"Escape to a Tropical Paradise" is the theme for this year's Cypress Creek United Civic Associations (CCUCA) seminars and trade show. This is the 21st year for this great event for Board members and other community volunteers. CCUCA does an excellent job at pulling together experts in homeowners associations to present numerous seminars in a format that runs from early Saturday morning until mid afternoon. This years event is on February 24th.

Click here to see the trade show announcement and scheduled seminars. Here are a few of the 15 intriguing seminar titles to peak your interest:

• HOA Hula School Parts 1, 2 and 3 (these three seminars cover the ABCs for Board members)
• It's the Law (legal issues affecting associations)
• Signs of the Times (how to fight graffiti)
• All About Accountability (proper controls on finances)
• Hello Out There! (communications with residents and the outside world)
• Show Me the Money! (assessment collections and the law)
• See You in Court! (is JP court an option?)
• Boosting Community Involvement (how to find and retain volunteers and community participation)
• Smart Landscaping Solutions (native plants and natural approaches)

C.I.A. Services President Ralph Troiano will present the seminar Paying for Today, Planning for Tomorrow to board members interested in taking the mystery out of reserves.

The registration deadline is February 12th. Register directly with the form in the announcement or contact your community manager and we'll handle it for you.

The February and March calendar for the popular C.I.A. Services Seminar Series contains two seminars for all Board members: Understanding Collections & Financial Reports and Practical Deed Restriction Management. Each seminar begins at 6:30 p.m. and runs 2-1/2 hours. We provide a nice dinner so you don'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.

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

Deed restriction management is one of the most difficult tasks handled by homeowners associations because it involves subjective decisions, homeowner's property and emotions. This seminar covers the steps in deed restriction management and how a process can contain "intelligence" and common sense. We discuss the relation between deed restrictions and architectural guidelines and give you examples of well crafted guidelines. We'll clarify any confusion over whether something is a DR or an ACC issue. Practical deed restriction management requires clear communications and reasonable requirements.

• March 15, 2007 (Thursday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office
• March 21, 2007 (Wednesday), 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.

The driver must have thought she was going to out run the law. But driving an 18-wheeler on a residential two lane road in broad daylight makes a stealthy escape just a little bit difficult.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, community manager Margaret Eckhardt was driving down Clear Lake City Boulevard (which we manage) in the middle of Pine Brook (which we also manage). She came to a stop a couple cars behind an 18-wheeler with 40 foot trailer trying to make a U-turn on the two lane section of boulevard. The truck couldn't turn any further without jack-knifing. The 18-wheeler driver must have gotten frustrated so she just hit the gas, left rubber on the street, jumped a curb, made deep ruts in the wet esplanade grass and clipped the car stopped behind her. The big rig sped off at a high rate of speed.

Margaret and the driver whose car was hit turned around and gave chase. Several simultaneous calls were made to 911 from people who witnessed the event. The 18-wheeler ducked into a grocery store parking lot and tried to sneak out the other side. Both the owner of damaged vehicle and Margaret pulled in front of 18-wheeler as police began arriving from all sides.

The truck driver received some hefty tickets. The other driver will get her car fixed. And we received a very prompt settlement from the truck driver's insurance company for the damage done to the common areas. Just another day in the life of our dedicated community managers. Great job, Margaret!

Are you ready for some hockey? Our 9th annual C.I.A. Services Hockey Night with the Houston Aeros is set for Saturday, March 10th. Our home team has shown streaks of brilliance but find themselves fighting for a playoff spot. Every game is exciting as the guys playing with enthusiasm and urgency. 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.

Each year we invite all of our community volunteers 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 recently mailed our formal invitation - if you missed it, click here. You can reserve your tickets by sending an email to HockeyNight@ciaservices.com or calling our Southwest Office at 713-981-9000. 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 12.42 cent per kwh. That is 15 to 20% lower than similar plans from Reliant Energy and other large providers (note 2). In addition to the monthly 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) Visit www.powertochoose.org to see comparison pricing. Tara Energy is not listed on the residential comparison site because they focus on associations and non-profit organizations and do not market directly to individual consumers.

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:

• February — Community Association of the Highlands
  Southwest Office — Allyson Abbott, Community Manager
• January — Silvercreek Community Association
  Southwest Office — Libby Hodges, Community Manager
• December — Stable Gate Homeowners Association
  North Office — Kim Easterling, 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.

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

• Brays Forest Patio Homes Maintenance Fund — 11 years
• Oyster Point Homeowners Association - 11 years
• Blue Lakes Civic Club — 7 years
• Oak Hollow Homeowners Association - 6 years
• Eastpoint Subdivision Homeowners Association — 4 years
• Silverglen North Homeowners Association - 4 years
• Post Wood Civic Association - 3 years
• Greensbrook Community Association - 1 year

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 Charlotte Bulcken on her 11th anniversary with C.I.A. Services. Charlotte is an important part of our North Office staff overseeing client financial reporting and a variety of other tasks.
• Congratulations to Shelly Brady, a community manager at our North Office, and Cathy Lee, a corporate bookkeeper at our Southwest Office, on their 9th anniversaries with us. Both joined us as administrative assistants and have been valued employees in each of their positions.
• Congratulations to Liz Holliday on her 10th anniversary with C.I.A. Services. Liz is a key part of the team that processed over 3,200 Home Improvement Requests at our North Office in 2006.
• Congratulations to Vince Hargrove, a maintenance coordinator at our Southwest Office, on his 6th anniversary with C.I.A. Services. Vince is very attentive to his communities' maintenance needs and keeps contractors on their toes. He is a part of the team that oversaw nearly 2,000 work orders at our Southwest Office in 2006.
• Welcome to Lakeithia McZeal who joined our Southwest Office staff as a bookkeeper. She will be a part of the team that prepared over 5,600 checks last year from our Southwest Office.
• Welcome also to Tiffany Taylor who joined our Southwest Office staff as the Community Coordinator for the new Telfair community in Sugar Land. She will be coordinating programs and events, managing newsletter and intranet communications and handling a variety of resident services.

Charlotte Bulcken		Shelly Brady		Cathy Lee		Liz Holliday

Vince Hargrove		Lakeithia McZeal		Tiffany Taylor