Every year many apartment associations give awards for Professionals of the Year in categories such as Property Manager of the Year, Assistant Manager of the Year, Leasing Professional of the Year, Maintenance Professional of the Year, Supervisor of the Year, Independent Rental Owner of the Year and Supplier of the Year. All associations have similar criteria but most start with a nomination. Once you are nominated, you may submit a detailed application. A group of carefully selected judges review the submissions and three finalists are chosen in each category. Once you are chosen as a finalist, you know you have been chosen from a group of the most talented, dedicated and driven professionals in the industry. On the night of the awards, they announce all the finalists and from this group a winner is chosen. The associations publicize these awards on their websites. Nominees and winners’ names are printed in their magazines and finalists are submitted to their state and national associations.
Before becoming a nominee or finalist for these awards, you must work on earning your designations. A designation is the first step in learning about the multi-family industry. Earning designations show your dedication to achieving industry professionalism. You can visit the National Apartment Association’s website at http://www.naahq.org/ to earn or renew your designation. Some of the designations available are the National Apartment Leasing Professional (NALP), Certified Apartment Manager (CAM), Certified Apartment Property Supervisor (CAPS), Certified Apartment Maintenance Technician (CAMT), and the Certified Apartment Supplier (CAS). Once you have earned your designation it is important to continue your education and professional development by attending seminars and keeping up with your CEC’S.
GET INVOLVED. Getting involved is crucial to achieving success. What are you passionate about? Is it community service, membership, ambassador, meeting and events, promoting the events, legislative issues, publications, political action committees and or maybe education? You can network with the leaders of the industry just by getting involved. Stay informed about issues affecting our industry and you could one day be appointed to Chair a committee, be appointed to a Board of Directors or maybe be President one day. The possibilities are endless. The more involved and active you are, the better the chance of being nominated for one of these prestigious awards. More importantly, it is a way to give back to the community and the industry that you work hard for every day.
Take a look at this video for the Austin Apartment Association by our own Shonna Schneider-Marquis, CAS, National Director of Marketing and Public Relations. Shonna has won three times. She was asked to talk about what it feels like to win one of these awards and what steps she had to take to become a finalist and winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0mSVLOkiTw&feature=youtu.be
