Journal Notes—March 2015

by Michael Hamline, Editor / Published March 2015 

Our goal is pretty straightforward: we want to provide useful information that assists board members and CAMs in carrying out their fiduciary duties and bettering the communities in which they serve. With that in mind, we wanted to let you know about some editorial changes moving forward in 2015. 

Our readers tell us that they can never get enough information about the legal issues that impact their communities. That is the one common theme that all community associations deal with. Although we aren’t promising all your questions will be answered, we do plan to expand the scope of legal coverage. Not only do we plan to cover more topics, we plan to use more attorneys and other legal resources, while offering a variety of interesting formats. You can look for the expanded coverage to begin with the May issue.

In addition, we will focus more on the areas that are of highest importance to community associations. This focus will be set up in a format that we are calling “Textbook Training” to help educate and inform communities in these vital areas. We plan to cover topics such as concrete, painting and waterproofing, windows and doors, pools, roofs, asphalt, safety and security, community management, and financial issues—accounting, collections, budgets, banking, and reserves—to name a few. This training will provide questions and answers, important trends going on in these individual industries, and a focus on new technologies and/or advances that will allow your community to save time and better protect your investment. Plus, this training will warn you of any dangerous practices to avoid within the individual industries and educate you on time and cost-saving measures.

Speaking of education, we also want to make CAMs aware of the new, online
curriculum for Florida Advanced CAM Studies. The DBPR has approved this course for a total of 32 CEU hours, and this curriculum consists of eight modules that can be taken (and paid for) as time and budget allow. To find out more about this, please visit www.fcapschools.com.  

Finally, keep your eyes peeled for FLCAJ’s Readers’ Choice Extra, which will arrive in April along with your April FLCAJ issue. This will provide you with information on some industry experts whom you will have need of in the future and who have been recognized for their excellent service.

Editor