April 2016

INSIDE CONNECTION Laura O’Connor | DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP & MARKETING

M any of your communities have wonderful ame- nities such as swimming pools, parks or tennis courts that offer benefits to your residents. You may not realize that CAI-NJ membership also has many amenities and so in keeping with this month’s Community Trends ® theme I am going to elaborate on the “Amenities” of your CAI-NJ membership. Did you know that all CAI-NJ members are encouraged to submit content for Community Trends ® , CAI-NJ’s award winning magazine? This is particularly beneficial to our Business Partner and Manager/Management Company members who can use this opportunity to reach our mem- bers and demonstrate their expertise in their fields. This is an invaluable way to get the word out about your company that is underutilized by our membership. CAI-NJ is proud to offer our homeowner members Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mediation Services, a program mandated by state law, at a substantially discount- ed rate of $375, a $125 savings for each mediation. Many communities require several mediations each year resulting in significant savings for our member communities. Education is always a primary goal of our chapter and CAI-NJ strives to make it as easy as possible for our volun- teer homeowner members by offering our Board Leadership Development Workshop at no additional cost for all CAVL members in good standing. CAI-NJ members can even request to host the training if they can guarantee a group of twenty participants. This year CAI-NJ has launched the new Community Academic Institute Lecture Series. Five interesting sessions will be held at the CAI-NJ Headquarters office conveniently locat- ed in Freehold, NJ throughout the year. Each session will be free for CAI-NJ members to attend. CAI-NJ knows that our managers need continuing edu- cation credits to keep up with their industry certifications. We want to make this as easy and convenient as possible

for our members. Many free educational programs are offered throughout the year at different locations regionally to provide our manager and management company mem- bers with opportunities to obtain these credits. The most exciting effort demonstrating CAI-NJ’s commit- ment to supporting education this year was the launch of the Jules C. Frankel Manager Education Assistance Program (MAP). The MAP was developed to assist our Manager members in furthering their educational and professional development goals by providing the opportu- nity to any CAI-NJ Manager member in good standing to apply for a scholarship. CAI-NJ will provide a fifty (50%) reimbursement per course to select managers for any of the 200 or 300 courses offered by CAI.

“As you can see CAI-NJ provides our members with many amenities and we are always working hard to offer new and improved member services.”

As you can see CAI-NJ provides our members with many amenities and we are always working hard to offer new and improved member services. Please remember to take advan- tage of your membership throughout the year. Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook at Community Associations Institute of NJ and follow us on Twitter at @CAINJCHAPTER so you don’t miss anything and can help us to grow our chapter by spreading the word as you talk with your boards, managers and vendor colleagues. If you know someone that should be a member please refer them to me at laura@cainj.org or invite them to join you an event. n

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