The 2025 CAI Annual Conference & Exposition: Community NOW continued Friday as participants networked with friends and colleagues, attended various education sessions to learn about important issues, browsed the latest tools and resources, and toured the expo hall.
Education session topics on the agenda included customer service, leading effective meetings, and civil communication.
Tools & Techniques to Provide Excellent Customer Service
Community association professionals know effective customer service skills are important when it comes to keeping communities happy, harmonious, and engaged. In this year’s customer service session, T. Peter Kristian, CMCA, LSM, PCAM, and Christina Kristian, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, both of Hilton Head Plantation Property Owners’ Association in South Carolina, shared tips and tricks from many perspectives. The session featured practical applications attendees could use to train their boards and staff. They also offered lots of examples of exemplary customer service.
“We model some of our customer service lessons from the Ritz Carlton, years of personal experience, plain common sense, and the objective of just being nice,” says Peter Kristian. They suggested attendees watch the film “Pretty Woman” and focus on the actions of the hotel manager.
Meeting of the Minds: Leading Powerful and Action-Packed Meetings
Community association leaders know a lot about meetings and the ways they can be productive or inefficient. Janet Ulrich, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, shared ways to transform meetings into dynamic decision-making sessions. She discussed proven techniques to navigate past leadership paralysis, address decisionmakers’ hidden fears, and build genuine confidence about strategic choices.
During the session, Ulrich shared that a startling 71% of senior managers believe their meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Ulrich, with HOA Organizers in
Winnetka, Calif., explained how attendees can utilize well-defined agendas, creative thinking, and honest feedback to make meetings more powerful.
Balancing Act: Exchanging Ideas Versus Weaponized Words
Given the diversity of people living and working in community associations, communication can sometimes become hostile. Because civility and peaceful communication are essential to ensure associations thrive, attorneys Molly Peacock and Ruhi Mirza shared how community association leaders can improve communication in their community and address harassment, negativity, and disinformation.
“More engagement and more transparency are good things,” says Peacock, who is with Briglia Hundley in Tysons, Va. “But what about when more engagement and transparency lead to more scrutiny, misunderstanding, and disputes? Is there a balance that can be struck between being forthcoming with information and constructively addressing anger and disputes?”
Peacock and Mirza, with Rees Broome in Tysons, Va., represent community associations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. They discussed both constructive and inefficient mediation tactics that can help prevent tensions from blooming into arguments in association settings.
>>Review CAI annual conference coverage with our board member insight and a recap of day one conference education sessions.
