For a management company, December can be both relaxing and hectic. Budgets are done, maintenance activity is low, we don't have as many evening board meetings and we get to take several days off around the holidays. On the other hand, assessment payments are coming in rapidly and we get to talk to a lot of homeowners. It reminds us of how busy our dedicated staff has been all year.

• In 2006, our maintenance coordinators issued and tracked 3,484 work orders and projects for our communities. That is an average of 14 per workday. A work order can be anything from having a sign fabricated & installed to developing specifications & soliciting bids for a contract to having a swimming pool resurfaced. Each work order includes a large amount of communication with contractors in advance and as follow-up. That is an impressive amount of work.
• In 2006, our home improvement coordinators processed 5,245 home improvement and new construction requests for our communities. Many requests entail multiple communications with the homeowner to ensure that the request is complete before passing on to the ACC for a decision. Each request finishes with a letter to the homeowner documenting the decision.
• In 2006, our bookkeepers prepared 11,088 checks for our communities. That is an average of 44 per workday. It takes great organization skills to coordinate that many bills with due dates and Board meetings. All that while keeping impeccable records that CPA auditors love to see.
• In 2006, our community managers, administrative assistants and inspectors tracked and resolved 91,987 deed restriction violations. Our deed restriction management efforts continued to be successful with nearly 90% of all violations getting resolved before a certified letter was needed.
• In 2006, our high speed office equipment got a real workout with our clerical staff assembling almost 5,000 board packages, making over 700,000 copies and mailing approximately 650,000 items. Wow!
• And not to be outdone, in December alone, our administrative assistants and bookkeepers received and deposited $4,152,822 in assessments including $1,366,964 in the two days after Christmas.

As we move into 2007, on behalf of the entire staff of C.I.A. Services and our families, we wish you a safe, happy and prosperous new year!

Each seminar begins at 6:30 p.m. and runs 2-1/2 hours. Since we always provide deli sandwiches, you won’t have to rush to eat dinner beforehand.  You’ll leave with knowledge you can use immediately and a great notebook with the seminar slides, samples and reference materials.

This is the required training course for certification as a Community Website Administrator (CWSA) on the C.I.A Services web site. As a CWSA you'll be able to maintain the pages for your community. You'll be able to create news flashes, update key personnel, add community information, display photos, conduct surveys and much more. At the end of the seminar we'll give you a taste of HTML - the web language that will allow you to do some pretty advanced things if you like. Being a website administrator is very easy and you can do it from anywhere you have an internet connection.

• January 11, 2007 (Thursday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office

The first half of this seminar will cover all the steps involved in successful assessment collections.  Since not everyone pays on time, we’ll get into late fees, liens, payment plans, bankruptcy and all the legal remedies.  The second half of the seminar deals with reading and understanding your financial reports.  We’ll trace the flow of money throughout the reports so you’ll never be in the dark when staring at all those numbers.

• February 8, 2007 (Thursday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office
• February 13, 2007 (Tuesday), 6:30 p.m. — North Office

The complete list of seminars and descriptions are on the Library page of our web site or you can just click here to view the information. You can register at any time by calling our Southwest Office at 713-981-9000 or emailing us at seminars@ciaservices.com.

We are now in our 23rd year managing community associations in the greater Houston area. This is the story of a small community celebrating 21 years with us this month: the Hunterwood Village II Association.

Once upon a time many years ago, Linda Jolivet was a board member in a small secluded community of 85 homes on the northeast side of Houston. Times were tough in the mid-80's in Houston and the community found they were out of money and could no longer pay their bills. Linda Jolivet approached C.I.A. Services for guidance and help. We assisted the Board with planning, budgeting and began providing important communication to residents.

Ms. Jolivet and a core group of volunteers and Board members, including Sonia Rodriguez, Zane May, Rae Lawrence, Mary Lee Morris, Diana Blue, Lenel Daughtry and Danny Motton, walked door-to-door to get enough donations to pay the past due streetlight bills and keep the lights on. We deferred management fees for most of the first year to help.

Within a few years, collections had improved significantly and the Board was able to concentrate on other community needs. Ms. Jolivet was a strong voice and with determination and dedication, she inspired a sense of pride among the diverse culture of residents which in turn resulted in a new outlook for Hunterwood Village II. As funds became available, the Association renovated their entrance monuments, installed colorful landscaping, and purchased two vacant lots to provide a small park for the community.

The Board of Directors and community residents continue to be active and involved. The current board members are Abel Rodriguez, Javier Ruiz, Carmen Salvatierra, Imelda Salinas and Rosa "Lila" Alfaro. The tradition, started in 1989, of having the annual meeting in conjunction with a picnic at the community park continues every year. Parents enjoy listening to the laughter of their kids as they swing on the swing sets, play kid's games on the picnic tables and run around on the fall surface while nestled safely in the middle of the community.

We are very proud to be a partner with Hunterwood Village II for the last twenty-one years and look forward to many, many more. Linda Jolivet is no longer with us but we're sure she looks down on the community with great pride.

We can't wait for them to drop the puck at this year's C.I.A. Services Hockey Night with the Houston Aeros. Our home team has been struggling lately but the guys have been playing with passion are on the edge of a turn-around. We're also on a 5 year Hockey Night winning streak. Hockey is one of the most exciting sports to watch in person. The action is non-stop, fast and physical. Here's your chance to have a fun evening out with your family.

Our 9th annual C.I.A. Services Hockey Night with the Houston Aeros is set for Saturday, March 10th. Each year we invite all of our community board members and their families to join us to cheer on the Aeros. Many join us for a dinner before the game. We have lots of nice door prizes. The Aeros will take on their Western Conference rival the Peoria Rivermen. We'll mail out an official invitation this month. However, if you can't wait, feel free to reserve your tickets now by sending an email HockeyNight@ciaservices.com. We guarantee you'll have a great time!

Hockey Night 2003		Hockey Night 2004
Hockey Night 2005		Hockey Night 2006

We have had a great response to our new Electricity Savings Program (ESP) with Tara Energy. ESP allows each of our community associations to lock-in their electricity rates with significant monthly savings without compromising the stability of electricity supply.

Tara Energy, a Houston-based Retail Electricity Provider (REP), is one of the largest independently-owned REP's in Texas. Since its inception four years ago, Tara Energy has pioneered and perfected its group business model to foster long-term relationships with several associations and non-profit organizations. Tara's financial stability is evidenced by the fact that it was selected over several other large and small competitors to serve many of its customers, especially in its relationships with the Department of Defense, the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association, Texas Medical Association, and AAA Texas.

For electricity used on the common areas of the community, the Board can select terms of 1, 2, 3 or 4 years. For communities that have already signed up, savings based on their historical usage have been up to 30 percent or more. On each account converted under this program, the community will also get a $25 credit on the first month's bill.

Community residents are also eligible to sign up with Tara Energy at an average price (note 1) of 13.35 cents per kwh. That compares to the 12/26/06 Reliant Energy price-to-beat (note 2) of 16.3 per kwh. In addition to that 18% savings, residents will also receive a $25 credit on their first bill.

As part of this program, each C.I.A. Services community will receive a quarterly "royalty" of 0.5% of the cost of electricity used on all common areas and by all residents in the community in ESP. The quarterly payment can be used for various improvements and community programs. For our part in developing ESP and overseeing the program, C.I.A. Services will receive an equal royalty.

So what are you waiting for? Think ESP and save!

(1) The average price includes electricity, transmission & distribution, monthly service charge and all other costs added by the REP. The average price is quoted at 1000 kwh of usage per month. It is the easiest way to compare proposals from various REPs.

(2) The Texas market becomes fully deregulated on 1/1/07 so the "price to beat" will no longer exist.

Since we announced our new options for online assessment payments last month, our web site has been busy (especially the last few days of December). Owners may pay their community assessments online with a major credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover) or via eCheck. This service is provided by Community Association Banc, a division of 1st National Bank of Arizona, through their secure web site.

Owners benefit from being able to pay their assessments quickly and easily without the hassle and expense of writing checks and using postage. They may be able to avoid late fees if they realize at the last minute that they forgot to pay their assessments by mail. If an owner is in a small financial bind, they may elect to pay their assessments by credit card and they pay back the credit card company over a few months. And as a bonus, they may get sky miles or bonus points from their credit card company. Payments by credit card carry a convenience fee from the bank that the owner pays - payments by eCheck are free.

From our website, every community page has a new button on the community menu: "Payments". Once clicked, the owner can read all about the on-line payment program. To make the payment, they select either "Credit Card" or "eCheck" to make the transaction at the secure bank site. The funds are placed in the Association's bank account the next business day. We wrote the interface to download the transactions to our management software every day.

We are pleased to offer these additional payment options to the owners in our communities. For more information about on-line payments at C.I.A. Services, click here.

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 20 Community Managers write a nomination for one of their communities. We then read them all take a vote. Here are our most recent selections:

• January — Silvercreek Community Association
  Southwest Office — Libby Hodges, Community Manager
• December — Stable Gate Homeowners Association
  North Office — Kim Easterling, Community Manager
• November — Settlers Park Homeowners Association
  Southwest Office — Martha Marsters, Community Manager

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

C.I.A Services continues to grow as more communities hear about our unique approach to community association management. We would like to welcome our newest clients that have come onboard in the last three months.

• Fairway Pointe Community Association — Southwest Office — Libby Hodges, Community Manager

Every month we appreciate the communities that are celebrating their anniversaries with us. Here are our clients that started with us in January.

• Hunterwood Village II Association — 21 years
• Homeowners Association of Timber Forest — 10 years
• Kings Lake Forest Homeowners Association — 10 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.

• Congratulations to Brenda Alvarez our Office Manager and Community Manager at our North Office on her 18th anniversary with C.I.A. Services.
• Also congratulations to Dawna Woods, a Maintenance Coordinator at our North Office on her 10th anniversary with us.
• And congratulations to Ed Barnett, a Maintenance Coordinator at our Southwest Office on his 7th anniversary us.
• We were pleased to recently announce the promotion of Brenda Ellington to Community Manager at our North Office.
• Welcome to Leslie Green who recently joined our Southwest Office staff as an Administrative Assistant.

Brenda Alvarez		Dawna Woods		Ed Barnett		Brenda Ellington		Leslie Green