JAN. 16, 2013—Community Associations Institute (CAI) is now offering a professional development course to help community managers better understand—and avoid—ethical issues in the performance of their duties.

Ethics and the Community Manager (M-300) is the 17th course developed as part of CAI’s Professional Management Development Program and the first 300-level course available online. Its content is based on a course attended by almost 50 members at the 2010 CAI Annual Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas.

The interactive course addresses the nature of business ethics, how these principles apply to community management and how to resolve potential conflicts of interest and issues involving gifts and other remuneration. Specific topics include:

• Applying CAI’s Professional Manager Code of Ethics
• Duties of care and loyalty
• Common ethics challenges faced by community managers
• Consequences of unethical behavior
• Ethical relations with fellow managers, including competitors

The tuition fee for the course is the same and provides the same credits as other 300-level courses. It meets requirements for redesignation of the Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM) designation and provides six hours of continuing education for the Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA) credential. The CMCA is awarded by CAI’s sister organization, the National Board of Certification for Community Association Managers.

"Beyond the obvious importance of ethics in any profession, this course is especially important because community managers can encounter a number of gray-area ethical situations," says David Jennings, CAE, SPHR,  CAI’s vice president of education. "Ethical questions are not always black and white. This course will help managers avoid not just actual violations, but also the appearance of impropriety."

CAI’s professional development program features 17 courses, beginning with The Essentials of Community Association Management (M-100). In addition to eight 300-level courses, the curriculum includes six 200-level courses, the PCAM Case Study and Contemporary Issues in Community Association Management (M-400).

More than 4,500 students took advantage of CAI classroom and online professional development courses in 2012.

With more than 32,000 members dedicated to building better communities, CAI works in partnership with 60 domestic chapters, a chapter in South Africa and housing leaders in a number of other countries. CAI provides information, education and resources to community associations and the professionals who support them. CAI’s mission is to inspire professionalism, effective leadership and responsible citizenship—ideals reflected in communities that are preferred places to call home. Visit www.caionline.org or call (888) 224-4321. 

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