Nine professionals are the first to receive the Community Associations Institute's (CAI) Large-Scale Manager™ (LSM™) specialist designation. The LSM specialist designation demonstrates that these managers meet the unique requirements of managing the operations of a large-scale community association.

For the purposes of this program, the general definition of a large-scale community is a single, contiguous community association with: an on-site, full time manager; a minimum of 1,200 units; a minimum of 1,000 acres; and a minimum annual operating budget of $1.5 million.

To obtain the LSM specialist designation, a professional must be a CAI member in good standing, with an active Professional Community Association Manager® (PCAM®) designation. In addition, the LSM specialist designation requires that the professional currently manage a large-scale community or hold a minimum of five years of large-scale community management experience or city management experience within the last ten years. In addition, LSM specialist designation recipients must hold at least ten years of community management experience. This requirement can be reduced to five years for those with a Masters degree in Public Administration, Business Administration or Parks and Recreation Administration.

The LSM specialist designation is one in a number of individual professional certifications for community association managers offered by CAI and its sister organization, the National Board of Certification for Community Association Managers (NBC-CAM). These include Certified Manager of Community Associations® (CMCA®), Association Management Specialist® (AMS®), and Professional Community Association Manager® (PCAM®).

The newly designated Large-Scale Managers include:

• Sandra K. Denton, CMCA, LSM, PCAM—First Colony Comm. Svcs. Assn., Sugar Land, TX
• George J. Einfeldt, LSM, PCAM—East Highlands Ranch Homeowners Assoc., Highland, CA
• Judy Farrah, CMCA, LSM, PCAM—CCMC/Red Rock Country Club HOA, Las Vegas, NV
• T. Peter Kristian, LSM—Hilton Head Plantation POA Inc, Hilton Head Island, SC
• Robert G. Mahnke, CMCA, LSM, PCAM—The Landings Association, Inc., Savannah, GA
• Drew R. Mulhare, CMCA, AMS, LSM, PCAM—Vice President, Realtec Incorporated, Williamsburg, VA
• Kathleen R. Smith, CMCA, LSM, PCAM—Great Northwest Community Improvement Assoc., Inc., San Antonio, TX
• Joseph B. Tata, CMCA, AMS, LSM, PCAM—River Place East Housing Coop., Arlington, VA
• Clint J. Warrell, CMCA, AMS, LSM, PCAM—Canyon Lake POA, Canyon Lake, CA

The Community Associations Institute is a nonprofit association created in 1973 to provide education and resources to America's 231,000 community associations—condominium associations, homeowner associations and cooperatives. CAI members include homeowners, associations and the professionals who provide products and services to them.