I want to talk to you about an opportunity offered by IAMC to learn, grow, advance in your field, build career and job flexibility and make progress toward realizing your potential. Many of you reading this have thought about starting a formal course of professional education but have not yet acted on the idea. I'm writing to urge you to take a look at IAMC's Board Certificate in Industrial Real Estate (BCIR) program. This is designed to provide the real estate and economic development professional with a broad foundation in the skills and concepts of industrial corporate real estate.

BCIR's purpose is to provide a comprehensive and rigorous professional education program for professionals who wish to learn about managing real estate in manufacturing and industrial environments. It's intended to accelerate the process by which professionals learn how to operate effectively in this area.

BCIR is designed for working professionals who cannot afford a semester off from work to takes five or six real estate classes from a university. BCIR has designated nine courses for its curriculum offered by well-known and respected professional associations, such as the BOMI International, CCIM Institute, CoreNet Global and Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR). Each of the courses is time tested. BCIR's contribution is to evaluate the needs of those working in manufacturing and industrial real estate and to select from the many courses available a comprehensive set providing skills needed in this area. To our knowledge, IAMC is the only organization to focus its professional education on this specialized area of corporate real estate.

Let's take a look at BCIR's course of study. From the nine designated courses, a candidate must select seven. Then each candidate must write a thesis paper on a manufacturing or industrial real estate topic. These are the requirements to receive the BCIR certificate, our way of recognizing your achievement in front of your peers!

The seven courses may be taken in any order. Two address real estate finance issues. Candidates may choose to take a commercial brokerage class. Project management and site selection skills are covered by two. Two offerings deal with managing real estate to support corporate strategy and managing the impact of real estate on corporate financial statements. And candidates may choose to take courses on real estate law and on environmental issues.

All of the courses can be taken in a traditional classroom environment. But some are also available in self-study and online formats. With these options, candidates can proceed at their own pace, faster if they have the flexibility, or more slowly as work and family responsibilities require.

Charles McSwain, CSX

If you have already completed courses on the BCIR list, you can get credit for these and not have to retake the course. Just get a transcript or other indication from the offering association and send it to IAMC.

BCIR is for any real estate and development professional seeking to advance his or her career. This includes those now in corporate real estate seeking to broaden their background; new hires and those transferring into real estate from other corporate departments; economic developers who need to understand the business of their clients; and service providers wanting to sharpen their focus on corporate needs.

If you attend IAMC's Professional Forums or other real estate conferences, BCIR candidacy can increase the value you receive from those events by complementing and enhancing your networking and conference workshop activity.

If you have ever considered formal professional education in industrial corporate real estate, I urge you to consider BCIR and to get started on the program now. Here are a few reasons why:

• The value to your job and career starts when you start taking the courses.
• Eke out the time to do it now, because you may not be able to do so later.
• The cost of the course could rise while you delay.
• You can make valuable new contacts among the other students taking the courses.
• Opportunities that might be open up for you with a BCIR certificate could pass you by while you're thinking about getting started.
• Finally, lifelong learning is the norm today, but focused learning is awesome.

Charles McSwain