CAI-NJ January 2021

Virtual Education and Events By Dawn Mackanic, CMCA Prime Management, Inc., AAMC

W ithout any exaggeration, this year has been a considerable challenge both personally, and professionally. Although the pandemic brought in-person meetings to a complete halt, business did not stop. Therefore, most of us found ourselves in a position of having to figure out new ways to do basically

Going virtual was a big change and change is hard. In a normal situation, the glitches would be worked out over time by trial-and-error and testing. However, the pandemic forced us into a virtual world without any warning or train- ing. At first, events were just canceled. Education was sim- ply put-on hold until it became clear that it would be some time before we were going to see any type of normalcy. In the beginning, trying to get everyone on a simple virtual meeting was an effort. The struggle was real. Some people are just not computer savvy. For others, they simply lacked the necessary equipment. And then some were completely resistant to this new way of social interaction. However, as time passed, the need became apparent and more people became open to the idea of doing things vir- CONT I NU E S ON PAGE 32

everything. Now, more than ever, professionals could use ideas, direction, comradery, and support. In our present state of social restrictions and dis- tancing, virtual education and events have made it possible to continue.

“The community association industry is always changing therefore continuing education is a must.”

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