Community Spotlight:
Atascocita North Community Improvement Association
by Brenda Alvarez

The Atascocita North has five dedicated board members who have provided hands-on guidance for the community for many years. Two of the members have served a total of 32 years!

David Swenson and Cynthia Price

President David Swenson has served on the Atascocita North C.I.A. Board of Directors for 18 years. After 20 years with Metro, David retired and did home inspections for about 2 years. David has now found a new job and is very happy with his new job title: "Honey Do". This job and David's grandson Timmy keep him quite busy.

Secretary Cynthia Price has served on the board for 15 years. Cynthia runs a non-profit organization for the State of Texas working with children. Cynthia spends a lot of time traveling and teaches nutrition classes all over the state. In her spare time, she loves the time spent with her grandchildren.

With their busy schedules, all of the board members have continued to place a priority on volunteering for their community. Along with David and Cynthia are Vice President Jurgen Doepping, Treasurer Daniel Rodriguez and Director Linda Wrigley. Residents look forward to two annual events in particular: the splash day party and the Christmas event. All board members prepare hotdogs and refreshments for everyone at each event and spend one or two weekends validating and issuing pool passes on site at the pool. Cynthia starts Christmas shopping early and purchases small toys and candy for Santa to hand out to the kids Christmas event.

The Atascocita North community is very fortunate to have these devoted board members who provide hands-on care with every aspect of the community. C.I.A. Services is proud to be the manager for Atascocita North for the last 17 years.

Working for You

2010 is in our rear view mirror and we sure did stay busy. Our dedicated staff members kept up with the thousands of daily details associated with managing communities. Here are a few statistics from 2010.

• In 2010, our maintenance coordinators issued and tracked 4,799 work orders and projects for our communities (up from 2008 and 2009). That is an average of 19 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 2010, our home improvement coordinators processed 5,294 home improvement and new construction requests for our communities (up from 2008 and 2009). 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 2010, our bookkeepers prepared 11,871 checks and coordinated 2,604 bank drafts for our communities. That is an average of 58 per workday. Even more impressive is that those disbursements covered 43,857 separate invoices. 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 2010, our community managers, administrative assistants and inspectors tracked and resolved 69,678 deed restriction violations by issuing 89,134 letters. Our deed restriction management efforts continued to be successful with 85% of all violations getting resolved before a certified letter was needed.
• And not to be outdone, in December alone, our administrative assistants and accounting staff received and deposited $6,376,084 in assessments (16,080 individual payments). In January, we deposited almost identical amounts. In the five days on either side of December 31st, we processed 7,118 payments.

Almost all of these numbers increased from 2009 which increased from 2008. We are prepared for even more production in 2011!

Hockey Night Winners

This was a good year for our C.I.A. Services Hockey Nights. At our 13th Houston event on January 15th, the Houston Aeros beat the Grand Rapids Griffins 2-1 in a tight game. The Aeros have now won 11 out of 13 C.I.A. Services Hockey Night games. Note to Aeros General Manager, our fans and cowbells are available for the play-offs!

In our 3rd San Antonio event on February 26th, the game was as exciting as it could be. The San Antonio Rampage beat their I-35 rival, the Texas Stars 3-2 in a shoot-out. As they tend to do, the Rampage dropped behind early and trailed until late in the final period when they tied the game. The game went into sudden-death overtime and neither team scored. In the shoot-out, the Stars scored on their first two shots. Rampage goalie Matt Climie put up a wall after that. The Rampage scored two quick goals and eventually scored a goal the Stars couldn't match to win the game. This was the first win for the Rampage on Hockey Night. Note to Rampage General Manager, we'll stay low-key in the play-offs.

To see photos from this year's fun, click below.

Houston - January 15th	San Antonio - February 26th

Back in Session

The Texas legislature meets every two years and convened its 82nd session on January 11th and will be in session for 140 days until May 30th. Senators and representatives were able to start filing bills for consideration in November. There are a number of bills which deal with property owners associations (POAs). Click here to see a summary of bills prepared by Texas Community Association Advocates.

FHFA Proposal Update

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was created in July 2008 when the President signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The FHFA is the new regulatory agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the nation's 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.

On August 12th, the FHFA issued proposed guidelines for public comment that would restrict Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks from investing in mortgages with private transfer fee covenants. Many communities have 3rd party, deed-based transfer fees that are collected when a home is sold. These fees are generally used to initial build reserve funds for the association during development (capitalization fees) or to provide additional services (community enhancement fees). The fees are paid to the community association or a related entity and used for the benefit of the community.

However, as written, the proposal does not differentiate between fees that are used within the community and, the original FHFA target, developers or investors that receive a fee each time a property is sold for decades in the future. As proposed, it would make in very difficult for a home buyer to get a mortgage in any community with one of these transfer fees.

Based on comments received, on 02/01/11 the FHFA revised their proposed rule. The proposed rule would exclude private transfer fees paid to homeowner associations, condominiums, cooperatives, and certain tax-exempt organizations that use private transfer fee proceeds to benefit the property. Fees that do not directly benefit the property would be barred.

The rule is still several months from becoming effective, however, the impact on associations has been removed. Substantial feedback from Community Associations Institute members and other interested parties helped change this rule.

Upcoming Seminars

The C.I.A. Services Seminar Series has three great seminars in March and April. This is our 8th year of presenting educational seminars for our board members and other community volunteers. Each seminar concentrates on the practical aspects of the topic and provides board members with background knowledge to help them in their decision making. We consistently receive positive feedback on the content and presentation. To view the seminar descriptions and full schedule, click Houston or Bandera or visit the Library page of our website.

Each seminar begins at 6:00 p.m. and runs 2 hours. We provide deli sandwiches so 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 for your future reference and to share with others.

	Practical Deed Restriction Management 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. Practical deed restriction management requires clear communications and reasonable requirements. March 3, 2011 (Thursday), 6:00 p.m. — Southwest Office March 23, 2011 (Tuesday), 6:00 p.m. — North Office March 24, 2011 (Thursday), 6:00 p.m. — Bandera Office
	Board Member Orientation This seminar is a must for all new Board members and a great refresher for seasoned veterans. It will help you get up to speed quickly by understanding your responsibilities and authorities. We'll review each of the documents that govern the way you do business. We'll give you an overview of the governing documents, basis of authority, conduct of meetings, elections, collections, deed restrictions, architectural control and many other important topics. April 14, 2011 (Thursday), 6:00 p.m. — Southwest Office April 19, 2011 (Tuesday), 6:00 p.m. — North Office
	Essentials of Architectural Control Your governing documents provide authority to regulate design and appearance of any construction, improvements or alterations within the community. This is a powerful authority with an obligation that it be used sensibly. This seminar will explain the range and limits of this authority, demonstrate the role of architectural guidelines, describe the interplay between deed restrictions issues and ACC issues, and touch on handling the tough ACC problems. April 20, 2011 (Wednesday), 6:00 p.m. — Bandera Office

You can register at any time by calling 713-981-9000 or emailing seminars@ciaservices.com.

Community of the Month

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:

• March - Morningside Place Section I Homeowners Association
  Southwest Office - Martha Perkins, Community Manager
• February - Hunterwood Village II Association
  North Office - Annette Escarenio, Community Manager
• January - Eagle Springs Community Association
  North Office - Linda Morris, 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.

Anniversaries

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

• Park Place Townhomes Homeowners Association — 21 years
• Oyster Point Homeowners Association — 15 years
• Hunterwood Village I Homeowners Association — 14 years
• Colony Grant Homeowners Association — 11 years
• Oak Hollow Homeowners Association — 10 years
• Eastpoint Subdivision Homeowners Association — 8 years
• Eagle Springs Commercial Association — 8 years
• Fairfax Village Homeowners Association — 8 years
• Silverglen North Homeowners Association — 8 years
• Post Wood Civic Association — 7 years
• Greensbrook Community Association — 5 years
• Summerwood Commercial Property Association — 5 years
• Cross Creek Ranch Community Association — 3 years
• Whispering Lakes Homeowners Association — 3 years
• Brays Forest Patio Homes Maintenance Fund — 2 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.

New Communities

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.

• Comanche Cliffs Homeowners Association — Bandera Office — Ralph Troiano, Community Manager
• Eastpoint Section 4 Homeowners Association — North Office — Renea Miksch, Community Manager
• Glen Haven Homeowners Association — North Office — Laura Tate, Community Manager

Employee Spotlight

• Congratulations to Paula Lunsford, a maintenance coordinator and stockholder at our Southwest Office, on her 8th anniversary with the company.
• Congratulations to Dan Barr, a multi-faceted support staffer and stockholder at our Southwest Office, on his 7 year anniversary with C.I.A. Services.
• Congratulations to Southwest Office community manager Libby Hodges who became our newest stockholder in December.
• Welcome to Andreanna Gamino-Scavone who joined our North Office as a community specialist in our customer service center.
• Welcome to Robert Mann who joined our Southwest Office as a community manager.
• Congratulations to Southwest Office community manager Martha Perkins on becoming a Certified Manager for Community Associations. The CMCA designation is awarded by the Community Association Institute to managers that have demonstrated fundamental knowledge of the industry, completed classwork and passed a rigorous exam.
• Thank you to Martha Perkins, Dannielle Chiodi-Jones, Tina Jameson and Ralph Troiano who have taught five seminars over the last two months.

Paula Lunsford		Dan Barr		Libby Hodges
Andy Gamino-Scavone		Robert Mann		Martha Perkins
Dannielle Chiodi-Jones		Tina Jameson		Ralph Troiano