In today’s community management world, we are all stretched out pretty thin having to deal with board meetings, emails, classes, seminars, inspections, vendor meetings, and whatever you can squeeze in to what has never been a 9 to 5 job.  It’s amazing how budget season, pool pass season, and snow removal season all start to blend in to a year-round, ongoing process.

In our company, Tidewater Property Management, we sum it up in three words – Progress in Motion.  It’s the non-stop plugging away, advancing, and pushing forward and onward that keeps the momentum going and building in order to be successful in this industry, in this day and age.

With this being said, it is important to make a difference when and where you can.  At the end of July, I was excited to see an email from the Chapter, subject line:  CAI MENTOR PROGRAM! I am writing this article as an endorsement to this effort and the folks who willingly volunteer to be a Mentor.  You see, while leading the Membership Committee last year, I and a team of dedicated volunteers helped create Club CAI.  I am saying this because I am proud of Club CAI and its mission – it is the result of countless hours of brainstorming and planning.  It was a difficult decision to hand over the reins to Ted Porter of PuroClean, but I was happy with the groundwork we laid and I knew that there would certainly be people that would volunteer as Mentors and that Club CAI would be a success with Ted’s brilliant leadership.  With my crazy schedule, it was all I could do to help get Club CAI up and running.  But now, its success is due to the support of the CAI Chapter, the Board, the Membership Committee and the Mentors.  These volunteer members are available now to provide the guidance that anyone in our industry, new or experienced, can take advantage of.

With a career in this industry, it is important to gain as much knowledge as possible and to stay on top of the ever-evolving laws and standards.  That’s the beauty of the CAI seminars and classes.  Take advantage of them – you can’t get the industry-specific information from anywhere else.  But when your schedule is booked with board meetings, emails, inspections, and vendor meetings and you need answers quickly, call a Mentor from Club CAI.  They can offer you expertise on issues from accounting to insurance to association law.

Some of us may be competitors, but at the end of the day, we are all in this together!