April General Membership Meeting Recap

The mood was warm, engaging, and upbeat, as more than 60 AAOC members gathered for the first in-person AAOC General Membership Meeting in 26 months, on Tuesday, April 12 at The Villa in Orange. It was a great opportunity for housing providers and industry vendors to reconnect and start getting back to doing business as usual.

The topic for the meeting, “Moving On, Post Covid,” featured a dynamic panel comprised of longtime multi-family housing professionals Frank Alvarez (Buffalo Maintenance, Inc.), Jessie Childers (Santa Fe Management), and Amy Fylling (Advanced Management Company).

Each panelist reflected upon the past two years and discussed how far they and their companies have come, from adapting various policies and practices at the start of the pandemic, to now evaluating which of those policies and practices to keep and which to adjust or eliminate.

Childers described how early in the pandemic she would collect rent checks from each of Santa Fe Management’s properties and place them in plastic baggies in her car trunk to avoid a potential spread of the virus. Once more knowledge was gleamed and more information-based safety protocols were implemented, Childers described how their policies evolved, and how her staff and residents “banded together” and were there for one another. She also mentioned how Zoom was a life saver for her and her team, how it became a great way for them to connect safely and more time efficiently, and that this is a practice that continues to this day and will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

Fylling echoed many of the same thoughts and added that online rent payment was an area that she and Advanced Management Company noticed became even more popular among their residents during the pandemic, not to mention a more efficient overall practice for all parties.

Alvarez then shared his thoughts from a vendors’ perspective and discussed some of the protocols that Buffalo Maintenance established to maintain a safer environment for its staff, as well as for customers and residents. He also discussed how Buffalo Maintenance expanded its use of technology to not only reduce the necessity for face-to-face interaction but also to increase efficiency. This included having the housing providers or their residents take pictures and video of their maintenance needs and sharing them via

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Left to Right: Cat Madinger (Apartments.com) discusses staffing issues and other rental housing industry trends with JoAnn Williams and Juan Vasquez (JWilliams Staffing).

Left to Right: Three AAOC members are greeted by Sandy Gimpelson as they arrive at the meeting. Left to Right: An unidentified guest and Theresa Simes (Farmers Insurance) were happy to reconnect at the AAOC General Membership Meeting.

Left to Right: AAOC President Frank Alvarez (Buffalo Maintenance) catches up with longtime AAOC member Glenn Mills.

Left to Right: Program panelists Amy Fylling (Advanced Management Company) and Jessie Childers (Santa Fe Management) are all smiles and looking forward to addressing the AAOC membership. Left to Right: Amy Fylling (Advanced Management Company) and Sandy Gimpelson (AAOC).

Left to Right: Amy Fylling (Advanced Management Company), Frank Alvarez (Buffalo Maintenance), and Jessie Childers (Santa Fe Management) shared their insights as panelists discussing, “Moving On, Post-COVID.” Business never sleeps, as Adam Bryan (American 1031) takes a client call before the start of the meeting.

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email, rather than relying on in-person preliminary visual inspections for more routine projects.

Fylling summed up the panels sentiments regarding lessons learned and plans for moving forward when she said, “we must continue to lead with empathy, make relationships stronger, and be fully committed to our staff and residents alike.”

AAOC wishes to thank its panelists for sharing their insight, in addition to its April General Membership Meeting sponsors: Perch Wealth and American 1031 for their generous support of the association and its members.

The next AAOC General Membership Meeting will be presented on Tuesday, June 21st at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Registration opens on May 9th at www.AAOC.com.

The Villa, in Orange, is AAOC’s home for in-person General Membership Meetings this year.