President’s Message — A Well-Deserved Thank You

A Well-Deserved Thank You

By Frank alvarez President

As California draws closer to “officially” reopening next month, I wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank a special team of professionals whose dedication, experience, adaptability, skill, and leadership was key to helping the AAOC not only survive, but thrive, during the past 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This team to which I’m referencing is our AAOC Staff.

The pandemic and the subsequent shutdown of normal business operations presented significant challenges to our association’s traditional methods of operation. It required our staff to take stock and quickly develop and implement a modified operations plan and an entirely new approach for delivering member services. In fairly short order, our staff transitioned seamlessly from “regular” business operations to “remote” business operations, transitioned our education classes and other member programming from in-person to online, and made a number of other adjustments in order to position AAOC to sustain the financial and operational unknowns that would lie ahead.

Through the ups-and-downs and the uncertainty that we experienced over the past year, I can say unequivocally that our AAOC staff remained a stable and calming presence for many of us who were dealing with our own business challenges, stress, and anxiety. They truly provided us value for our membership dollar, their commitment to the association and its members was evident in all that they did, and these are things for which all of us can and should be proud. We have an outstanding staff working for us!

In the coming weeks and months, as the AAOC resumes in-person gatherings and “new normal” business operations, you will likely be seeing and interacting with our staff more regularly. As such, I thought now would be the ideal time to begin refamiliarizing yourself with the team, putting together faces and names, and understanding the roles that each of them play in service to you and your fellow members.

David Cordero, Executive Director

David came home to lead the AAOC team in March 2019, nearly two decades after beginning his professional career with us, as our Director of Public Affairs. In the years following his first tour of duty with AAOC, he continued his work in the non-profit world, as well as in the public and private sectors, as a public affairs and PR/communications professional. I am truly grateful that David was back at AAOC and at the helm when the pandemic hit, as his experience, leadership, sound judgment, resiliency and resolve were critical in helping the association pivot and get on the right path to make it through this most challenging and treacherous time.

Gissel Cuevas, Operations Coordinator

Gissel joined the AAOC team in March 2014 as a member counselor and has since added coordination of the association’s dayto-day operations and many of its special projects to her repertoire. If you have called the AAOC with landlord-tenant questions or resident screening requests, you’ve undoubtedly spoken with Gissel and reaped the benefit of her knowledge and experience. Her professionalism and outstanding customer service skills are second to none, and were particularly welcomed as she provided valuable and timely information and guidance to our members during the pandemic and ensured that our member services team worked as a cohesive unit.

Bill Christiansen, Vice President of Government Affairs

Bill joined the AAOC team in August 2018 to guide its political and public policy activities. With an extensive career as a political