I am writing this article as I stare out over my backyard, having spent, yet again, another day working diligently from my home office. Despite being at home now for almost six weeks, the ongoing “new normal” of home quarantine doesn’t really feel so normal, and I hope for all of us that it never does. As TMA members, we are all part of a very special extended professional community, with deep professional and personal relationships. I hope that each of you is safe and healthy, and for those of you who have family, friends, or others you know who are facing challenges, I offer my sincerest best wishes.

As turnaround professionals, we focus our time and skills helping our clients work through unexpected troubled situations, and we serve as the calming force and voice of reason in an otherwise tumultuous and difficult process. We bravely guide our clients through uncharted waters using the various tools we have developed from our professional experiences, case law, statutory provisions, negotiation skills, advice from mentors, and insights gained from watching others, such as an adversary or a competitor. With that in mind, I realized that active involvement in TMA provides each of us with many options for tools that we may use to work through the current environment as well as to prepare for the anticipated increased level of activity that may soon embrace all of us in the restructuring industry.

The tools that TMA offers range from weekly Town Hall webinars focused on real-time restructuring issues arising in this unprecedented time, virtual networking through TMA Connect, educational content from online modules and TMA Learning Link™, the ability to increase your skills through certification opportunities, numerous virtual chapter and TMA Global events, a directory of turnaround professionals, and TMA Talks. Perhaps the most important tool that involvement in TMA provides for each of us is that of connectivity resulting from our common, albeit unique, experiences from what each of us does every day as professionals. I, for one, have taken great comfort over the past several weeks in the time I have spent corresponding and talking with the members of my extended TMA family.

I encourage each of you to take advantage of all that TMA has to offer for your professional and personal development. There is no better time to be a part of our TMA community. With a likely unprecedented wave of restructuring activity on the horizon, you owe it to yourself, your clients, and your professional colleagues to take advantage of all that TMA has to offer and all that you have to offer to TMA.

I hope to see you soon in an environment other than the virtual world we find ourselves in at the moment, perhaps at a future TMA event! Until then, be safe and healthy.