Using Southern California and the 48th National CAI Conference as a background, CAI President Barbara Byrd Keenan, CAE, was honored for her 10 years of service as CAI's chief executive officer. She was presented with 10 dozen roses—one dozen for each year of service.

During the Opening General Session of the national conference, CAI Chair Ellen Hirsch de Haan surprised Keenan with the recognition and a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the achievements of the last 10 years. In her speech, de Haan recognized many of the achievements realized during Keenan's tenure. "When Barbara came on board in 1990, CAI was an organization without vision and enthusiasm, and lacked the necessary financial infrastructure to accomplish its goals. Barbara made things happen," de Haan said. She went on to point out that during the last 10 years, CAI has implemented extensive educational opportunities, launched federal and state legislative and advocacy programs that benefited community associations and their residents, and created the first nationwide program for certified community managers.

Keenan has seen other triumphs with CAI, as well. During her tenure, CAI has won numerous national awards for educational programming, marketing, publications, art direction/design, Web design, and its government affairs efforts. And, in 1996, Keenan herself won the prestigious Key Award for excellence in association leadership.

CAI's growth has also seen a significant increase under Keenan's watch. In 1990, CAI had 100 PCAM designees. Today, there are over 1100. In 1990, CAI launched the AMS designation, and today, there are nearly 2,000 designees. The CMCA certification has over 3,200 members, and the newly launched Reserve Specialist designation already has over 35 members. In addition, CAI's membership has significantly grown under Keenan. In 1990, its membership numbered right at 10,000. Today, CAI has nearly 17,000 members.

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.