Over the last few months, we have been highlighting major advancements within C.I.A. Services which will enhance our organizational structure and the services we provide to our communities. Over the last four months we announced the relocation of our North Office, described great new technology we are implementing including our move towards paperless operations, and introduced our Customer Service Center opening early next year.

• North Office Relocation (August)
• New Technology (September)
• Customer Service Center (October)
• Paperless Operations (November)
• Centralized Accounting (December)
• New Support Office Opening (January)

With all of the pieces falling into place, we are able to consolidate all of our accounting functions into one location. We have historically handled accounting for all of North Office communities from the North Office and our Southwest Office communities from the Southwest Office. In our centralized accounting department, everything will be handled in one place by bookkeeping and accounting staff. We will transition to centralized accounting in late summer of 2008.

Centralized accounting will benefit our clients in several ways. The accounting staff will be specialists dedicated to that function. The accounting staff will assist our community managers in preparing collections updates, draft budgets, cash flow analyses and other work products. The accounting staff will be able to handle the financial idiosyncrasies that some communities have. The accounting department will assist administrative assistants in research to help homeowners with questions.

Next month present the last part of our series of articles by announcing the opening of a new office in 2008.

"Nothing Happens Unless First A Dream" - Carl Sandburg

Many times, community associations get the reputation of being the "bad guys". Much of the correspondence sent by a community association is about one of two things: money owed or a rule violated. Community board members continue to fight a battle to change that perception.

Several of the communities managed by C.I.A. Services have been successful in changing the way they are perceived. No longer are they the "bad guys". They are the community that demonstrates a desire to give back. They are the community that promotes the spirit of community living. They are the community that acknowledges their members. They are the board members with faces to their names. They are the community that kicks off the holiday season.

They are the communities that participate in an Annual Turkey Giveaway Event.

In November of 1998 Hunterwood Village I, a small community of 190 homes, held its first annual Turkey Giveaway. At the time, the President of the Hunterwood Village I Association was Regina Thomas. Regina wanted the Association to give a gift to everyone in the community for the holidays. Several ideas were proposed. Finally, the Board agreed on turkeys. A date was set, an invitation was mailed, and volunteers and the management team, Brenda Alvarez and Kim Easterling, gathered at the community to hand out those turkeys.

Since that time, other communities have taken notice of this fun and worthwhile event. We are proud to be associated with six communities that also conduct an Annual Turkey Giveaway. This year almost 1,000 turkeys were distributed!

Kudos to Hunterwood Village I, Hunterwood Village II, Heather Ridge, Inwood Northwest, Ridgepoint and Fairgreen!

The holiday season naturally brings out the generosity in us. It has been estimated that Americans give nearly $300 billion to charities each year with $100 billion being donated between Thanksgiving and New Years.

If you are getting ready to write some checks, how do you choose between the tens of thousands of charities in need? Between the hundreds of solicitations you receive in the mail? You probably want to donate to a cause you believe in. Maybe it's cancer research because of family experiences. Or maybe you want to support environmental organizations to preserve the world for future generations. Or maybe to want to help the homeless and poor because you realize that "there, but for the grace of God, go I". You want your donation to be put to further your cause but don't know how your money will be used.

There is a wonderful website called Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) that can help you with your donation decisions. The site is very well organized and easy to use. Charities are given an overall rating and described in detail. The site is full of a wide variety of very interesting information. The Tips, Facts and Top 10 Lists are even fun to read.

Give all you can to support your passions. And help your money go further by choosing your charities wisely.

In our seminar Practical Deed Restriction Management we make the point that everything a community association does, or doesn't do, teaches its residents about the association. If a DR letter is sent and no follow-up letter is sent after the deadline expires, residents are taught that management company letters and deadlines don't matter. If a trailer is allowed to stay on a driveway with no follow-up, residents who see it are taught that trailers are acceptable in the community. One goal of effective deed restriction management is to teach residents the lessons we want them to learn. That there are community standards, that DR letters are important and that they must address the issue.

There are many ways to assess the effectiveness of a deed restriction program. The most important are the affect on property values and curb appeal but those can't be measured. What we can measure is the trend in number of violations in a community, the total corrected over a period of time, the average length of time a violation is open and the general responsiveness of residents to letters. Each of these benchmarks is presented to the board of directors in various reports during the year.

To date in 2007, a total of 63,409 violations have been processed and corrected in all of our communities. Of those, 85% were corrected before a 2nd letter was needed. We believe this statistic indicates that residents are generally responsive of our requests.

Only 244 were closed after legal intervention meaning 99.6% were resolved without the need for attorney involvement and legal fees. This is a very important statistic - if it has to go to the attorney, the violation has been open and visible a long time, it costs money, and the issue has been elevated to a more contentious level.

Effective deed restriction management is one of the most difficult and important responsibilities of a community association. At C.I.A. Services we work very hard to enforce the rules to protect property values while taking a courteous, friendly and consistent approach with all community residents.

We're getting close to face off at the C.I.A. Services 10th Annual Hockey Night with the Houston Aeros. On Saturday, February 2nd we'll hold our great, annual event where we invite our community leaders, friends and families to join us for a fun night of hockey. There will be lots of door prizes including the third in the series of our popular cowbell collectible - this year they are blue.

Our 500 cheering fans always get noticed. And this is where you come in. Our hometown team has been struggling early this season to stay out of the division basement. They need our fans - they need our cowbells!

Join us on February 2nd to see the Houston Aeros take on the Quad City Flames. The Aeros are the farm team for the NHL's Minnesota Wild and the Flames are the farm team for Calgary Flames.

Check out photos of the fun from the last five years on the Library page of our web site or just click the years here: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

So mark your calendar for February 2nd and look for the official announcement and invitation being mailed this month.

Our popular C.I.A. Services Seminar Series is taking a break in December but seminars will start again in January. 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.

This is the required training course for certification as a Community Website Administrator (CWSA) on the C.I.A Services web site. 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.

• January 17, 2008 (Thursday), 6:30 p.m. — Southwest Office

Make yourself a New Years resolution to improve communication with your residents through our website by becoming a Community Website Administrator. You can register at any time by calling 713-981-9000 or emailing us at seminars@ciaservices.com.

The C.I.A. Services Electricity Savings Program (ESP) with Tara Energy continues to save money for our communities and residents. We created the program last year to take advantage of electricity deregulation in Texas. If you or your community hasn't made a change in your Retail Electric Provider, take a look at how ESP can save you money without any hidden surprises.

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

• December — Parkway Forest Property Owners Association
  North Office — Brenda Alvarez, Community Manager
• November — Vicksburg Community Association
  Southwest Office — Leslie Baldwin, Community Manager
• October — Crystal Lake Property Owners Association
  Southwest Office — Margaret Eckhardt, 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 on board in the last three months.

• Cypresswood Lake Community Association — North Office — Kim Easterling, Community Manager
• Courtyard Westway Homeowners Association — Southwest Office — Tony Victorino, Community Manager
• Heron Nest Owners Association — North Office — Shelly Brady, Community Manager
• Hunters Green Homeowners Association — Southwest Office — Tina Jameson, 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.

• Lincoln Green Estates Community Improvement Association — 14 years
• Townewest Community Improvement Association — 14 years
• Brazos Lakes Property Owners Association — 7 years
• Hunters Glen Community Association — 6 years
• Quail Green South Community Association — 3 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 Dawna Woods, a Maintenance Coordinator at our North Office, on her 11th anniversary with our company. We are also very appreciative of her great work coordinating the relocation of our North Office in October.
• We welcome Nichole Johns who has joined our Southwest Office as a Bookkeeper.

Dawna Woods		Nichole Johns