Welcome to Ungated

Solid research and data on community association living is tough to come by.  That's why the Foundation for Community Association Research has worked with Zogby International over the past several years to conduct independent, statistically valid research into homeowner preferences and perceptions.  You can read about our most recent survey here.

And that is why we try to support legitimate and relevant research into community associations, their members, and their operations, wherever and whenever we can.  Hannah Wiseman, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Law is currently conducting a nationwide survey in an attempt to better define the factors that attract residents to common-interest communities.  The 10-question survey asks community association residents what they disliked about their former communities and what they believed a common-interest community would offer. 

Wiseman needs as much input as possible from community association residents across the country to support her study.  You can complete the survey yourself or forward it to others if you are in a position to do so.  The survey is online and can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JdAFijUlceVBKVNYSrDjsA_3d_3d and should take less than 10 minutes to complete.  Surveys should be completed by January 31, 2009.  Professor Wiseman can be contacted directly at hwiseman@law.utexas.edu or 512-232-3646 if there are any questions.  She has agreed to share her results with CAI at the completion of her study and we will pass them on to our members.

We recently completed our first six months of the EveryOne Counts Membership

Campaign and I am thrilled to report in six months CAI

has added more than 3,000 new members!  With every new member CAI

becomes a stronger organization.  You, our members, are the best

advocates for membership.  Recruit just one member and you will be

entered to win one of our quarterly prizes and join the ranks of CAI’s

Recruiter Club.  During the first six months of the campaign more than 500

CAI members recruited nearly 1,000 new members.  Nearly half of the

recruiters during this time frame were first time recruiters.  Pass on ONE

copy of Common Ground, invite ONE client to a chapter event or send a link

to CAI’s website, www.caionline.org to a colleague.  Just have the potential

member add your name to their membership application and for each

member you recruit, you will be entered to win one of the quarterly prizes or

the grand prize of a vacation package, including airfare, hotel, rental car

and spending money!

A special thank you to our ONE Campaign sponsors for their generous support:

ACE DuraFlo

ATG

Reserve Advisors

Don't think you can win?  It just takes one!  Just ask our first two quarterly winners. 

Karen Johnson, a community manager in Bethesda, Maryland was our first winner.  Karen recruited one member during the first quarter of CAI’s EveryONE Counts Membership Campaign and won a 32” flat screen plasma television. 

Kimberly Lax, CMCA,AMS, a community manager from
Tucson, Arizona  recruited one community manager in October – her first recruit and won $500 in gas cards in our second quarter drawing.

And you can win too. 

Each quarter of the Campaign, every member who recruited another member during that quarter is entered into a drawing for one of our quarterly prizes.  All recruiters from May 1, 2008 – April 30, 2009 will also be eligible for the grand prize, a vacation package including airfare, hotel, rental car and spending money!  Spread the word —make ONE phone call, have ONE conversation or send ONE e-mail.  You could be a winner just like Karen and Kim.  And remember each new member makes CAI a stronger and more effective advocate for all members—community, managers, homeowners/board members, management companies and business partners alike. 

This past summer, Virginia has became the most recent state to adopt a licensing and certification requirement for professional community association mangers.  The law will provide homeowners with the assurance that their community association manager has a minimum set of qualifications needed to handle the complex and challenging task of community management.

Under the law, management companies and other covered entities must make an application for a provisional license to manage communities in Virginia by December 31, 2009. After this deadline, the full requirements of licensure will become effective. CAI has set up an information resource page where you can find a copy of the licensing application as well as information on the new law.  You may find that information here.

By statute, persons holding a CAI or NBC-CAM certification will be considered to have met the individual certification requirements and companies holding an AAMC will have met the qualifications for corporate licensure. In adopting the CAI/NBC-CAM family of certifications and designations the legislature has deferred to the experts on management, including the many CAI volunteers who’ve worked to develop these programs over the years.