Ken observes:
 >>Real good points. Though I think in order for it to work there needs to
be the institutional memory... a place where that ticking away in the
subconscious can happen.
My experience in the NYC market is that no individual that was involved
in a project will still be involved a few years later.
And often on the 'contractors' end we never really know who is involved
in any sort of decision capacity in the background.
In that volatility it is difficult to maintain a relationship with a
building, let alone be able to re-visit w/ maintenance w/out having to
start an introduction all anew.<<

I hear you about the building-people disconnect in the city, and have 
noticed it in your other stories and experienced it myself on the one 
one project I was on in NYC, the Carnegie Hall windows.

The one reason I think this works is because I provide the institutional 
memory via the marketing/maintenance-program. I'm providing the memory 
if the institution doesn't. Some institutions know enough to talk about 
"institutional memory" and a few actually do it. One time I got a call 
from the new (volunteer) director of a local house museum. She had found 
my website, and knew she needed a building conditions assessment to get 
up to speed quick. I had done one just 3 years earlier, but didn't 
mention it on the phone. I stopped by to meet her, and as we sat down 
and she began our discussion with what she though the building needed 
and that she didn't have much money to hire me. I noticed my past report 
on a shelf. As she talked I walked over and pulled down the binder, and 
opened it up to the page of prioritized summary of building needs and 
handed it to her. Here eyes bugged out as she read over the page, then 
when she turned to the front cover and saw my byline she laughed out 
loud. That's Institutional Memory in action! We walked through the 
building with the maintenance volunteer and had the report updated in 
about an hour.

Several of my marketing/maintenance programs have carried through 2 or 3 
building owners, and 6 managers over two decades with one local house 
museum . It is a relationship with the building as much as the people. 
As Twybil says, yearly visits to the building helps--keeping up that 
relationship. Just like buildings, relationships have to be maintained.

Along with this I do the "self-documenting building." For example, with 
paint I usually use a contrasting color of primer, rather that tinting 
the primer to match the top coat color, usually white primer for colored 
top coats, etc. This way, when the paint fails by peeling or weathering 
the primer coat shows up, visually standing out, attracting notice  and 
documenting the paint failure and it's exact location. Other 
self-documenting building techniques include drilling a hole in the 
gutter right over the back door so when the outlets are clogged and need 
to be cleaned out it drips down the back of the neck of everyone using 
that door until the gutters are cleaned out. Another is stuffing copies 
of key pages from our maintenance recommendations in various nooks and 
crannies  throughout the building, so they will be found when needed by 
new owners, maintenance workers and managers. Of course, my contact info 
is on every page. Reconnecting with the current people, right when needed.



Twybil says,
 >>While I applaud your ardor and business acumen, I'm thinking perhaps 
that
some of your clients must be on Fantasy Island. The two projects that I had
in  mind when I made the statement were both under-funded historic house
museums in  two of the poorer neighborhoods <<

Actually the marketing/maintenance-program approach developed in rural 
Maine in the 1980s while I was working mainly for lower-middle income 
working class homeowners who are pretty well grounded in reality, and 
local house museums with little or no money. Neither type of customer 
could pay for maintenance management services, so I took on that 
activity as part of my overhead by doing it as part of my marketing.

 >>Clearly, granting agencies should take a more holistic approach to 
handing
out cash. <<

I agree, these agencies need to recognize ongoing maintenance. They did 
not (and sometimes specifically excluded it). That was the case 
throughout the 1970s 80s and 90s with grants I worked under. the past 5 
or 8 years this seems to be changing with some support for maintenance 
programming and ongoing maintenance costs.

 >>But until such a time should we turn down projects from clients
who  have a onetime windfall of grant money if we know they are not 
going to
follow  up?<<

Of course, use the grant money when it's available. In my 
marketing/maintenance-program scheme, the big project with plenty of 
funding is what pays the overhead for future 
marketing/maintenance-programming.

 >> No amount of good intention leads to work getting done if there
are no  resources to finance it. <<

But it has to begin with intention. And, include recognition of all 
kinds of resources, dollar sure, but also, volunteer effort, in-house 
knowledge, etc., can all be valuable usable resources to get work done. 
  Even the passage of time can be a resource--waiting for the right time 
for things to happen, ready to jump when the moment is right,  etc. 
There were quite a few preservation projects that we not done in 2007-8 
but sprang to life in 2009 because they we're "shovel-ready" for 
surprise economic recovery funds.

John

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