As CAMICB continues to celebrate its 25^th anniversary, we reached out to CMCAs who’ve held the credential for 25, or more, years. Many CMCAs graciously offered to share their experiences, highlights, career paths and advice with us. 

Rebecca Sarver, CMCA, CAM is the HOA Manager of the Southwest Florida Division for DR Horton, a home construction company. Said Rebecca, “My position with Horton – a home developer – means I hire management companies to oversee the communities we build. In this role, I work with our attorneys to write good governing documents, rules and regulations, architectural designs, and more.”

Rebecca explains that managers who’ve only been in the business a few years probably have not managed a developer controlled community. She says, “I really enjoy training others and I feel I can give these managers a very unique perspective on a different side of the business. That’s the beauty of professional community association management – there are many paths managers can take.”

Rebecca found that when she first earned her CMCA credential, it was so new that people didn’t understand its importance or why it was needed. Rebecca recalls that, “At the time, the CMCA was so new and in Florida, people were only familiar with the CAM or LCAM, and they didn’t know what the CMCA meant. The ability to promote myself as having earned this new and emerging credential was very beneficial. It helped me gain the respect of my colleagues and executive level staff.”

Rebecca’s advice for those considering a career in professional community association management:  “Ask your vendors questions. Attend as many classes as you can. If possible, attend the CAI National conference. Learning all aspects of this business gives you more to offer any association or employer; that means accounting, financials, insurance.”  She also reminds managers that “it’s ok if you don’t have all the answers; the important point is be sure you say you don’t know but you will certainly find out.”

Finally Rebecca offers, “I always tell managers, you know more than you think you do. After 37 years in this industry, I still attend classes as often as I can. With the popular ZOOM platform, I find attorneys are offering lots of online webinars. I probably attend one a week, and I always learn something new.”