By CAMICB Executive Director, Matthew Green, CAE

Each year, Community Associations Institute (CAI) and the Community Association Managers International Certification Board (CAMICB) exhibit at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit. NCSL serves legislators and legislative staff throughout the United States, and its annual Summit brings together participants from all 50 states and U.S. territories for education, bipartisan dialogue, and an exchange of ideas about the issues confronting state governments.

For CAI and CAMICB, the Summit provides an important opportunity to engage directly with state legislators and legislative staff. CAI can help policymakers better understand the benefits of community associations and the resources available to the people who live and work in them. CAMICB can highlight the value of professional community association management—particularly the importance of choosing managers who have demonstrated their knowledge and competence through certification.

Those are the reasons we attend. What can be surprising, however, is how quickly conversations move beyond formal legislative roles.

Many legislators and legislative staff members are themselves homeowners in community associations. They may serve on a board, have questions about the management of their own community, or simply want to better understand how community associations operate. These conversations allow us to connect public policy with the everyday experiences of the people who live in these communities.

They also provide an opportunity to offer a broader perspective. Legislative discussions involving community associations can understandably be influenced by constituents who have experienced a problem or feel strongly about a particular issue. Those concerns deserve to be heard. At the same time, it is important for policymakers to understand the larger picture: community associations are home to millions of Americans, and effective governance and professional management contribute to the stability, maintenance, and overall well-being of those communities.

The Summit also gives CAI an opportunity to introduce legislators and staff to its information, education, and membership resources. For CAMICB, it provides a setting to explain why professional certification matters and how the CMCA credential helps homeowners and association boards identify managers who have met established standards of knowledge and professional conduct.

Beyond our own field, the Summit offers something equally valuable: perspective. Its broad program exposes us to the many competing issues state legislators must address and helps us understand where community association matters fit within a much larger public-policy environment. We also value the chance to meet representatives from other professional and credentialing organizations, including programs accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, and to learn how others are approaching certification, accreditation, and public protection.

Ultimately, the NCSL Legislative Summit allows us to step outside the community association world while helping others better understand it. The conversations may begin with legislation, but they frequently become conversations among homeowners—and that is often where the most meaningful connections are made.