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Archived Newsletters

Every month, we issue an electronic newsletter, eNews Monthly, to keep clients informed about Association items, spotlight clients, answer frequently asked questions, and let you know what is happening with the company. Old issues of eNews Monthly are available on our Library page.

December 2018
eNews Monthly
Volunteer Spotlight
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Pine Forest Village’s Marissa Masterson
by Angela Douglas

For the past 18 years, Pine Forest Village has been lucky to have Marissa Masterson as a homeowner and volunteer.  Marissa has been on the Board of Directors and has held all offices at one time or another.  She is the current Board President.  In addition to serving her community on the Board of Directors, Marissa has been an integral part of the Architectural Control Committee, making decisions on exterior modifications in the community.

She also serves her community in her job as an RN, specializing in wound care in West Houston.  She met her husband at Texas A&M and they have lived in Pine Forest Village for 20 years.  They have two fur babies, Rocky and Westin.  In her spare time, she can be found in the garage tinkering with some project.  During the post Harvey reconstruction, she was very hands on, laying her own floor tile and cutting her own butcher block counter.  Marissa and her husband also enjoy spending time outdoors, if not at the beach, then camping at the river, hiking and sitting by the campfire with a nice glass of wine.

C.I.A. Services and Pine Forest Village is pleased to recognize Marissa for her years of hard work in keeping the community a great place to call home!

Community
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Plogging - The Activity Cleaning the World

What do you get when you combine the word “jogging” with the Swedish phrase for picking up, “plocka upp”?  “PLOGGING” 

Swedish-American Erik Ahlström (pictured to the right), considered the grandfather of plogging, invented this earth-minded sport in 2016.  During his bike rides to work in Stockholm, he would notice garbage laying around never getting picked up. This was incredibly annoying to Erik so he organized folks from the running community to help pick up trash while they were out jogging. The activity of finding garbage quickly turned into a fun time and is compared to going on a treasure hunt. 

"We have to start at an early age. If we teach our kids that cleaning up after ourselves, and taking care of the environment is cool, then there’s a bigger chance that they’ll develop a sustainable lifestyle and approach to our planet," says Ahlstrom.

Plogging has become a fitness craze in nearly every continent.  Government officials in India have even requested municipalities across the country to organize plogging events to help their communities fight pollution.  It has become a popular activity across the United States from Alaska to New York.  A search for #plogga and #plogging will result in plenty of photos of ploggers with their treasures in their hands rather than littering their community.  

We don’t think plogging is going away and we think that’s awesome!  

Photo Credit: https://swedesinthestates.com/plogga-new-trend-will-save-planet/

Fun Times
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San Antonio Hockey Night

Each year, we invite our community volunteers, employees, families and friends to join us for Hockey Night with the San Antonio Rampage.  We spend a fun-filled evening watching a great sport.  

The 2019 Hockey Night will be on Saturday, January 26th when the Rampage will take on the Stockton Heat. Please ask your community manager for details on how to reserve your tickets.

Hockey is a cool, fun and fast-paced game.  If you’ve never seen hockey in person, you are in for a treat.  We’ll give you a nice guide to hockey that explains the rules (yes, there are rules!).  We have great seats reserved and hope to see lots of action at our end.  Plus, we’ll have a bunch of door prizes for everyone. 

If you’ve not seen a live game, it’s a real treat and we hope you can join us!

Seminar Series
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Stay Plugged in with Webcasts

We now offer each of our seminars in the form of a recorded webcast on demand for you to watch at any time! If you have missed a seminar, our seminars are available on our YouTube channel. The following seminars are now available:

Just go to our website, www.ciaservices.com, and click on the Resources tab. From there, select our Library and you will see the links to each webcast and other training materials or you can simply click on the links above.

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Associations in Practice Series

If you missed it, our first video in the Associations in Practice Series covered Super-Budget ConceptsThis is a great introduction (or refresher) to The Super-Budgeting Process webinar offered in our Seminar Series. We hope you will find these videos useful, particularly as we are now in the midst of budget season.
 
Recently, we released the second video of our Associations in Practice Series: Short Term Rentals. In this video, we offer insight about short-term rental properties. We have an expert panel on board discussing everything from what a short-term rental is, to potential problems and possible solutions.
 
All of our Association in Practice Series videos will be available on our YouTube channel. We will send updates when new material is added. You can also subscribe to our channel for the news on the latest additions.
Community Spotlight
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We are proud of every one of our communities, so it is always hard to find just one to highlight. We start by having each of our Community Managers write a nomination for one of their communities. We then read them and take a vote. Here are our most recent selections:

  • December - Kendall Pointe Homeowners Association - San Antonio Office - Brittany Ashe
  • November - Treasure Island Homes Association - San Antonio Office - Brandi Brack
  • October - S.A. Remington Heights Homeowners Association, Inc. - San Antonio Office - Sebby Regalado
  • September - Aliana Community Council - Southwest Office - Deniece Reyes
  • August - Redland Ranch Estates Homeowners Association - San Antonio Office - Sebby Regalado
  • July - Community Association of the Highlands - Southwest Office - Libby Hodges

To see the full story on these communities and to see all of the past winners, visit the Community of the Month page on our site.

Community Anniversaries
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Every month we appreciate the communities that are celebrating their anniversaries with us. Here are the clients that started with us in December.

  • Lincoln Green Estates Community Improvement Association25 years
  • Quail Green South Community Association - 14 years
  • West Bend Community Improvement Association - 4 years
  • White Oak Ranch Homeowners Association - 2 years

Our goal has always been to create a positive, long term relationship with all of our client communities. We are very proud to be managing all of these communities.

Employee Corner
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Employee Anniversaries

We love to celebrate special milestones with our employees. In the Employee Corner of each eNews issue, we will list all employees that have reached their first anniversary with our company. Additionally, once employees reach five years and become a company stockholder, we recognize them each year on their anniversary month.

Maintenance Coordinator Dawna Woods of our Humble Office is celebrating 22 years with our company! Dawna is the mother of 3 boys and the grandmother to 3 beautiful girls.  She spends much of her free time with her family, especially her granddaughters.  Dawna has spent the last year recovering from Hurricane Harvey.  She is a thrifty shopper and loves to find a good deal!

Happy 13th Anniversary to Community Manager Libby Hodges of the Southwest Houston Office. Libby manages a large portfolio and keeps everything running smoothly.  She has been in the community management industry for 19 years! Libby enjoys spending time with her grandbabies any time she gets the chance. She is also a terrific cook and everyone always looks forward to her cherry dump pie. 

Rebecca "Jay" Arguello, Maintenance Coordinator from our Humble Office, is celebrating her 6-year anniversary.  Jay works with one of our large master-planned communities and spends most of her time on-site.  She has an amazing personality and she is always smiling.  When she is in the office, she is the first person to offer a compliment to a co-worker.  Jay enjoys spending time at home playing board games and being with friends and family.

Administrative Assistant, Alicia Adams, is celebrating her 5-year anniversary. She is also celebrating becoming one of our newest stockholders! Alicia assists with several communities in our Humble Office, both large and small.  One of Alicia’s hobbies is sewing. She’s made some really nice handmade gifts for her coworkers!  She also enjoys camping with her friends.

Our other newest stockholder celebrating her 5-year anniversary is Kimberly Cowart. Kim is a Community Manager from our Humble Office.  She manages several associations, including 3 associated with one of our largest communities.  Kim enjoys traveling and usually follows the next Tough Mudder race to cheer on her husband and daughter as they compete.  

Congratulations to these special people on their company anniversary!

Read Past Issues of eNews Monthly

Every month, we issue an electronic newsletter, eNews Monthly, to keep clients informed about Association items, spotlight clients, answer frequently asked questions, and let you know what is happening with the company. Old issues of eNews Monthly are available on our Library page.