CAI-NJ January 2017

LOOKING FORWARD LARRY THOMAS, PCAM | CAI-NJ CHAPTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

HAPPY 2017!

I hope your holiday break was enjoyable and full of happy times with family and friends. As the new year gets into full swing, I wanted to write and say how much I appreciate all you do, and to provide you with a few pieces of information I hope will be helpful to you and your communities. We had a very successful Annual Meeting and Chapter Retreat on December 8th. I want to welcome Jeff Logan to the Board of Directors and thank outgoing board member Fran McGovern, Esq. for all of his efforts during his six-year term as a CAI-NJ board member. All of the committees met at the Retreat, we have several new faces this year and this was a great opportunity for them to get together with the other committee members. Committees discussed their plans and calendar for 2017 and geared up for moving forward as the new year begins. Another member that also has a membership in a different CAI chapter stated to me how amazed she was at how many volunteers we get to serve on our committees. We are truly fortunate to have as many dedicated and passionate members who take their time to better our industry and grow our chapter’s initiatives. Recently, the CAI-NJ Board, staff and other invited guests spent an entire day dedicated to establishing a strategic plan for our chapter. Dawn Bauman from the CAI National office conducted the session and we are all very pleased with the plan that was developed. We will revisit the pro- posal at the January board meeting and publish the plan sometime in February.

We will be emailing out the applications for the 2017 Jules Frankel Manager Education Assistance Program in early January. This program was introduced by the board in 2016 and was created to assist our manager members in furthering their careers in the community management profession. The board dedicated $5,000 in the budget for this program. If you are currently a CAI member with

"If you are currently a CAI member with a CMCA designation, you can apply for a scholarship."

a CMCA designation, you can apply for a scholarship. If selected, the Board will pay $250 towards the cost of a PMDP class after you successfully complete the class. This is a great opportunity to work towards getting your AMS and PCAM designations. That’s all for now. But in closing, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Larry Sauer for a great year as the 2016 CAI‑NJ President. Larry was always available and visible at our events. I’m sure that we will have an equally successful year with our new President, Denise Becker. I, and the entire staff look forward to “raising the bar” in 2017 and are always available to assist our members in any way we can. n

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