C.I.A. Services is very pleased to announce a new service available to all of the owners in all of our communities - online assessment payments. 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 for the owner - 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 software 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.

* Yes, you are correct that doesn't make financial sense. The interest on a credit card is much higher than the Association's interest if they just got on an approved payment plan. But you know quite a few people will do it.

Two years ago, one of our great managers had a little idea on giving back to community residents. The small thought turned into a huge success and annual social event celebrated in five of our communities.

Starting in early November, to show appreciation for the residents, a turkey is given to every household in the community. Early on a Saturday morning, community Board members along with community manager Evelyn Abram and administrative assistant Carol Harrison oversee the smooth process of handing out turkeys. The turkeys arrive and residents gather ready to show proof of residency and receive their appreciation gift - a turkey for Thanksgiving. To date, 2262 turkeys have been given away to community members and charity.

It is a special moment when we hand a turkey to a resident and witness the smiles and appreciation on their faces. These unique communities build a strong sense of pride of ownership, enhance participation and the overall well being of the community.

We are very proud of Evelyn Abram and the five communities that have embraced this wonderful program of thoughtfulness during the holiday season: Fairgreen, Heather Ridge Village, Hunterwood Village I, Hunterwood Village II and Ridgepoint.

Evelyn Abram		Carol Harrison

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 will be able to select from terms of 1, 2, 3 or 4 years with associated electricity rates of 7.5, 7.4, 7.3 or 7.2 cents per kwh (rates available through 12/31/06). In addition, the monthly service fee on each of these business accounts will be waived. The fee from Reliant varies but is generally between $15 and $18 per month. On each account converted under this program, the community will get a $25 credit on their first month's bill.

Community residents are also eligible to sign up with Tara Energy at a current rate of 11.45 cents per kwh. That compares to the current Reliant Energy price-to-beat of 16.3 per kwh. As an incentive to change, 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!

Hockey is one of the most exciting sports to watch in person. The action is non-stop, fast and physical. The skill of the players is amazing. They have a level of enthusiasm sometimes missing in the big dollar sports. Here's your chance to see why hockey is Canadia's national passion.

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 in January. However, if you can't wait, feel free to reserve your tickets now by sending an email HockeyNight@ciaservices.com.

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

We don't mean to ruin your holiday cheer, but the Texas legislature is back at work. They sure have a lot of big issues to deal with this session and we wish them the wisdom of Solomon for their duties.

In Texas, we have 31 State Senators and 150 State Representatives who are all very active. In 2005 sessions, a total of 12,091 bills were introduced. Of those, a total of 1,640 made it through all the committees, both chambers and were finally signed by the Governor into law. Many of those were very important bills. Some were just fun like HCR 1 in the first special session: "Congratulating The University of Texas Longhorns baseball team on winning the 2005 NCAA College World Series Championship".

Our legislators were able to start filing bills on 11/13/06 and can continue to do so until the normal filing deadline on 3/9/07 (only "emergency" bills can be filed after that). The House and Senate come into session on 1/9/07 and finish on 5/28/07. If needed, Governor Perry can call them back for special sessions as was done three times in 2005. There have always bills filed that affect community associations - the 2007 session will be no different judging from the filings in the first few weeks.

The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a national organization dedicated to fostering vibrant, responsive, competent community associations. Their mission is to assist community associations in promoting harmony, community and responsible leadership. The Texas Legislative Action Committee (TLAC) is the part of CAI monitoring legislation and trying to communicate the benefits of community associations to legislators. As the session gets rolling, you can track their activities on behalf of community associations at their web site www.tlac.org. We will also keep you informed about "good" and "bad" bills that are out there through our monthly editions of eNews Monthly.

Our popular C.I.A. Services Seminar Series will be taking a well deserved rest in December. Since we started the series, we have had more than 400 students learn how to be more effective community leaders.

We have a terrific group of seminars kicking off the first few months of 2007 including:

• Board Member Orientation
• Understanding Collections & Financial Reports
• Practical Deed Restriction Management
• Community Website Administrator Training

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 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:

• December — Stable Gate Homeowners Association
  North Office — Kim Easterling, Community Manager
• November — Settlers Park Homeowners Association
  Southwest Office — Martha Marsters, Community Manager
• October — Hunters Glen III Community Association
  Southwest Office — Myron Bruines, 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 December.

• Townewest Homeowners Association — 13 years
• Lincoln Green Estates Community Improvement Association — 13 years
• Brazos Lake Property Owners Association — 6 years
• Hunters Glen Community Association — 5 years
• Quail Green South Community 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.