The Evolution of CACM Education
The Evolution of CACM Education
E
very once in a while a visionary comes along who creates something out of nothing. CACM’s founding members had a vision 23 years ago when they formed CACM – a professional association created by community managers for community managers. These bright individuals foresaw the need for career and professional support to ensure success in their field and quickly started developing the foundation to support California community managers. From those beginning days till today, CACM has always taken pride in being the organization that is forward thinking and develops curriculum to meet the future needs of its members. We don’t just identify trends; we actually create them. Several milestones include:
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• Introduced the title of “community manager” in the 1990s, which is now readily accepted as the term to identify those who manage associations. Vision Winter 2014 | www.cacm.org
• In 1992, CACM proudly began offering the CCAM certification, which established core competencies and standards of practice where none previously existed.
• CACM hired the Forbes Group in 2008 to conduct an environmental scan that identified aging in place as a trend with tremendous growth potential over the next 20 years. The Age-Restricted Active Adult Community Management course was created as a result to prepare members for this growing market.
• In 2010, CACM introduced the first specialty course as part of a new Specialty Certificate program. This award-winning education program now allows managers to pursue specialized education and career opportunities in high rise, large scale, portfolio and new development management.
