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S E P T E M B E R , 2 0 1 6
LOOKING
FORWARD
LARRY THOMAS, PCAM
| CAI-NJ CHAPTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
"That’s the easy part. Once we
come up with an opinion, we
need to use all of our resources
to see that our voice is heard
by the right people."
P
rior to joining CAI-NJ as the Executive Director in
September of 2014, I had no idea of the amount
of pending legislation that involves both HOAs and
condominiums. One of my first meetings as the Executive
Director was the NJ-LAC meeting. Needless to say, I was
amazed at the quantity of proposed bills and the depth at
which the effect of the bills would be if they became law.
I dedicated time every week to try to “catch up” with the
major bills while still getting my feet underneath me with
all of the other facets of what CAI-NJ is, as well as putting
together a team of staff members and keeping the daily
operations up and running.
At the second meeting, I was a little more in tune to the
conversations, but between the last meeting and this meeting,
several new bills were introduced and needed to be evalu-
ated. Their potential affect needed to be carefully measured
should they become law. Chris Li, as Committee Chair, kept
the conversations on point, focused and valued all of the
committee members' opinions and input as well as comments
from our lobbyists — Tim Martin and Paul Matecera from MBI
Gluckshaw.
Still, after the second meeting, I would sit at home at night
and go over the previous meeting's minutes and my notes from
the most current meeting and educate myself on the several
items of suggested legislation. Chris Li was very helpful and
through several phone calls and hundreds of emails, got me
to the point that I understood the process and direction that
the committee determined was the best for our communities.
These meetings led me to believe that if I were to be of
value to the NJ-LAC, I needed to get some assistance from
within my office. Right about this time, I was interviewing
for a new Director of Membership and Marketing. After
several interviews, Laura O’Connor came in for an inter-
view. Laura had a strong background in membership mar-
keting and also several years of involvement with the New
Jersey Restaurant Association’s legislative action program. I
immediately realized that my search for my new Director of
Membership and Marketing was complete and hired Laura
soon afterward. Laura has been an invaluable addition to
the staff and tutors me every day on the inside workings
of how the legislative process works. Laura attends every
LAC and PAC meeting and is always up to speed on the
committee’s initiatives and progress.
The NJ-LAC is comprised of 20 members from all of
our membership categories — Community Association
Volunteer Leaders, Managers and Business Partners. This
combination gives the committee the ability to hear the
opinions from every angle. What may seem like bad leg-
islation to the business partners, might make sense to the
CAVL’s, or visa-versa. This is where the details of the meet-
ing conversations are fleshed out and a position is taken.
In a lot of cases, the bill makes sense in a lot of ways, but
needs some tweaking to make it a beneficial measure for
our communities.
That’s the easy part. Once we come up with an opinion,
we need to use all of our resources to see that our voice
is heard by the right people. This may be the sponsors
of the bill or the chair of the involved committees. This
is where MBI-Gluckshaw goes to work. They know all of
the decision makers in Trenton and spend countless hours
behind the scenes getting our voice heard. Once a course
of action is determined, Tim Martin sets up meetings with
various senators or assemblymen and we start our cam-
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