This website is all about the failings of the Community Associations Institute (CAI).
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a business trade group that got its start in 1973. CAI controls the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR) and the Community Association Managers International Certification Board (CAMICB) and uses no less than five different marketing organizations to force-feed everyone their kool-aid. Want more? View our social media activity. F*ck CAI.
Members contribute to... membership. Thanks Tom. Maybe you should stick with photography and Star Wars costumes?! F*ck CAI.
CAI is the grim reaper for homeowners in condos, co-ops and HOAs
Don't get reaped this Halloween.☠️ Be an advocate for change by confronting CAI in all its forms by *posting publicly.*
Channel your complaints and frustration into positive change. Use social media wisely. F*ck. CAI.
CAI Ethics Get a Downgrade
CAI just updated its "Professional Manager Code of Ethics" to "enhance transparency and accountability" by *increasing* the threshold that requires disclosure. TRANSLATION: the nearly meaningless ethical code just got a downgrade. Don't worry though, CAI's professional misconduct list contains less than two dozen entries. Ever. F*ck. CAI.
Time is Money! CAI created CAMICB to Sell Designations + Market Community Management
CAMICB is effectively a subsidiary of CAI that sells a CMCA designation to individuals who pay roughly $600 to take 16 hours of classes and an exam. Here’s the “Exam Knowledge Areas” breakdown in training hours. F*ck. CAI.
RIP Homeowners
Thank you so much Tom Skiba, CEO of the Community Associations Institute (CAI), for remembering all the fallen homeowners. F*ck. CAI.
Promotional Message: Hire a CMCA
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) created CAMICB in 1995. CAMICB exists to sell the opportunity to obtain the "CMCA" designation which, according to CAMICB's website "can be obtained with a minimal investment of time."
"Explore the Benefits of Hiring a CMCA-Certified Manager." Anyone gets the CMCA stamp for 16 hours + $600. Qualified to be a community manager? NOPE! F*ck. CAI.
#WEARECAI and we're Proud to Support Businesses!
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is PROUD to pretend to support homeowners while sponsoring businesses. F*ck. CAI.
CAI AND FCAR KEEP CHURNING OUT PROPAGANDA
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) operates the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR) and every year FCAR creates a new version of "facts" that are simply a work of propaganda fiction. The 2023 installment of the "Fact Book" published by FCAR includes "State Facts and Figures" from 2021. What about methodology establishing these "facts"? It's not disclosed. F*ck. CAI.
CAI FEEDS HOMEOWNER VULTURES
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) helps feed homeowner vultures: attorneys and management companies want your house. F*ck. CAI.
CAI IS COMING FOR HOMEOWNERS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a HOMEOWNER VAMPIRE that represents attorneys and management companies. F*ck. CAI.
THE BUSINESS INDUSTRY ASKS HOMEOWNERS TO BE THEIR "AMBASSADORS"
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) wants homeowners to work against other homeowners and help disseminate their business-centric legislative reform by serving as "advocacy ambassadors." JUST. SAY. NO. F*ck. CAI.
INDUSTRY DOUBLE-SPEAK
CAI Exchange Terms and Conditions:
"The intention of the CAI Exchange is to provide support to community association professionals." End of story. F*ck. CAI.
FACT: CAI created FCAR (the Foundation for Community Association Research) in 1975. FCAR HQ shares a hallway with CAI HQ.
FACT: 60% of FCAR's annual revenue is paid to CAI to function as its "management company."
FACT: FCAR's "research" suffers from industry sponsorship bias.
Tom Skiba, CEO of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) has trouble handling math and facts. F*ck. CAI.
IS THIS REAL?
Tom Skiba, CEO of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) dines in Dubai while helping businesses line their pockets and simultaneously claiming to prevent community association tragedies that were in part created by those same businesses. F*ck. CAI.
When North Carolina HOAs want to block or pass legislation, they often get their way
DON'T GET ROASTED BY CAI AND ITS BUSINESS PARTNERS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is giving thanks for tasty homeowners: the PERFECT meal for hungry business partners. F*ck. CAI.
BUY OUR PRODUCTS AND WE'LL HELP TAKE YOUR HOUSE
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) asks homeowners for money to help eat them for lunch. F*ck. CAI.
MANAGEMENT COMPANY SHARES 50% OF LATE FEE REVENUE
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) CEO Tom Skiba's CNBC interview says "Management companies are not getting a share of the proceeds. That's not how they're compensated." <<< FALSE! Read it on Reddit. F*ck. CAI.
ALL TRICKS and NO TREATS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) CEO Tom Skiba is Gollum personified in this interview. Reality check: management companies cut deals with vendors and even banks to earn undisclosed fees despite pledging to abide by CAI's toothless "Code of Ethics." F*ck. CAI.
CAI + BUSINESS PARTNERS = BAD NEWS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) teams up with its banking "business partners" to take your money. F*ck. CAI.
CAI = FAKE REVIEWS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) has dozens of fake reviews on Facebook. GET REAL! F*ck. CAI.
It's NO SECRET: CAI EXISTS TO SERVE THE NEEDS OF BUSINESSES
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) admits it's the #1 place for businesses that profit at homeowners' expense. F*ck. CAI.
CAI & FCAR PROVIDE THEIR OWN VERSION OF THE FACTS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) manages the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR) for $190,000/yr.
CAI and FCAR claim to publish objective community association research, but their facts are works of fiction. F*ck. CAI.
CALLING ALL RESIDENTS: PAY US $499
In its latest feat of arrogant nonsense, the Community Associations Institute (CAI) recommends that anyone who LIVES in a condo or HOA should pay $499 for a class designed for "professional" managers. In what universe does THAT make sense? Just. Plain. No. F*ck. CAI.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Despite what certain attorneys dispense as sage advice, the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and its "business partners" are
THE ELEPHANT in the room. F*ck. CAI.
CAI & COMPANY CRUSH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS AND THEIR HOMEOWNERS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) and its "business partners" are in business for themselves. CAI's members-only Exchange forum has a "Code of Conduct" that explicitly says it intends to "support community association professionals," NOT homeowners. F*ck. CAI.
BUSINESSES WIN + HOMEOWNERS LOSE
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) Board of Trustees is a lopsided mess. If you've ever wondered why it's so challenging to find great professional help for your association, look no further! CAI wants what's best for businesses that supply 90% of its revenue. F*ck. CAI.
ONE STOP SHOP FOR... PROPAGANDA
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is aboslutely incessant in its business to homeowner doubletalk. F*ck. CAI.
Consent Matters: NO Forced Advocacy Fees
CAI membership? It's got a sneaky Mandatory Lobbying fee tucked in. Even those bulk memberships they use to pad their homeowner stats shell out (sometimes as low as $15 per person, thanks to state Associations). But here's the kicker: Homeowners in CAI aren't treated equally in leadership, and LAC spots are like VIP invitations (none of us ever got one). So, if you're a Homeowner, wanting CAI's resources like education, be ready to pay for your own opposition. F*ck CAI and its Lobbying Monopoly! #CAIrevealed"
PLUG YOUR EARS TO CAI PROPAGANDA
A recipe for DISASTER: the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and its LACkeys bombard homeowners nonstop to support their pro-business industry agenda. Remember Surfside? Just say "NO!" to CAI and its LACkeys. F*ck. CAI.
CAI IS COMING FOR YOUR HOME
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is coming for your home. Research by independent journalists (here, here, and here) shows that lobbying from CAI promulgates practices that directly contribute to housing instability. F*ck. CAI.
State Rep. Naquetta Ricks, an Aurora Democrat, attempted to prevent homes under HOA foreclosure from being sold for a fraction of their value when she introduced House Bill 1137, a broad HOA reform measure, in 2022. The sponsors of the measure intended to require in the bill that HOA-foreclosed properties be sold for no less than 80% of their market value. But the provision never made it into the legislation...
Ricks said that lobbyists representing HOAs and property managers fiercely opposed the proposed rule and that it was taken out to ensure the overall measure — aimed at limiting HOA foreclosures altogether — would pass. “We had to fight against a very large lobby.”
WEEDING OUT THE HOMEOWNERS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) talks a good game about civility, listening and showing respect while simultaneously acting as the 100,000lb ogre uprooting homeowner interests like saplings for breakfast. Don't believe the illusion. Slay the orge. F*ck. CAI.
ADVOCATING FOR BUSINESSES!
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) advocates for businesses & pays lobbyists to oppose homeowner-friendly laws. F*ck. CAI.
INVEST IN...OUR BUSINESSES!
411: CAI is full of marketing ploys. Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing. GO NOW! Protect your children and neighbors! F*ck. CAI.
DID YOU SAY ETHICS?
Are you compliant with CAI’s ethics? j/k🤣 According to CAI's website, less than 30 managers have had their designations revoked. Ever.
"Ethics" from CAI and CAMICB are a joke. What's the punch line? Community associations and their homeowners! F*ck. CAI.
I ANAL, HOW ABOUT YOU?
If Reddit popularized the expression IANAL as an unnecessary form of CYA, the Community Associations Institute (CAI) perfected it. Contributors to the CAI Exchange (a members-only affair not worth the price of admission) often respond by directing the poster to an attorney.
IANAL disempowers homeowners who know exactly what they're talking about based on their lived experience. Don't let CAI brainwash your association into paying their attorney business partners for every. single. thing. F*ck. CAI.
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
The Community Associations Institute (CAI) expects volunteers to read 21 pages of jargon in addition to paying a vendor who pays CAI for credentialing and training specifically to provide the service outlined in the jargon. F*ck CAI.
FUTURE LOOKING BLEAK?
The Homeowners We Serve is CAI's admission that they're not around to serve homeowners. Trade groups serve businesses. F*ck CAI.
CAI is a "nonprofit association created in 1973 to represent the community association industry."
What's the industry? Thousands of management companies, association managers (CAMs), attorneys, insurance brokers, reserve consultants, contractors, software vendors and more. CAI ADVOCACY = BUSINESS PROFIT + HOMEOWNERS COME LAST. F*ck CAI.
CAI effuses its "monumental milestones" of 38,367 members in 2018 and 45,000+ members in 2019 and 45,038 members in... 2023.
CEO Tom Skiba: "CAI has grown by 10,000 members since 2018." Check your math, Tom. F*ck CAI.
December 2017: CAI "restructures" its homeowner membership program to include up to 15 individual members per association for $250.
2018 annual report: We’re proud to report... that CAI reached a monumental milestone... CAI membership ended the fiscal year at 38,367.
[CAI's fiscal years end on June 30.]
2019 annual report: We’re proud to report that CAI once again reached a monumental milestone with a total membership of more than 45,000...
July 2023 CAI celebrates a New Milestone: total membership of 45,038...“We’re really excited and proud to reach the 45,000-member milestone...
Above is Sken: the perfect mashup of Barbie's Ken and Tom Skiba, CEO of CAI.
Sken has difficulty with the maths which might explain the lack of continuity in CAI's membership figures for the past five years. 2+2 = F*ck CAI.
SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM, PART II: CAI charges members to plug into EVs...and everything else.
In the fine tradition best summarized as "your membership is a means to our ends," CAI continues asking members to pay for content from its "business partners" (also paying CAI members) who are not compensated for their time and/or contributions. F*ck CAI.
CAI state chapters even charge members for events presented by public government resources. F*ck CAI: PART II
#affordable #housing is no longer affordable.
The insurance crisis sucks, but so does this convoluted tweet. Pick one: condos are either affordable, or not. F*ck CAI.