? CollabraSpace Celebrates 20th Anniversary! ?
CollabraSpace turns 20 this year! What a major milestone considering that the average lifespan for a small business is 8 1/2 years. We take great pride in our CollabraSpace family and the outstanding accomplishments they have made in support of our clients. We take special pride in each and every accolade we receive from our client’s recognizing the professionalism and talents of our team. And, we find joy in the happiness of our team in their personal lives.
Over these 20 years we’ve witnessed births, first days of school, participation in local sports programs, graduations, first jobs and first homes for so many of our team members and their children, and each one makes us as proud as it does you. And, we have been here for support during the tough times when team members or their family members traveled difficult roads with sickness and loss.
It was in these moments of life, we were provided the opportunity to show our support for charities near and dear to the hearts of our team members; over the years we have donated to organizations such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Alzheimer’s Association, Breast Cancer foundations, and Movember; and to local children’s sports teams, local charities like the Food Bank, Box of Rain, Nanci’s Gift, and local chapters of the NOCC and Best Buddies. When hurricane Maria slammed members of our extended CollabraSpace family in Puerto Rico we rallied not only our own team, securing generators and volunteering time, but also the industry through donations of much needed supplies.
And we have witnessed the full life cycle of careers, including our first retirement in 2018; a bittersweet moment of loss for a long time team member and joy in the knowledge they were pursuing the next thing to make them happy.
What started as a desire to create an organization and a product which allowed everyone to have a voice and share knowledge, grew to an organization providing success and growth for our team members and their families over the past 20 years; something for which we are very proud. For our team members, we continue to encourage knowledge sharing. We support learning opportunities including continuing education through technical certificates and the completion of a Bachelors or Masters degree, technical subscriptions, conference attendance, mentoring, and frequent technical exchanges throughout the year. In addition, we are proud to support the next generation of IT professionals through support of educational programs such as sponsoring the Software Engineering class at UMBC and our internship program, which has already allowed two fantastic new members to join the team and start their careers.
It’s been an exciting and fulfilling 20 years. Thanks to our CollabraSpace family for everything we’ve accomplished these past 20 years and we look forward to continued success in the many years to come.
Cheers to you!
Rick, Ray and Chris
