Condo Media - September 2011 - 42

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

Heather Cozby
Discovering by Accident That CAI Volunteers Can Make a Difference at All Levels
ost volunteers who become active in CAI start out participating in a local or regional chapter before becoming involved at the national level. Heather Cozby, CPA, reversed that sequence, although, she says it was by accident rather than design. She had just left the public accounting firm at which she had begun her career to strike out on her own and planned to include condominiums in her practice. “I knew if I was going to build my practice, I had to get involved in CAI-NE,” she says. So she joined the organization, putting her on the mailing list for member communications. One of the e-mail messages she received sought volunteers interested in filling the accountant’s seat on the Business Partners Council, open because the member holding that position had resigned in mid-term. Although she didn’t expect her first CAI volunteer experience to be on a national committee, she has relished the experience. “It’s been a great way that business partner members of CAI have “a more consistent and more meaningful” experience in the organization, beyond sponsoring association events and attending programs.

A Role for Business Partners
“Some business partners are frustrated because they think they are viewed only as a source of financial support,” Cozby says, noting that some chapters (CAI-NE isn’t one of them, she emphasizes) purposely exclude vendors from events, “because managers don’t want to be [targeted]” for sales pitches. There are business partners who cross the line and “need to respect those boundaries,” she agrees. But she also thinks business partners need to be “integrated more fully” into CAI, recognized as partners with owners and managers, who share their concerns and have much to contribute to the organization and to the industry. Having gotten her introduction to CAI activities at the national level, Cozby is now looking for ways to become more involved in CAI-NE. She recently joined the association’s Program Advisory Council — a good forum, she thinks, in which to focus on her concern about the need for more comprehensive and more accessible information about financial reporting and tax issues specific to community associations. Condominium finances aren’t part of the curriculum or standard training for accountants, Cozby notes. She acquired experience in the area because the accounting firm for which she worked had many condominium clients and “once I got over the craziness of it, I discovered I really liked it.” She

Heather Cozby is an active volunteer at both the national and local level.

CAI Where?
The Council, one of CAI’s three volunteer boards, represents business partners in the national organization. (The other two boards represent owners/board members and association managers, respectively.) But Cozby thought the Council was a chapter-level, CAI-NE group. “I missed a few words in the message,” she laughs. She thought it sounded like a good way to get involved in the organization, and so submitted her name as a candidate for the seat. The next thing she knew, she received a call from the then-president of CAI, congratulating her on being selected. “I couldn’t understand why the head of CAI-nationally was calling me about a CAI-NE committee,” she recalls.

to learn about CAI and how it operates,” she says. “The organization has tremendous resources, and I’ve been amazed at just how much goes on nationally.” She also has found that individual members can make a difference in the organization. “The majority of new ideas and new directions come from CAI members. The board takes every idea seriously,” she says. That’s something Cozby discovered first-hand when she suggested that accountants, like attorneys and insurance agents, should have designations reflecting their expertise in the community association industry. She is now heading a Business Partners Council task force exploring that idea. She also is serving on another Council task force exploring ways to ensure

CONDO MEDIA • SEPTEMBER 2011

Condo Media - September 2011

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