Spotlight on Education

Now is Your Time to Shine

With Earning the MCAM Credential!

By Debbie Griffiths, CCAM Director of Education and Credentialing

In early January 2022, CACM reintroduced the Master of Community Association Management credential (MCAM) to experienced managers with 5 or more years of industry experience. The revamped program makes the ultimate achievement in community association management in California more tangible for highly-driven managers to obtain.

So how is the MCAM more obtainable? For starters, the requirement to first earn a Specialty Certificate has been removed, and the courses, BDA 500 –Effective Governance Principles for Community Associations and LDR 500 – Advanced Ethics: Leadership and Decision Making are no longer required. The new requirements are as follows:

BDA 300 – Fundamentals of Effective Governance

LDR 400 – Human Resource Management

LDR 550 – Ethics Mastery

INS 300 – Advanced Insurance Principles

INS 400 – Risk Management

FIN 320 – Strategic Financial Planning

In addition to taking these courses, applicants must pass a 100 multiple-choice exam. The questions will test you on these areas: Risk Management, Human Resource Management, Ethics, Policy Governance, Financial and California Law. Once the exam is passed, applicants will visit a site and provide a written paper and oral presentation based on a series of questions posed from the site visit.

Why earn the MCAM?

According to Darren Shaw, CAMEx, MCAM-LS.AA, “It means for me that I want to be the best at what I do.”

Hamlet Vazquez, MCAM-HR, pursued this designation “because I love to learn and knew that the work required to achieve the designation would, in itself, improve my knowledge of the industry.”

What career benefit have you seen as a result of earning the MCAM?

For Shaw, “It provided a special level of confidence to my employer and team that I knew my stuff.”

On the other hand, Vazquez “recently applied for a new position and was chosen out of a group of other highly qualified candidates. The recruiter highlighted my MCAM accomplishment as indicative of my caliber. The tangible benefit was that the position came with a 30% compensation increase.”

If you wish to be recognized as one of the leading community association managers in California, please visit the CACM website for more information or feel free to reach out to the Education Department at education@cacm.org. We look forward to seeing many of you earn this prestigious designation.

BECOME AN INSTRUCTOR FOR CACM

Contribute to a manager’s professional success by becoming an instructor with CACM. By joining our instructor cadre and contributing to our growing body of knowledge in this field, you will be recognized as an expert and mentor among managers.

Certified managers (CCAM or CAFM for financial courses) who have held their certification for 5 or more years, as well as Industry Partners with expertise in a specific area, such as legal, insurance, facilities maintenance, etc., are encouraged to apply. Please contact the Education Department at education@ cacm.org for more information.