Focusing on the Future
By Josh Gold, CAE, CMP
Executive Vice President
Welcome to the first issue of your redesigned Multifamily Florida! Although we modernized the masthead and made a few other updates over the past few years, this is the first complete redesign since Impact became Multifamily Florida in 2006. That’s a long time to keep doing the things we’ve always done, and it was time for a change. The redesigned magazine includes a vibrant table of contents that will help you navigate to the content that’s most relevant to you. And, because we know you’re busy and your time is valuable, fast facts and call-outs throughout the publication will enable you to glean information quickly.
Your monthly Florida APTitudes e-newsletter has also been revamped to serve you better. We’ve kept the same sections — What’s New in the FAA, What’s New Nationally, and Supplier Updates — and we’ve streamlined the publication. If you’re not receiving Florida APTitudes in your email inbox every month, send an email to communications@faahq.org and ask to be added to the distribution.
These improvements to how we deliver valuable information to our members are aligned with the goals that were established at a strategic planning session in August. FAA leaders, members, and staff met at the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando headquarters in Maitland, and brainstormed about what we’ve been doing well and what could be improved. We reviewed our mission statement, and established a vision statement and overarching goal for 2020-2022.
Vision: To be the recognized leader of Florida’s multifamily industry.
Goal: Increase engagement at all levels in the industry, leading to membership growth and a stronger affiliate network.
We plan to accomplish that goal through four areas of focus:
- Strengthen affiliate network
- Raise brand awareness
- Grow conference and events
- Enhance advocacy and research
As I shared with many of you at the 2019 FAA Annual Conference & Trade Show, we have already made strides in strengthening our affiliate network, by helping FAA’s three smallest affiliates — BCMHA, CCAA, and ECAA — hire professional association executives. This will help ensure that members across the state receive a consistent level of service. Nine of our 10 affiliates are now using the Novi association management system for their websites as well as their member databases. This year, Novi implemented a “data handshake,” which effortlessly transfers updated member information from the affiliate to FAA.
At the conference, we offered for the first time ever an education track directed to maintenance professionals — crucial members of multifamily teams in so many ways. We again offered The Masters Sessions, an opportunity for senior multifamily executives to interact and collaborate with their peers, and are exploring other ways to serve and engage that key constituency.
We’re developing an advocacy toolkit for affiliates, which will be available on the FAA website and will contain information regarding a variety of public policy issues as they relate to the state of Florida. This content is intended to provide relevant background information for affiliate leaders to use when broaching these topics with local policymakers.
FAA has added a statewide job board to faahq.org to help members stay up to date on job openings in their area or across the state. The job board compiles listings from affiliates and allows employers to directly post open positions in regions where there is no affiliate job board.
Housing affordability is a hot topic across the state and the nation, and FAA is doing our part to address this issue in several ways. In partnership with AAGO, we produced a Housing Affordability Toolkit to provide information on how local governments can encourage developers to build affordable housing. The toolkit resulted in media coverage as well as policy discussions with local governments. The toolkit is available in the resources section of the FAA website and will soon be available on the NAA website as a resource to affiliates across the country struggling with similar issues.
In addition, we are partnering with NAA on a research project to quantify the impact of Florida-specific barriers to multifamily housing construction. The data obtained by this research will help FAA and its members validate the need for state and local government policymakers to pursue the apartment industry’s alternative solutions to address housing affordability.
As always, I encourage you to let us know how we’re doing and to share your ideas for how FAA can continue in our vision of being the recognized leader of the multifamily industry in Florida.