At its 49th National Conference held in October in Nashville, Tennessee, the Community Associations Institute (CAI) created a new committee—the Banking Committee—in order to better serve its banking industry members. Also during this meeting, Linda Schiff, Senior Vice President of Community Advantage(r) of Barrington Bank & Trust, in Barrington, Illinois, was selected to serve as the newly formed committee's chair.

The goal of the Banking Committee is to provide education to homeowners, community association managers and other industry professionals on various topics pertaining to banking and financial issues for community associations. Additionally, the committee hopes to provide communication opportunities among banking and financial service providers. In Nashville, the Committee also came up with five very specific objectives that they intend to focus on:

• To identify the needs of community association managers and homeowners as it relates to banking and financial services, and design educational programs to meet these needs.
• To create strategies and carry out specific tasks requested by the Chair and/or Board of Trustees.
• To advance the development of banking and financial products and services for community associations, and to advance the personal and professional development of banking and financial members.
• To interact, share ideas and network with other CAI committees and groups to provide information, education and consultation.
• To identify and communicate important industry trends, including banking regulations, product developments and technology.

In preparation for its next meeting at CAI's 50th National Conference in Tucson, Arizona, in May 2001, the committee decided to put together and submit an education session for the Tucson meeting, draft a banking survey to be distributed at that conference, and request a Shop Talk Session at the Spring conference as well. According to Schiff, "the formation of the Banking Committee reinforces the fact that community associations need professional banking and financial services customized to this unique marketplace to meet its unique needs."

The Community Associations Institute is a nonprofit association created in 1973 to educate and represent the nation's 205,000 community associations—condominium associations, homeowner associations and cooperatives. CAI members include homeowners, associations and related professionals and service providers.