February 2017

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

S o as I’m writing this article, I’m looking out of my office window and imagining what the view will look like in a few months. Today, there are piles of snow that are finally starting to melt. In a few short months we will be hearing the sounds of lawn mowers and leaf blowers as we start our spring and summer routines. Now is a great time to evaluate your community’s maintenance and summer social activities. It’s also a great time to look at all of our events (both educational and networking) and mark your calendars to attend. Please remember that a lot of our events have attendee limitations (roundtables, lecture series, manager leadership program) so I urge you to reg- ister early if you’d like to attend. The CAI-NJ team has put together a great line-up of events for 2017 and I recommend to all of our members that they should attend as many as they can. One upcom- ing class that I want to let you know about is the February 21st Lecture Series “Aging in Place Within Your Community – A Look at Safety, Comfort and Independence.” This event will be held at the CAI-NJ Headquarters in Freehold and runs from 9:30am to 11:45am. Glenda Carroll, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, LSM from Toll Brothers, Inc., and Nancy Hastings, CMCA, AMS, PCAM from Associa Mid-Atlantic will be the presenters and will definitely provide some inter- esting facts and suggestions on how to adapt your com- munities to adjust to the new trends and our communities' changing age groups. By now, most of our committees have met and have established their goals for 2017. I must say that this year’s committee members are a very enthusiastic and energetic group! Every committee is committed to further the progress achieved by last year’s committees. I attend as many com-

"I always enjoy seeing everyone and recognizing all of the members that go above and beyond every day to make a difference in our industry." I must thank all of the business partners and management company members that elected to participate in our 2017 Partnership Program. We’ve exceeded last year’s record number of Partners. This is due to the great network of our members that provide a great marketing source to our most dedicated business partner and management company members. It is a great compliment to all of our members, committees, board members and the CAI-NJ team who make us what we are. Thanks to Laura O’Connor who heads up the marketing and membership departments, Laura works very hard to make sure our members get the most value for their investment. Hopefully I will see a lot of you at the Awards Dinner on February 16th at the Palace in Somerset. I’m sure this will be a wonderful evening. I always enjoy seeing everyone and recognizing all of the members that go above and beyond every day to make a difference in our industry. n mittee meetings as I can and the passion and dedication of our volunteer members is amazing. Angela, Jackie and Laura do a remarkable job assisting the committees with their tasks as well as the board liaisons, who are always available to assist the committees.

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