“Our Profit is July 2007

Your Success”

An Affiliate Of

“High Performance Leasing”

Over 50 apartment professionals at-
tended the enthusiastic seminar given by Upcoming Events
Stephen Cox at the Funny Bone in West
Glen Town Center. Steve traveled from 7/18 11:30
Dallas and was very impressed with the General Membership
talent and enthusiasm our group showed. Meeting
He went over “LEASING BASICS” in
his own unique format. It was easy to Crave - West Glen
tell Steve came from a theatrical back-
ground; he could really work a crowd! He also traveled to Iowa City where he inter- 7/19 4:00
acted with a group of 31 apartment professionals. Stephen Cox was sponsored by the Vendors Council
Central Iowa Apartment Alliance and the Apartment Finder.
Chicken Coop
West Des Moines

Trade Show Coming in September! 9/20

CIAA Trade Show
September 20th is the date for the CIAA Annual Trade Show. The event will be held at Sheraton Hotel
the Sheraton Hotel at 50th & University in West Des Moines. Mark your calendars...this
West Des Moines
is one you won’t want to miss! There will be food, prizes, refreshments, fun, and most
importantly...VENDORS! Last year we saw over 100 apartment personnel at the event.
Everyone on your staff should attend. This is an ideal opportunity to network, share Inside:
ideas, and find solutions to any number of problems we face in our daily operations.
This year promises to be bigger and better than ever. Save the date, and watch for more • Committee News
exciting details coming soon! • CIAA on the Web
• Letter from the
President

CIAA Board of Directors • July 18th Meeting

Registration
• Vendor Members
PRESIDENT SECRETARY
Jennifer O’Brien Konior, TAB Properties and Spotlight
MEMBERSHIP CHAIR
Melissa Johnson, Olde English Village • Vendor Meeting
VENDOR COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS
Tom Newton, Gorman Roofing News
VICE PRESIDENT
LEGISLATIVE CHAIR Rocky Sposato, Tub Wrx • New Members
Rick Koontz, Signature Place • Promotions and
PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIR
Deb Lanpher, R & R Realty Postings
TREASURER
EDUCATION CHAIR TRADE SHOW COMMITTEE CHAIR • Golf Outing High-
Mary Spain, Apartment Finder Michelle Ogden, Timberland Partners lights
 COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Education Committee
The CAM class has wrapped up and books are being shipped to a grader at the time of this newsletter. Six individuals completed their
coursework. We look forward to celebrating with them upon completion of their books being graded and returned. Thank you very much
to all those vendors that sponsored their classes: Furniture Options, Apartment Finder, Tub Wrx Inc, and DeWitt Painting. A special thanks
to our volunteer instructors Melissa Johnson, Rick Koontz, Mary Spain, Bill Armstrong, Michelle Ogden, and Glen Waterhouse.
COMMITTEE MEETING
The education committee will be meeting on July 10th to plan their next education program for our members. The last survey indicated
members were evenly split over their desire for training of maintenance and leasing personnel. Consideration is being made for both areas.
Look for updates. Members of the Education Committee are Lori Young of R & R Realty and Heather Benton of Walters Companies.

Legislative Committee
The Legislative Committee is starting to compile CIAA’s list of legislative priorities for the upcoming session, and they would like to hear
from you. Please e-mail your ideas to Rick at signaturerick@gmail.com. They will be sending out an email to all members to announce the
meeting date and time.
A voter registration drive will be planned to educate renters on issues that impact them, and to encourage them to become more active in the
political process. Renters are less like to vote in local elections, and especially on referendum votes that would greatly impact them, such as
tax relief that would apply only to homeowners. Raising awareness of local and state legislators’ positions on issues that affect renters will
be a focus of the Legislative Committee.
Issues that will likely be reintroduced in the next legislative session will be a primary focus of the committee. One of our goals is to get bad
language revised before bills are introduced. We have a good start based on legislation that was introduced last session which failed to pass,
but is sure to be reintroduced in the next session.
The committee will begin interviewing lobbyists soon. Recommendations will be presented to the Board of Directors who will make the
final decision on a lobbyist. We hope to have a lobbyist in place by October.

Membership Committee
The membership committee is in need of a chair. Anyone that wants to be involved in this fast growing organization and work with
your peers to build our membership base should call Melissa Johnson 223-1010.

CIAA on the Web

To be a guest blogger, please Website:
www.ciaahq.org Largely, renters only vote
submit your article in MS
Email: when it comes to the
Word or PDF format to
info@ciaahq.org. Share you info@ciaahq.org presidential level, when
ideas and experiences with Blog there are candidates they
your industry peers! http://blog.ciaahq.org feel they can relate to

Page 2 Email: info@ciaahq.org

 Letter From the President
Wow it has been busy! I hope everyone is doing well and leasing lots; I know we are keeping the vendors busy.
Despite all the normal hubbub of activity around our offices, we still managed to have some fun this last month.
I hope everyone that turned out for the golf outing last June 8th at Blank Park Golf Course had a wonderful time.
Despite my pathetic driving skills (ball, not the cart - they wouldn’t let me), I got to catch up and have a ball with
some of my apartment peers and vendor friends. And I got a pretty nice tan. Sorry no one won the car this year,
but I hear one of our golfers got super close, so maybe next year! Thanks for coming out to support your Asso-
ciation and especially Thanks to Rocky Sposato of TubWrx, our Golf Committee Chairperson, for getting it all
organized! The Committee for next year is already forming, so let us know if you’d like to help shape next
year’s tournament.
We also had a wonderfully energetic group for Stephen Cox, “The Leasing Coach” at the Funny Bone on June
18th. He gave us some wonderful tips, reminders, and even some new tools to help us do our jobs even better.
We were very lucky to be able to get him in Iowa, thanks to the Apartment Finder, and hope he can come back soon and give us more point-
ers.
Our newest CAM (Certified Apartment Manager) class has finished with their training modules and now is trying to wrap up their final
projects. Having done one myself, bear with those trying to finish—it’s a lot of work. We’re very proud of our new class and expect to be
able to honor their achievement at one of our upcoming meeting/events.
It has also been a busy time with new memberships in the CIAA. We have grown to representing nearly 7000 rental units within Iowa - in
just 3 months! Thank you all so much for your support and acknowledgment that an active Association is important to you as a professional
member of our industry. We will keep bringing you the best information, speakers, and events to help you stay ahead of the game. Thanks
again and happy leasing!
Melissa Johnson, CAM, ARM ®
Olde English Village Apartments
President, Central Iowa Apartment Alliance

Register for July 18th Membership Meeting!

The July General Membership meeting will be held at Crave at West Glen Town Center in West Des Moines at 11:30.
This will be a self-pay lunch meeting. Cost of lunch is $16.00 and includes beverage, tax, and gratuity.
This is one your maintenance team will want to attend. Wendell Strong, along with Dave Hein of Stitzell Electric will
review some electrical and lighting basics, including how to audit your energy use and save money in the process!
Use this form to register no later than July 16 at noon. Make your lunch selections below and fax to (515) 327-9104.

Company Phone

Name Name

Name Name
Lunch Items:
• Mandarin Orange Salad - Spinach & romaine w/ grilled chicken topped with mandarin ginger dressing Qty.______
• Penne with Red Sauce - Penne pasta with Italian seasoned beef and tomato basil red sauce Qty.
• Chicken Ranch Sandwich - 1/2 chicken breast w/ Swiss cheese, bacon, and homemade ranch sauce Qty.
• Smoked Trio Panini - Smoked turkey, bacon, and smoked Swiss cheese on pumpernickel w/ fries Qty._______

Website: www.ciaahq.org Page 3

 CIAA Vendor Members

A+ Lawn and Landscaping Qwest Vendor Members’ websites and

Apartment Finder
Cort/Instant Furniture Rental
Dewitt Painting
First Advantage SafeRent
Sherwin Williams Carpet
State Farm - Glenn Waterhouse
Stew Hansen’s Dodge City-Jeep
Stitzell Electric
contacts are linked through our
website!
To Become A Vendor Member con-
tact Tom Newton 515-883-0838
tomn@gormanroofingservices.com

Furniture Options Sudzy’s Carpet Cleaning

Your vendor members make
Gorman Roofing Services Tenant Data many CIAA events possible.
Hawkeye Legal Services Transworld Systems Please support them!
Jetz Service Co. Tub Wrx

Vendor Spotlight - Furniture Options

Furniture Options offers complete home furnishings to people in transition through standard rental, instant pur-
chase, or quick ownership. They have professional decorators who can assist you and make sure you get ex-
actly what you want, delivered the next business day. Their flexible agreements include rental and purchase
options. The options are yours at Furniture Options. Call April at 251-4100. Be sure to ask about her FREE
leasing seminar on July 11th at their office. It is perfect for beginners and includes breakfast and lunch.

Looking For New Vendor Members

Managers, get your vendors to help make you eligible for a drawing for a $100.00 Gift Certificate to Jordan
Creek Mall. Encourage new vendors to attend the July 19th Vendor Meting at the Chicken Coop in West Des
Moines at 4:00 p.m. Have them bring this form and for each form we receive on your behalf an entry will be
made into the drawing with your name on it. Print out this form and encourage them to attend. They should
be supporting your organization. Call Mary Spain with questions at 327-0606.

Community Name

Manager Name Phone#

Vendor Name Phone#

Drawing will be held that night!

Page 4
 Welcome New Members!
PROPERTIES Lyn Crossing The Fountains
Beaverdale Apartments Mansions at Jordan Creek The Kirkwood
Canterbury Park Oak Crossing Triple Crown
Chateau Oakland Pointe Urban Green
Conlin Properties Corporate Oakland Pointe Storage Valley Forge
Country Club Village Oakview Terrace Venbury Trail
Cross Creek Park Place Vista Court
Deer Ridge Apartments Parkside Wellington
Diversified Management Associates Pleasantview Windfield West
Douglas Woods Apartments Risser Investments Winwood
Fort South Southbrook Green
Foxboro Southtown Terrace VENDORS
Grand Colony Apartments Spruce Pointe First Advantage SafeRent
Hubbell Towers Sun Prairie
Stew Hansen’s Dodge City-Jeep
Lakeview Apartments Sunburst Apartments

Promotions, Positions and Postings

Bonnie Calkins has joined TAB Proper-
ties as Community Manager at Village at
Westchester.
Rebecca Maxwell is the new Leasing
Consultant at Westchester Square, TAB
Properties.
Village at Westchester, TAB Properties
welcomes Nicole Tuttle as a Leasing
Consultant.
Woody Trigg has joined TAB Properties
as a maintenance technician.
Russ Wilson has joined the maintenance
team at Signature Place Apartments.
Congratulations to Don Stephens of
TAB Properties. He was recently pro-
moted to Lead Maintenance Supervisor
of Westchester Square and Village at
Westchester.
HELP WANTED
Timberland Pointe has an opening for
Assistant Manager. Forward resume to
Sara Kems at
timberlandpointe@visionsystems.tv
Regency Woods, a Peterson Company, is
accepting applications for Assistant Man-
ager. Experience Preferred. Must be
proficient with computer functions. Ap-
ply in person or e-mail resume to Melissa
Johnson at mjohn-
son@petersoncompanies.com
Professional Property Manager is looking
to relocate to Des Moines. Four years
experience. Currently managing over 500
units in Eastern Iowa. In process of ac-
quiring ARM certification. Has MSW
with concentration in Community Devel-
opment. Please contact Gail Cudworth,
Eastern Iowa Apartment Finder Publisher
for contact information. 515-266-0993

INTERESTING WEB TIDBITS ABOUT RENTERS

“Voters who live in owner occupied dwellings have a much higher rate of turnout than do those who rent. Property
owners and renters vote differently and targeting one or the other is becoming an important campaign tool”

“Who cares about renters, they don't vote, the 95% of voters who are homeowners will be supporting the candi-
date who is fighting for them”

“Only property owners were declared eligible to vote on the traffic plan. Homeowners were allotted one vote per
household, while residents of apartment complexes...were not allowed to vote”

Page 5
 Golf Outing
The golf outing was a hit! The winners of the event were Jobe Cooper, Rich Nicklaus, John
Guenther, and John Kilbright. Thanks to all who attended and helped make it a success!

FUN IN THE SUN!

Page 6