FROM THE PRESIDENT
MARY WESSLER | CONAM COLORADO
Three Areas of Focus for AAMD in
the Coming Year
L
ast month at June Awards when I was sworn in as the 2014-2015
AAMD President, it meant a lot to me to have Carol Levey as
my installation officer. I have appreciated her incredible loyalty
and professional dedication to AAMD - as well as her deep
friendship - for so many years. Don Werner, last year’s AAMD president,
was very instrumental in laying a foundation for me to build upon this year.
Our theme for the event was based on the movie, The Godfather,
simply as people in a family are loyal to a family. Obviously, no legitimate
organization would take that to extreme comparisons, but there are a few
comparisons I would like to make to help build a foundation of my priorities as President in the coming year.
1. The Family: The Association continues to expand its reach and
focus more on the benefits and growth of the Community Managers. Last
year, AAMD added voting power for the Community Managers in conjunction with several new benefits. A few of these benefits included the
Legal Handbook and the Manager Roundtables. This year, we plan to
explore how the AAMD can better serve our on-site teams further through
additional educational programs and other new offerings. We want to
continue to expand this part of the AAMD Family and help them to become
more involved.
2. Keep ‘Em in the Family: My second priority as President will focus
on Member Growth and Retention. I hope to expand on the AAMD
“S.U.G.A.R. (Strategic Unit Growth and Retention) Program. We’ve had
outstanding success in the past few years recruiting new owner and supplier members. In order for retention to improve, we must focus and make
it a priority for us to retain our members and keep them in our Association.
3. New Blood: Finally – in keeping with the Godfather theme here New Blood, new talent is my final area of emphasis. As our industry grows,
over 75 new communities will open their doors over the next two years. We
have to bring in new blood that is excited to be a part of our industry. It will
be one of our top priorities to promote the apartment industry as an attractive place to develop a professional and exciting career, whether you are a
supplier or an owner/manager. AAMD will participate in job fairs and
other career development opportunities to recruit fresh talent into the
Metro Denver apartment industry.
To all of us who work daily in the apartment industry and interact
continuously with the AAMD staff and members, it is always a good reminder that the Apartment Association of Metro Denver is a well-organized
machine. The AAMD is financially strong and exceptionally balanced. We
provide amazing services and have a loud voice in the political arena.
But most importantly, we are truly a family. Indeed a Multi-Family” but a Family none-the-less!
Mary Wessler
2014-2015 AAMD President
Mary Wessler speaks to attendees at last month’s June Awards installation dinner.
6 | TRENDS • JULY 2014
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