8 minute read
Spotlight on Education: Community Association Financial Management Certification
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT (CAFM)
AS AN ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONAL serving in the community management industry you fill a niche requiring specialized knowledge that is valuable to your colleagues and clients. Don’t let that go unnoticed!
Broadcast your special qualifications with a CAFM designation after your name, signifying your certification in Community Association Financial Management.
Who can earn a CAFM certification?
Accounting professionals with a minimum of three years accounting or finance experience or who have been employed full time by a management business or community association for a minimum of 12 months.
How do you earn it?
• CMM101 - CMM102 The Basics of Association Management (BAM) Series • CMM122 California Law Series Module II: Financial Management • CMM130 Ethics for Community Managers • FIN300 Budgeting (offered online) • FIN210 Assessment Collections (offered online) • FIN320 Strategic Financial Planning (offered online)
How much does it cost to earn?
Membership Fee (optional): $225
Certification Application Fee: Member $75 Non-Member $175
Courses: Member $1,211 Non-Member $1,757
How much does it cost to maintain?
Annual Certification Maintenance Fee: Member $105 Non-Member $500
Continuing education fees vary by course and event.
Earn 30 CEUs every 3-year recertification period, inclusive of a minimum of one CACM Law Seminar & Expo and one Ethics course. Up to 10 CEUs credit given for outside accounting/finance courses.
Developed specifically for accounting professionals who service community associations, the CAFM certification more clearly communicates your role and expertise than previously was possible through certification as a Certified Community Association Manager (CCAM).
If you are an accounting professional holding the CCAM, please contact Adele Kellick at certification@cacm.org or (949) 340-6615 to discuss replacing your CCAM with the CAFM.
ALL-STAR FACULTY Meet one of CACM’s top-rated instructors
Keith L. Lavery, CCAM Albert Management, Inc. Palm Desert, CA
Years in the Industry: 32
“It is a privilege to give back to CACM and the industry as an instructor for a profession I have enjoyed working in for over 30 years and sharing the professional collective knowledge through CACM since its inception. It is an honor to serve the industry as an instructor for CACM.”
Catch Keith teaching these courses in Southern CA: • California Law Module II-IV • Ethics • • Conflict Resolution Reserves What Students Are Saying About Keith: • Assessment Collection • • Budgeting Strategic Financial “Good instructor with lots of relevant experience.”
Planning Rashid Kassir, CCAM Coronado Shores L&R Committee • Human Resources
Community Association Loans All the right tools for your next project.
How will you fund your next community project? Get the job done right with the Community Association Loan toolkit. You’ll get custom financing that’s perfect for your budget and your community. Your Community Association Loan toolkit includes: • Competitive interest rates • Flexible payment plans • Innovative loan structures • Fixed rate loans • Non-revolving lines of credit Get the cash you need today.
Lisa Ann Rea VP/Regional Account Executive 805.907.8452 Toll Free 866.800.4656, ext. 7500
lisa.rea@ mutualofomahabank.com Jack Brandt AMS AVP/Regional Account Executive 510.921.0124 Toll Free 866.800.4656, ext. 7579
jack.brandt@ mutualofomahabank.com
Brendan Concannon Regional Account Executive 619.961.6346 Toll Free 866.800.4656, ext. 7480 brendan.concannon@mutualofomahabank.com
AFN45403_0213 Member FDIC • Equal Housing Lender Equal Housing Lende National Corporate Member of Community Associations Institute CACM Affiliate Member
(408) 345-4000 • http://wm-llp.com
We counsel:
• Condominium Associations • Planned Unit Developments • Mixed Use Associations • Commercial Associations
We provide general counsel to Associations including the following services:
• Construction Defect and Civil Litigation • Dispute Resolution • Governing Document Interpretation • Governing Document Revisions • CC&R and Rules Enforcement • Contract Review and Negotiation • Election and Operating Rules • Fiduciary Obligations & Director Education
By Vicki MacHale, CCAM and Eric Jenks
An Innovative Water Management Solution
Ongoing water shortages, increasingly stringent regulations and rising costs have forced many associations and management businesses to closely examine their water use practices. One Southern California community began like many others by removing unnecessary turf, planting drought-tolerant plants and installing a low-maintenance, water-efficient dripline irrigation system – then it took a quantum leap further by developing its own, onsite wastewater treatment system and reusing the treated wastewater for irrigation.
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Extraordinary Vision Continued from page 21
Located in the suburban foothills of San Diego lies Casablanca, In addition to the reduction in cost of purchased irrigation a twenty-something-year-old, 500-unit HOA community that water and sewer fees, another benefit realized is the leveling is predominately owned by fixed-income retirees and low-toout of annual rate increases. Anyone close to the books knows middle-income wage earners. Facing budget overruns, inefficient how dramatically water and sewer fees have increased over the infrastructure and a stretched-to-the-max constituency, the board last decade, and there appears to be no end in sight. Since you desperately searched for answers to avoid inevitable assessment have reduced your water and sewer costs by investing in your increases. own wastewater treatment facility, your ability to shield your What began as a meeting to investigate “smart controllers” community from these annual increases is greatly increased, to replace their seven outdated and non-operable irrigation thereby lowering your operating costs in comparison with controllers, turned out to be a fortuitous introduction neighboring communities. to a completely different approach to landscape The scenario above – which Casablanca has management. Why fortuitous? Because although implemented – has been in practice outside the seven irrigation controllers were of the United States for many years, but definitively well beyond their useful life is now gaining attention here due to cycle and were justifiably ready for What began the recent drought restrictions and replacement, a resulting site analysis as a meeting to incredibly high cost of water and clearly indicated that devoting dollars investigate “smart sewer services. Although blessed to that particular element of their infrastructure was not the best use of controllers” … turned with abundant resources that have previously been adequate precious, limited reserve capital. out to be a fortuitous to serve our communities, Like almost all communities introduction to a a growing population and located throughout the state, Casablanca uses water for both completely different aging infrastructure is placing pressures on supply and cost. interior and exterior purposes. The approach to landscape By connecting these two systems two systems supplying this water were management. and re-purposing water that has not connected and consumed precious previously been distributed long water based on their individual needs. So, distances, you are expanding the water the forward-thinking board considered a new supply, decreasing your costs and creating scenario: What if these two systems were connected, more resiliencies, both environmentally and and you captured the wastewater leaving your building headed for economically. the local municipal wastewater treatment plant, and redirected it Similar to solar, these privately owned waste-water treatment to your own, onsite wastewater treatment system? That reclaimed facilities are still connected to your current utility grid, but offer water would then be processed in accordance with water resource you a fixed operating cost while harvesting a resource previously regulations and become available for re-use throughout the intended for the waste stream. The savings realized by no longer landscape. The net effect of this would be to purchase water once, purchasing irrigation water and reducing sewer fees, repay the but use it twice. Very exciting! But wait, it gets even better. initial capital outlay required to invest in these systems. Most municipalities assess sewer fees based upon your water As long as you purchase water for interior use, and have a meter consumption, realizing there is a close relationship between landscape that requires irrigation, your community too can realize what you buy and what you return down the drain. However, these same benefits – having access to free and unlimited irrigation since you no longer are sending portions of your wastewater water, never again paying another irrigation water bill, realizing back to the municipal wastewater treatment facility, your actual reduced sewer fees, securing fixed future water and sewer costs sewer costs will be less than the water you purchase, and therefore and having a landscape not impacted by any further drought cannot be tied to the water meter. Instead, your sewer fees will be restrictions. It just takes some forward thinking and the will to reduced by the amount of wastewater you redirect to your onsite make it happen. wastewater treatment system, thus reducing your sewer fees and creating additional savings. Vicki MacHale is the Executive Director at ARK Management in San Diego; Eric Jenks is owner and partner of Viridian Landscape Maintenance.
New! BECOME WATERWISE!
Water Education for Community Managers
Water management issues continue to be a hot topic among California communities – so much so that CACM is partnering with the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA) to host both a certificate course on California landscape water management practices and a comprehensive water management conference (both offered in Northern and Southern California locations).
April 28 – East Bay May 12 – Orange County
What you’ll take away ... • Knowledge to understand, monitor, oversee and quantify your landscape contractor’s water management solutions • Information on how to differentiate between landscape contractors who are competent water managers and those who are not • Confidence in guiding your HOA boards through water management efficiencies and landscape transition plans • A certificate suitable for framing, copying for your board packets and listing on your resume
Course is 4 hours, 4 CEUs Members $199; Non-Members $260
LANDSCAPE WATER CONFERENCE
June 23 – East Bay August - Southern California
What you’ll experience ... • Learn about ways to conserve water, save money and navigate through the state’s Model
Water Efficiency Landscape Ordinance • Meet with your local water agencies and learn about rebates • Examine landscape water management case studies • Meet with product manufacturers of landscape water efficient technologies • Walk away with valuable knowledge to create a “landscape water plan” for future droughts • Meet and speak with state landscape water experts on turf renovation, water budgeting, calculating potential water & dollar savings and what to require when creating RFPs for landscape enhancement and maintenance contracts
Conference is 3 hours, 3 CEUs Members $115; Non-Members $170
