IREM Chapter 60: Central Florida, Orlando

How’s Your Manners?

Your table manners may be impeccable, but when was the last time you brushed up on email etiquette? Although email is a relatively new medium, industry estimates show that the average American will receive 1,400 junk mail messages a year in 2006 and the average business person receives 100 email messages per day. Whew!

The formality of email in most businesses can vary between that of an interoffice memo down to a telephone call. Although most people give careful thought to the contents of anything written down on paper, most emails are composed with much less consideration, but can be even more permanent than paper (just think….how many really old emails are still in your mailbox?)

Keep in mind that your everyday communication may be sending the wrong message about your manners. It can be the day- to-day emails that cause the most problems, the offhand remarks and unguarded comments, thoughtless turns of phrase and careless wording. Care must be taken not only when you send email but when you interpret it as well. Don’t jump down someone’s throat if there’s a chance you have misinterpreted what they are saying.

To make sure your email gets read and understood correctly, here’s some tips:

Avoid Abbreviation Frustration-PC users have their language. Using expressions designed to save typing such as “IMHO” (in my humble opinion), “TTYL” (talk to you later), or “LOL” (laugh out loud) can as unintelligible as organic chemistry formulas to some. You can’t assume everyone is familiar with the endless acronyms out there. WIDLTO—when in doubt, leave them out.

Response Roulette-Should you or shouldn’t you respond to every email? According to Emily Post Institute every message deserves a reply. Of course that doesn’t include junk mail. My thoughts----who has that much time?

What’s My Line Guesswork-Don’t make people guess what you are emailing about by using tricky subject lines. Use the subject line for relevancy. Ooops, just trying to have a little fun.

Confidentiality Grapevine -Assume that the information you are receiving is confidential. Never forward or use the email contents without first getting the permission of the sender. And if you want to make sure it is regarded as confidential then say so! Better yet avoid sending confidential information via email altogether.

Trigger Happy-Read your email before you send it. Hitting that trigger (the send button) a little too soon could be costly.

And finally, a little tip that may not be so much about etiquette, but just food for thought. Communication between humans is approximately 90% body language, 8% voice and 2% what you say. With email, you remove the first 98%. Be aware when you write, be obvious with your meanings and remember when reading others’ give some consideration to the possibility that you may misinterpret the words.

Robin Stinson
RCStinsonFL@aol.com

Membership Social

The Membership Social will be on March 11 between 5:30-7:30p. The location is still TBD. Stay tuned for email announcements about this event.

The Dallas residential market will be welcoming two new unique Zom developments. The Townes at Prestonwood is shown above.

Known for their creative approach to development Zom will enter the Dallas market with The Townes at Prestonwood, a 207 apartment home townhome community and a 200+ prestigious Uptown community with townhomes, soft lofts, and a 20 story tower with five levels of penthouse suites.

Overseeing the Texas market is ZOM’s new Regional Manager, Sheila Carter, CAM. For more information on these and other Zom communities you can visit their web site at www.zomusa.com.

On Jan. 21st our very own Edie Lisboa with Picerene Management and Mez Birdie with CNL met with hundreds of UCF students to introduce the profession of Property Management. Their IREM booth was visited by many eager attendees looking for internships and other opportunities with IREM and local companies.

This was just the first of our chapters many planned events and promotions to spread the word of the benefits of becoming a CPM, ARM or AMO firm and the personal rewards of a career in Property Management. As we visit local academic institutions we gather resumes from interested, willing and ready future employees. We hope to build a data bank of these resumes as a resource to our members while providing opportunity to those we meet.

If you are interested in obtaining one or more of these resumes just email Meridythe. Join us as we embark on be a year of exploration for those ready, willing and able individuals who are seeking an exciting career. Share your passion for what you do with others. Call Robin or Meridythe for the dates and places of our next stop.

At our January Executive Council meeting, the members decided we would reduce the newsletter publications to every other month rather than every month. We will have the regular meeting announcements being sent out about a week in advance of meetings for your official notice. The newsletter will be published the following month that we do not have a meeting. This will give us an opportunity to provide you more information in our "off" months. This new schedule will begin with this publication.


	February 28- March 2		Asset Management Symposium in Orlando
	March 4 & 5		EDU: Property Mgmt Track A Understanding Financial Calcs...
	March 5 & 6		EDU: Property Mgmt Track A Human Resource Strat... (HRS402)
	March 7		EDU: Property Mgmt Track A Marketing & Leasing Strat...
	March 11		Membership Social 5:30p-7:30p

Congratulations to Joseph M. Rains on being approved as a new ARM (Accredited Residential Manager). Joseph works for All Florida Realty Services in Holly Hill.

Due to the few members of the Ocala Chapter and it's difficulty in getting full participation, a proposal to our last Executive Council meeting was approved to merge the Ocala IREM Chapter into our chapter.

In order to complete the merger, our chapter ByLaws have to be amended to include the counties that are served by the Ocala Chapter. We must vote on this at the March meeting, and all members are eligible to vote. Please take a moment to review this amendment and be prepared to vote at the meeting.

If you are not going to be there, this ballot which includes the proposed ByLaw amendment can be filled out and faxed, emailed, or mailed to Meridythe Kanaga, CPM, Chapter Administrator anytime prior to the meeting.

Grab the ballot --> PDF Format Word DOC

If you have any questions regarding this merger, please email Lou Nimkoff, CPM at Lou@brioproperties.com.

It’s “Tee” Time

Tee up for the 6th Annual IREM/CFCRES Golf Tournament on Monday, May 12, at Lake Nona, one of the finest courses in the country. Registration begins at 7 a.m. with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Continental breakfast is available during registration and the awards luncheon and auction will take place in the clubhouse following the tournament.

The fee schedule is: hole/tee sponsor - $250; Individual Player - $300; Foursome - $1,000; Corporate sponsor - $1,250. Other sponsorships include Hole in One or the $10,000 Putting Contest - $1,500; Gold sponsor - $5,000; Signature sponsor - $7,500; and Presenting sponsor - $10,000. Please contact Scott Pollock regarding those benefits associated with being a Presenting, Signature or Gold sponsor.

Again, all proceeds are presented to The Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women, which has achieved world-wide recognition for it’s critical care. In the past five years we have donated $68,000 to the hospital. Please help us to continue this success and mark your calendars for Monday, May 12th. I guarantee you will have a great time on a great golf course.

We are working, as we did last year, to give you the opportunity to have a professional athlete join your foursome. We had several members of the "World Champion" Tampa Bay Buc's with us last year as well as other NFL and MLB players. Discussions are underway to get commitments for this year’s tournament. Stay Tuned.

Scott Pollock, CPM.

IREM Central Florida Chapter #60 Important Links:

Committee Chairs

Board of Directors

Friends of IREM

Calendar of Events

IREM National

This year we are beginning a new section in the newsletter to show our members where we are in numbers of each membership classification. These numbers will reflect the previous month’s report from our executive council meeting.