure everyone felt welcome during the visit.

The Office Moving Alliance is committed to continuing to provide value to our member companies through both local and international exposure; it is through these efforts we will reap the benefits of working together to accomplish what we could not as easily realize on our own.

OMA Member Gives Back to the Local Community
March 12, 2012

Katie Slye-Griffin and her assistant used to walk around the office of their nonprofit with hammers and nails, piecing back together shoddy particle board furniture.

The budget for the Montgomery County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness does not allow extra money for Slye-Griffin, executive director, to purchase office furniture for her staff of 20.

And that's where the Kane Furniture Bank swings into action.

Once per month, the Kane Furniture Bank allows nonprofits to tag and take — at no cost — donated office furniture.

"You don't know what you're going to get in advance, but chances are you're going to find something that's of use to the organization," Slye-Griffin said. "It's a huge cost savings."

Office Movers Inc., which handles office relocations and downsizing, founded the furniture bank in September as an environmental and charitable initiative, said Joy Newton Grubb, general manager and vice president of commercial sales.

When Office Movers works with a client, the company offers the option to donate furniture not headed to a new office space to the bank instead of taking items to a landfill. Clients include corporations, schools, hospitals, universities, law firms and associations.

Office Movers fills a 10,000-square-foot warehouse with gently used furniture. The space usually clears the second Saturday of every month when the furniture bank opens for four hours for nonprofits to select items, Newton Grubb said.

"We wanted a way to give back to the community and we were already developing a green initiative program," Newton Grubb said. "One of the things that we thought would be good to do is help marry corporations with nonprofits."

Many companies are downsizing, Newton Grubb said, and do not want to see 1- to 2-year-old furniture end up at the dump.

Since the furniture bank began, more than 42 truckloads of furniture have been donated. The bank has about 400 nonprofit clients in its database; each receives an email about the event every month.

Laura Duvelius, director of development for Adoptions Together, said her organization was among the first to attend a furniture bank event. Adoptions Together, with offices in Silver Spring, Baltimore, Herndon, Va., and Washington, D.C., supports children and families formed through adoption, guardianship, foster care and kinship care.

Before picking up tables, conference chairs and a sofa from the furniture bank, Adoption Together's office furniture left something to be desired.

"It was donated and terrible and we had it about 12 years," Duvelius said.

Adoption Together staff has been to the bank multiple times, Duvelius said, saving the nonprofit upward of $5,000. This keeps the overhead rate small, allowing the organization to spend a majority of donations on helping children and families.

"This is a wonderful gift to the community," Duvelius said of the furniture bank. "And inventive because it keeps our bottom line healthy and it serves our clients."

Slye-Griffin attended the event for the first time in February, walking away with desks, chairs, a file cabinet piece and training tables.

"We walked in and were amazed because this was real office furniture," Slye-Griffin said. "Solid desks that aren't going to fall down if you pile too many papers on them."

Nonprofit staff who show up at the warehouse label furniture they wish to take. They can pack the items into their own vehicles or use a low-cost delivery system the bank provides.

For organizations such as Slye-Griffin's — which doesn't have a spare dime to spend on furniture — the furniture bank is a generous and beneficial resource.

"Whomever the donors are, whichever companies decided to make these donations, we're hugely appreciative," Slye-Griffin said. "It's huge for us."

AMT starts the application "MyTransfert"
January 23, 2012

In a market constantly changing, AMT has demonstrated its capacity for innovation launching the application "MyTransfert", downloadable for free, on the AppStore in French and English or on our website http://www.amttransfert.fr/.

The launch of the application "My Transfer" is part of a culture of transparency AMT for his clients. With the expertise of AMT in the transfer, storage, distribution and services, users will benefit from a range of features such as inventories with sorting items for recycling, the establishment of check-list or the production of newsletters home. The tool support project management will, through a series of automatic, saving time valuable to project managers.

AMT employees with their Ipad with the application "MyTransfert" will manage client projects and support the principals in the discovery of the tool.

Leader in enterprise mobility AMT is on the market for 20 years.

Attached are three links to download the application My Transfer to:

MyTransfert version web:
http://www.amttransfert.fr/2012/01/MyTransfert/

MyTransfert for Ipad version 1.1 ( avec possibilité utilisation en anglais ):
http://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/mytransfert-for-ipad/id481623889?mt=8

MyTransfert version 1.1 for Iphone ( avec possibilité utilisation en anglais ):
http://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/mytransfert-for-iphone/id481624243?mt=8

Contact Presse:
Philippe Chiche
01 41 31 69 50
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

COROVAN MOVING JOINS IRN’S EXPANDED SERVICE NETWORK
December 14, 2011 - Concord, NH

IRN – The Recycling Network and Corovan today announced an expanded partnership that will allow California schools, hospitals, and businesses to provide unwanted surplus property to nonprofit organizations for distribution to needy recipients worldwide.

IRN matches surplus furniture and equipment with a network of more than 40 global charitable organizations, who place the surplus in disaster relief and economic development projects in the U.S. and worldwide. IRN’s surplus program has a simple mission: to assist organizations across the country in keeping usable furniture and equipment out of landfills and get it into the hands of needy families and communities, wherever they may be located. This process is heavily reliant on movers and the moving industry infrastructure. In the past eight years IRN has placed more than 35 million pounds of surplus in 48 countries and 25 U.S. states.

“This partnership with IRN makes sense for Corovan in many ways” states Bob Barry, Vice President and General Manager of Corovan’s Transportation Group. Our clients expect us to provide solutions for the responsible handling of surplus property and disposing of usable materials is clearly frowned upon. Our clients look to Corovan to provide value added service options. This clearly falls into that category.”

Statistically less than 5% of reusable furnishings make their way back into reuse. Liquidation makes up for about 4% of this total volume, and most of the liquidation stream is made up of office furnishings. Thousands and thousands of tons of school furnishings, obsolete medical equipment, kitchen equipment, and even dorm furniture are thrown away every year. Much of these materials are generated in small quantities. Last year alone IRN shipped almost 2.5 million pounds of LTL generated surplus furniture and equipment to disaster relief. Partnering with Corovan and others will likely triple that volume in just one year.

Click here for complete story

About The Office Moving Alliance [OMA]:
October 2011 - Phoenix, AZ

Following an in-depth rebuild of their website several years ago, OMA has now completed and will launch their newly updated site. After using their site for several years, and in keeping with industry recommendations for frequent updates, members asked that the look of the site be retained but requested a more functionally proficient and complete website. The new web design will be unveiled at the OMA conference in Phoenix October 24-26, 2011.

“As a growing global presence in the commercial moving storage sector, the Office Moving Alliance requires a multi-faceted internet and intranet communications platform servicing the unique and ever-changing needs of our clients and our members. We are very pleased with the work of Galley Creative Group and their ability to keep us at the forefront of our industry.”

William Walsh
Chairman and CEO, The Walsh Companies, Boston, Mass, USA
President, Office Moving Alliance

Office Moving Alliance launches Website
As the world leader of office relocation services, new furniture installations, and commercial storage, the member companies of The Office Moving Alliance provide commercial moving services, internationally.