July Ciaa Newsletter

“Our Profit is Your Success”

July 2007

An Affiliate Of

“High Performance Leasing” Over 50 apartment professionals attended the enthusiastic seminar given by Stephen Cox at the Funny Bone in West Glen Town Center. Steve traveled from Dallas and was very impressed with the talent and enthusiasm our group showed. He went over “LEASING BASICS” in his own unique format. It was easy to tell Steve came from a theatrical background; he could really work a crowd! He also traveled to Iowa City where he interacted with a group of 31 apartment professionals. Stephen Cox was sponsored by the Central Iowa Apartment Alliance and the Apartment Finder.

Upcoming Events 7/18 11:30 General Membership Meeting Crave - West Glen 7/19 4:00 Vendors Council Chicken Coop West Des Moines

Trade Show Coming in September! September 20th is the date for the CIAA Annual Trade Show. The event will be held at the Sheraton Hotel at 50th & University in West Des Moines. Mark your calendars...this is one you won’t want to miss! There will be food, prizes, refreshments, fun, and most importantly...VENDORS! Last year we saw over 100 apartment personnel at the event. Everyone on your staff should attend. This is an ideal opportunity to network, share ideas, and find solutions to any number of problems we face in our daily operations. This year promises to be bigger and better than ever. Save the date, and watch for more exciting details coming soon!

CIAA Board of Directors PRESIDENT MEMBERSHIP CHAIR

Melissa Johnson, Olde English Village

SECRETARY Jennifer O’Brien Konior, TAB Properties

VICE PRESIDENT

VENDOR COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS Tom Newton, Gorman Roofing

LEGISLATIVE CHAIR

Rocky Sposato, Tub Wrx

Rick Koontz, Signature Place TREASURER EDUCATION CHAIR

Mary Spain, Apartment Finder

PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR Deb Lanpher, R & R Realty TRADE SHOW COMMITTEE CHAIR Michelle Ogden, Timberland Partners

9/20 CIAA Trade Show Sheraton Hotel West Des Moines

Inside: • • •

Committee News

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July 18th Meeting Registration

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Vendor Members and Spotlight

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Vendor Meeting News

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New Members

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Golf Outing Highlights

CIAA on the Web Letter from the President

Promotions and Postings

COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS Education Committee The CAM class has wrapped up and books are being shipped to a grader at the time of this newsletter. Six individuals completed their coursework. We look forward to celebrating with them upon completion of their books being graded and returned. Thank you very much to all those vendors that sponsored their classes: Furniture Options, Apartment Finder, Tub Wrx Inc, and DeWitt Painting. A special thanks to our volunteer instructors Melissa Johnson, Rick Koontz, Mary Spain, Bill Armstrong, Michelle Ogden, and Glen Waterhouse. COMMITTEE MEETING The education committee will be meeting on July 10th to plan their next education program for our members. The last survey indicated members were evenly split over their desire for training of maintenance and leasing personnel. Consideration is being made for both areas. Look for updates. Members of the Education Committee are Lori Young of R & R Realty and Heather Benton of Walters Companies.

Legislative Committee The Legislative Committee is starting to compile CIAA’s list of legislative priorities for the upcoming session, and they would like to hear from you. Please e-mail your ideas to Rick at [email protected]. They will be sending out an email to all members to announce the meeting date and time. A voter registration drive will be planned to educate renters on issues that impact them, and to encourage them to become more active in the political process. Renters are less like to vote in local elections, and especially on referendum votes that would greatly impact them, such as tax relief that would apply only to homeowners. Raising awareness of local and state legislators’ positions on issues that affect renters will be a focus of the Legislative Committee. Issues that will likely be reintroduced in the next legislative session will be a primary focus of the committee. One of our goals is to get bad language revised before bills are introduced. We have a good start based on legislation that was introduced last session which failed to pass, but is sure to be reintroduced in the next session. The committee will begin interviewing lobbyists soon. Recommendations will be presented to the Board of Directors who will make the final decision on a lobbyist. We hope to have a lobbyist in place by October.

Membership Committee The membership committee is in need of a chair. Anyone that wants to be involved in this fast growing organization and work with your peers to build our membership base should call Melissa Johnson 223-1010.

CIAA on the Web To be a guest blogger, please submit your article in MS Word or PDF format to [email protected]. Share you ideas and experiences with your industry peers! Page 2

Website: www.ciaahq.org Email: [email protected] Blog http://blog.ciaahq.org

Largely, renters only vote when it comes to the presidential level, when there are candidates they feel they can relate to Email: [email protected]

Letter From the President Wow it has been busy! I hope everyone is doing well and leasing lots; I know we are keeping the vendors busy. Despite all the normal hubbub of activity around our offices, we still managed to have some fun this last month. I hope everyone that turned out for the golf outing last June 8th at Blank Park Golf Course had a wonderful time. Despite my pathetic driving skills (ball, not the cart - they wouldn’t let me), I got to catch up and have a ball with some of my apartment peers and vendor friends. And I got a pretty nice tan. Sorry no one won the car this year, but I hear one of our golfers got super close, so maybe next year! Thanks for coming out to support your Association and especially Thanks to Rocky Sposato of TubWrx, our Golf Committee Chairperson, for getting it all organized! The Committee for next year is already forming, so let us know if you’d like to help shape next year’s tournament. We also had a wonderfully energetic group for Stephen Cox, “The Leasing Coach” at the Funny Bone on June 18th. He gave us some wonderful tips, reminders, and even some new tools to help us do our jobs even better. We were very lucky to be able to get him in Iowa, thanks to the Apartment Finder, and hope he can come back soon and give us more pointers. Our newest CAM (Certified Apartment Manager) class has finished with their training modules and now is trying to wrap up their final projects. Having done one myself, bear with those trying to finish—it’s a lot of work. We’re very proud of our new class and expect to be able to honor their achievement at one of our upcoming meeting/events. It has also been a busy time with new memberships in the CIAA. We have grown to representing nearly 7000 rental units within Iowa - in just 3 months! Thank you all so much for your support and acknowledgment that an active Association is important to you as a professional member of our industry. We will keep bringing you the best information, speakers, and events to help you stay ahead of the game. Thanks again and happy leasing! Melissa Johnson, CAM, ARM ® Olde English Village Apartments President, Central Iowa Apartment Alliance

Register for July 18th Membership Meeting! The July General Membership meeting will be held at Crave at West Glen Town Center in West Des Moines at 11:30. This will be a self-pay lunch meeting. Cost of lunch is $16.00 and includes beverage, tax, and gratuity. This is one your maintenance team will want to attend. Wendell Strong, along with Dave Hein of Stitzell Electric will review some electrical and lighting basics, including how to audit your energy use and save money in the process! Use this form to register no later than July 16 at noon. Make your lunch selections below and fax to (515) 327-9104.

Company

Phone

Name

Name

Name

Name

Lunch Items: • Mandarin Orange Salad - Spinach & romaine w/ grilled chicken topped with mandarin ginger dressing Qty.______ • Penne with Red Sauce - Penne pasta with Italian seasoned beef and tomato basil red sauce Qty. • Chicken Ranch Sandwich - 1/2 chicken breast w/ Swiss cheese, bacon, and homemade ranch sauce Qty. • Smoked Trio Panini - Smoked turkey, bacon, and smoked Swiss cheese on pumpernickel w/ fries Qty._______

Website: www.ciaahq.org

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CIAA Vendor Members A+ Lawn and Landscaping

Qwest

Apartment Finder

Sherwin Williams Carpet

Cort/Instant Furniture Rental

State Farm - Glenn Waterhouse

Dewitt Painting

Stew Hansen’s Dodge City-Jeep

First Advantage SafeRent

Stitzell Electric

Furniture Options

Sudzy’s Carpet Cleaning

Gorman Roofing Services

Tenant Data

Hawkeye Legal Services

Transworld Systems

Jetz Service Co.

Tub Wrx

Vendor Members’ websites and contacts are linked through our website! To Become A Vendor Member contact Tom Newton 515-883-0838 [email protected]

Your vendor members make many CIAA events possible. Please support them!

Vendor Spotlight - Furniture Options Furniture Options offers complete home furnishings to people in transition through standard rental, instant purchase, or quick ownership. They have professional decorators who can assist you and make sure you get exactly what you want, delivered the next business day. Their flexible agreements include rental and purchase options. The options are yours at Furniture Options. Call April at 251-4100. Be sure to ask about her FREE leasing seminar on July 11th at their office. It is perfect for beginners and includes breakfast and lunch.

Looking For New Vendor Members Managers, get your vendors to help make you eligible for a drawing for a $100.00 Gift Certificate to Jordan Creek Mall. Encourage new vendors to attend the July 19th Vendor Meting at the Chicken Coop in West Des Moines at 4:00 p.m. Have them bring this form and for each form we receive on your behalf an entry will be made into the drawing with your name on it. Print out this form and encourage them to attend. They should be supporting your organization. Call Mary Spain with questions at 327-0606. Community Name Manager Name

Phone#

Vendor Name

Phone#

Drawing will be held that night! Page 4

Welcome New Members! PROPERTIES

Lyn Crossing

The Fountains

Beaverdale Apartments

Mansions at Jordan Creek

The Kirkwood

Canterbury Park

Oak Crossing

Triple Crown

Chateau

Oakland Pointe

Urban Green

Conlin Properties Corporate

Oakland Pointe Storage

Valley Forge

Country Club Village

Oakview Terrace

Venbury Trail

Cross Creek

Park Place

Vista Court

Deer Ridge Apartments

Parkside

Wellington

Diversified Management Associates

Pleasantview

Windfield West

Douglas Woods Apartments

Risser Investments

Winwood

Fort South

Southbrook Green

Foxboro

Southtown Terrace

VENDORS

Grand Colony Apartments

Spruce Pointe Sun Prairie

First Advantage SafeRent

Hubbell Towers Lakeview Apartments

Sunburst Apartments

Stew Hansen’s Dodge City-Jeep

Promotions, Positions and Postings Bonnie Calkins has joined TAB Properties as Community Manager at Village at Westchester. Rebecca Maxwell is the new Leasing Consultant at Westchester Square, TAB Properties.

Congratulations to Don Stephens of TAB Properties. He was recently promoted to Lead Maintenance Supervisor of Westchester Square and Village at Westchester. HELP WANTED

Village at Westchester, TAB Properties welcomes Nicole Tuttle as a Leasing Consultant.

Timberland Pointe has an opening for Assistant Manager. Forward resume to Sara Kems at

Woody Trigg has joined TAB Properties as a maintenance technician.

[email protected]

Russ Wilson has joined the maintenance team at Signature Place Apartments.

Regency Woods, a Peterson Company, is accepting applications for Assistant Manager. Experience Preferred. Must be

proficient with computer functions. Apply in person or e-mail resume to Melissa Johnson at [email protected] Professional Property Manager is looking to relocate to Des Moines. Four years experience. Currently managing over 500 units in Eastern Iowa. In process of acquiring ARM certification. Has MSW with concentration in Community Development. Please contact Gail Cudworth, Eastern Iowa Apartment Finder Publisher for contact information. 515-266-0993

INTERESTING WEB TIDBITS ABOUT RENTERS “Voters who live in owner occupied dwellings have a much higher rate of turnout than do those who rent. Property owners and renters vote differently and targeting one or the other is becoming an important campaign tool” “Who cares about renters, they don't vote, the 95% of voters who are homeowners will be supporting the candidate who is fighting for them” “Only property owners were declared eligible to vote on the traffic plan. Homeowners were allotted one vote per household, while residents of apartment complexes...were not allowed to vote” Page 5

Golf Outing The golf outing was a hit! The winners of the event were Jobe Cooper, Rich Nicklaus, John Guenther, and John Kilbright. Thanks to all who attended and helped make it a success!

FUN IN THE SUN!

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