2017 Board of Directors

CHAIR John Cligny, CAMEx, CCAM Association Management Company, LLC, ACMB VICE CHAIR Carra Clampitt, CAMEx, CCAM-LS Eugene Burger Management Corporation SECRETARY René Decker, CAMEx, CCAM PowerStone Property Management TREASURER Kendrah Kay, CAMEx, CCAM Powerstone Property Management

Lori Albert, CAMEx, CCAM Albert Management Company, LLC Melissa Bell, CAMEx, CCAM The Management Trust - Kocal Division, ACMB Robb Etnyre, CAMEx, CCAM Tahoe Donner Association

Thomas Freeley, CAMEx, CCAM-HR Packard Management Group Phyllis Harkins, CAMEx, CCAM The Management Trust California Desert, ACMB Roy Helsing, CAMEx, CCAM The Helsing Group, Inc. Tiffany Lynch, CAMEx, CCAM The Management Trust Transpacific ACMB

Paper Piles Coalesce into Core Courses

In 1992, I was chair of CACM’s Education Committee. We were committed to the creation of credentialed courses, written specifically for California managers. I worked closely with Melinda Masson (CACM founder) and Karen Conlon (then CACM president), gathering material we thought was essential for well-educated managers of California community associations. I took the material with me and placed it on a large dining table in my home with a big “DO NOT TOUCH” sign on it. By the beginning of summer, the table was covered with many individual piles of material. “It’s my piling system,” I told anyone who asked, pretending that it was well organized and that I knew exactly what I was doing.

I set a goal for myself, resolving that CACM would have its first credentialed manager education courses completed by the first Annual Meeting in October and that I would have my dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner.

For a couple of days, I just looked at those daunting piles, but then I started reading and sorting the material. As I moved information from one pile to another, consolidating, eliminating, searching for more information, I saw that the material was evolving into four distinct piles. I realized that those four piles represented four elemental areas of knowledge that all California community association managers had to know: legal basis; financial administration; property management and meetings.

I soon had four wonderful volunteer managers, who each agreed to write one course. Each volunteer got one of the piles I had created. From that material and more of their own, the first four course manuals were written. As they were returned to me, we began the edit and rewrite process. I saw that the four courses contained the elemental core of information needed for anyone who thought they could manage a California community association. I began to think of them as the Core Courses and named them:

Course I-California Law For California Community Associations Course II-Financial Management For California Community Associations Course III-Property Management For California Community Associations Course IV-Meetings and Records For California Community Associations

By the time of CACM’s annual meeting in early October, the four courses had been written, typed, edited, re-written and published in handbook format. Two alternate exams were created for each course, applications were filled out and all materials were submitted to the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) for

Paper Piles Coalesce into Core Courses

By Marge Blaine CPM, CCAM Emeritus

credentialing. And, I had my dining room table back in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

When I announced all of this to the managers gathered at that October meeting, everyone in the room stood up as one, and started cheering. CACM was on its way! The DRE approved the courses by year’s end. We selected and trained CACM’s first instructors, and in January CACM’s four Core Courses were taught for the first time in Northern and Southern California. The DRE even sent several of its staff members to take one of the first offerings in Northern California. The rest is history.

What started as “my piling system” became the organized essential core of information for the California community association manager – CACM’s four Core Courses. They’ve borne the test of time and are still the foundation for CACM’s advanced education offerings today. At the recent Law Seminars, CACM

president & CEO David Zepponi announced a new Flex Learning Program that allows managers to customize their learning experiences by offering courses in-person, online, on-demand and through microlearning (small snippets on specific subjects, usually lasting just a few minutes). CACM remains on

the forefront of California community management education, just as it was in the early days following its formation. In this article, Marge Blaine, CPM, CCAM Emeritus recalls

the humble origins of CACM’s educational programs.