Over the next year, numerous changes will be occurring within C.I.A. Services which will enhance our organizational structure and the services we can provide to our communities. We will highlight each of these topics in upcoming issues of eNews Monthly. Last month we reviewed the relocation of our North Office in October. We'll be moving from our home of 19 years to a a new bank building a few miles down the road on FM1960.

• North Office Relocation
• New Technology
• Customer Service Center
• Paperless Operations
• Centralized Accounting
• New Support Office Opening

This month, we'll highlight new technology. Something we are looking forward to is our new communication system from Avaya which includes integrated calling and phone management. Integrated calling allows all offices to be connected through the same system for seamless communications.

What we are really excited about is the phone management software, Virtual Assistant. Some of the key features of Virtual Assistant are complete call control from your computer, call windows that show name and number of callers, silent messaging, and "presence indication" for internal user. The presence indication will allow all employees to immediately see if another employee is in a meeting, on vacation, on another line, at lunch, in the field, etc. We believe this will provide better service to our clients as callers will not need to be placed on hold to find out that someone is not available. The call log will allow for a return call at a click of the mouse, missed calls will be logged as well so even if a message is not left, we will know you called.

Our new communications network will be installed in October in conjunction with our North Office move and with our Southwest Office will follow shortly thereafter. Give us a call and experience the improvements for yourself!

We are also consolidating our data center to one location. Currently our North and Southwest Offices maintain separate computer networks for our management information. Both will be consolidated to one location so any employee will have access to data of any of our 100 communities and not just those for their office. The consolidated data center will allow for more efficient network management and quicker response to technical issues all with less equipment to maintain.

We are also migrating to an arrangement where all of our employees at all locations will access data over high speed telecommunication lines through a series of powerful terminal servers located in our central data center. Our central data central will initially be set up at our Southwest Office later this year and eventually relocated to our new support office that we'll describe in part 6 of this series of articles. To implement the consolidated data center and integrated communication system, we are installing two high speed T-1 lines at each office.

Next month we'll review how all this technology will allow us to create a Customer Service Center and the great benefits for every resident of every community we manage.

"Nothing Happens Unless First A Dream" - Carl Sandburg

With all of the rain we have had in the Houston area this year, water conservation is not a high profile issue. But trust me, our hot, dry summers will be back. Regional conversion to surface water will continue to raise the cost of water and push for more conservation measures. One of our communities has been closely monitoring water usage for several years and recently installed advanced irrigation controllers. The savings are impressive.

The Clear Lake City Boulevard Association was established in 1991 to share the cost of maintaining the new boulevard between the adjacent neighborhoods of Bay Pointe, Northfork and Pine Brook. It's only responsibility is the boulevard so it's major expenses are grounds maintenance and irrigation. The boulevard has a very high traffic load so thousands of people see the landscaping every day. Irrigation on the boulevard is high profile - every misaligned head sprays into the street, all runoff goes into the street and down storm drains, water on the street annoys drivers with previously clean cars.

Because the boulevard stretches over 3-1/2 miles with a center esplanade and side setbacks, it takes 13 controllers and over 100 stations to cover the whole area. In 2005, we used 32 million gallons of water for irrigation at a cost of $43,000. From April to October 2006, we replaced all of the conventional irrigation "clocks" with advanced irrigation controllers by ET Water. Conventional controllers have settings for each station where you set the days of the week the station will run, the time the cycle will start and the duration of the cycle (e.g. run Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 6:00 a.m. and run for 20 minutes). Cycle changes require an irrigation technician to make the changes. The advanced irrigation controller by ET Water, uses an ET (evapotranspiration) algorithm to calculate the amount of water loss from plant materials based on temperature, humidity, solar radiation measured constantly. Based on locally measured rainfall, the controller determines how much water must be added through the irrgation system to meet the plant needs. The controller also takes into account factors such as soil porosity, slope and plant type to determine the optimal irrigation cycle for each station. During wet or cold weather, a particular station may not run for many weeks.

This graph shows the results of the CLCBA experience with the ET controllers. 2004 and and most of 2005 were artificially low and high during the summer because portions of the system were either shut down or leaking due to system problems. C.I.A. Services became the management company in September 2005 and the irrigation system was promptly restored to full operation. In 2006, the ET controllers were installed and setup between April and October. 2007 reflects full operation under the ET controllers.

At this point you may be saying, "Well, of course you used less water - it's been raining all summer". That is exactly the point! We should have used less water and the controllers automatically made sure that happened. With mechanical clocks, reducing water only happens when and if the irrigation technician goes to every clock and reduces the watering time. And no grounds maintenance company will set the clock to the water needs of an average or wet August day - they will set it for the hottest, driest day that could happen so the begonias don't wilt!

We expect to spend less than $20,000 for irrigation this year compared to $43,000 in 2005. With an installed cost under $20,000, we recovered our investment within the first year of operations. CLCBA was ideal for using these controllers but most communities would have similar savings and returns. Ask your community manager at C.I.A. Services to review whether ET controllers would benefit your community.

Our popular C.I.A. Services Seminar Series continues. We have trained over 500 students so far and have received very positive feedback on the content and presentation. Our goal is to provide timely and convenient educational opportunities to help you with your duties. Click here to view the seminar descriptions and schedule.

Each seminar begins at 6:30 p.m. and runs 2-1/2 hours. Since we always provide deli sandwiches, 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.

"Super-Budgeting" is our term for preparing a comprehensive long term budget and business plan. This isn't something you do on the back of an envelope an hour before the budget meeting. We'll break the process down into understandable components and show you how assets and reserves fit in the picture. We'll start with a simple question that very few people can answer correctly: "How much money should our Association have in the bank?" By the end of the seminar, you'll know the correct answer for your Association. This is a critical seminar to take before you start looking at budgets.

• September 10, 2007 (Monday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office
• September 26, 2007 (Wednesday), 6:30 p.m. — North Office

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 collections, deed restrictions, architectural control, contracts, facilities, insurance, conduct of meetings, elections, communications and many other important topics.

• October 9, 2007 (Tuesday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office
• October 29, 2007 (Monday), 6:30 p.m. — North Office

This is the required training course for certification as a Community Website Administrator (CWSA) on the C.I.A Services web site (www.ciaservices.com). As a CWSA you'll be able to maintain the pages for your community. You'll be able to create news flashes, update key personnel, add community information, display photos, conduct surveys and much more. At the end of the seminar we'll give you a taste of HTML - the web language that will allow you to do some pretty advanced things if you like. Being a website administrator is very easy on www.ciaservices.com and you can do it from anywhere you have an internet connection.

• October 24, 2007 (Wednesday), 6:30 p.m. — North Office

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

C.I.A. Services created the Electricity Savings Program (ESP) with Tara Energy to provide a program for our communities and all residents that will save money without hidden surprises. As of the end of August, 52 of our communities are enjoying the savings in this program. The table below shows the sharp drop in electricity costs for one of our communities that joined the program in March. Next month, we will show a comprehensive graph across all of our communities.

ESP is saving money for our clients and the residents in our communities. Those that signed on when we introduced our program last October have locked in rates for up to four years. Commercial accounts (i.e. the community common areas) have rates as low as 6.95 cents per kwh. Currently, residential accounts can lock in for 3 years at 9.10 cents per kwh. All new accounts receive a $25 credit on their first bill.

For more information on ESP including current rates and options, click here. So what are you waiting for? Think ESP and save!

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 all take a vote. Here are our most recent selections:

• September — Westfield Glen Property Owners Association
  North Office — Evelyn Abram, Community Manager
• August — Woodforest North II Homeowners Association
  North Office — Diane Piper, Community Manager
• July — Townewest Community Improvement Association
  Southwest Office — Olga Martinez, 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 Place Homeowners Association — Southwest Office — Libby Hodges, Community Manager
• Morningside Place Homeowners Association — Southwest Office — Tony Victorino, Community Manager
• New Forest Homeowners Association — North Office — Diane Piper, Community Manager
• Quail Green Homeowners Association — Southwest Office — Tony Victorino, Community Manager

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

• Valley Lodge Property Owners Association — 14 years
• Settlers Park Homeowners Association — 7 years
• Westfield Glen Property Owners Association — 7 years
• Eldridge Park Village Community Association — 5 years
• Woodforest North II Homeowners Association — 5 years
• Clear Lake City Boulevard 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.

• Congratulations to our company founders, President Ralph Troiano and Executive Vice President Tina Jameson on their 23rd year leading C.I.A. Services.
• We were very sorry to have two of our star employees move on. Community Manager Ally Abbott is a Canadian citizen it was time for her to return to the northland. She did a great job for each of her communities. Maintenance Coordinator Vince Hargrove has left to concentrate full time on his dream to make it as a singer and musician. He was a finalist in the channel 2 Gimme the Mike competition a few years ago. You can hear him every Sunday night at Sambuca's at the old Rice Hotel in downtown Houston. Here's a sample: 4 Down and 12 Across. We wish them both the best but will miss them very much.
• On August 29, 2006, Ralph Troiano Sr. made his passage to heaven. It would be an honor if you read our tribute to him one year later.

Ralph Troiano		Tina Jameson

Ally Abbott		Vince Hargrove
		Gimme the Mike 2004