President's Letter: Taking Care of Business
What a ride this year has been! Who knew, back in January, that we’d be sitting right here ready to go into 2022 with a newfound purpose and momentum from the last half of 2021. At first, 2021 looked like a sharp turn from 2020. COVID was on the downturn, and people were coming out of their homes again. The outlook was strong. Then came Delta, and with it, more misery. Another outbreak was not what we had in mind.
As usual, AATC volunteers and staff stepped up and turned on a dime…again! As many other associations did, we moved our Spring events to Summer and Fall to ensure the best turnout possible. Canceling events in 2021 was not on our agenda.
Let’s take a quick look back and focus on our successes for 2021. We kicked off in January with our first outdoor Lone Star Awards event. Over 500 people showed up to help us celebrate the best of the best in the industry and install our new 2021 Leadership team.
In April, we held our Spring Golf tournament for the first time in two years. It was great to see all of our industry friends out and mingling about—getting back to business. We raised a whopping $36,000 for our all-important AATC PAC. Not only do we have to keep our PAC coffers full, but we also have to pay our fair share to TAA.
Fast forward to our next event, the Business Exchange, in August. Again, our first indoor event since early 2020 was a great success. Over 600 DFW multifamily professionals were in attendance to help us raise $110,000 for the NAA PAC.
September allowed us to finally get together and help our friends at UGM by raising over $20,000 to support their efforts in providing assistance to the homeless population in the City of Fort Worth. We’ve partnered with them for over 25 years, and we hope to continue this tradition for the foreseeable future.
In October, we had to step our game! Not only did we have the return of our Fall Golf Tournament, where we raised over $30,000 for our PAC, but we also introduced a brand new family event—AATC Fall Festival! This new event had over 300 in attendance and was a unique and enjoyable experience had by all.
Enter November, three of our largest events converged into a two-week time period. Needless to say, it took the strenuous efforts of all our staff and volunteers to make this happen. First, Nov 2 showcased the return of Maintenance Mania. Then we saw our annual Education Conference, featuring Carly Patterson, and our incredible Trade Show with over 1,500 multifamily folks come and go throughout the show. Both were a rousing success.
Hopefully, you’ll help us carry the torch into 2022 by giving what you can for the annual Toys for Tots campaign to help thousands of children who have no control over their station in life.
Did I mention that we did everything I just described while also selling our building? What an accomplishment by all.
I hope to see you in 2022 as our events will return in full force.
Sincerely,
Michael Payne, Allmark Properties
AATC President
