Community Associations Institute (CAI): New Membership Structure
Instead of “associations” being members of CAI, volunteer community leaders and homeowners will hold individual memberships as of July 1. Member benefits, including discounts, will be available only to those who hold individual memberships.
------------------------------------
As George Starapoli and Fred Pilot point out, this means that CAI no longer has a membership category for "homeowner associations." This reinforces what I (and others) have been saying for many years. CAI is a 501 (c) (6) trade association that represents the interests of lawyers, property managers, and other providers of services to HOAs. It doesn't represent homeowner associations or the owners who live in them. I don't mean that as a negative comment. I think it is a good thing that such a trade association exists, because professionals need specialized training to do this work, and they should seek to represent their interests in the policy process. It is a basic constitutional liberty (freedom of association) guaranteed by the First Amendment. Owners and associations should organize on their own and not expect CAI to serve their needs. However, I have been critical of CAI representatives, such as lobbyists, for claiming to represent owners and associations, which they have done on many occasions while pushing legislation. They don't, they never really did, and it is an impossible conflict of interests for a trade association to also seek to represent consumers of their services. Maybe this new structure moves things closer to toward acknowledging the actual situation.