With winter finally fading away and summer on the horizon, it’s time to look back at our accomplishments and forward to what will be happening over the coming months with the Canadian Condominium Institute.

While we along with most organizations experienced trying times over the past couple years, we are recovering well and hope to be back to a normal state and beyond very soon.

We have returned to in person Lunch & Learns, hosting them at Smitty’s Restaurant on Kenaston. We are quite happy with the attendance. After a slow start attendance has increased with each Lunch & Learn. Upcoming events include Electric Vehicles, Greener Shingles (free) and Automated External Defibrillators. I hope to see you there for lunch, mingling and great sessions. If you have any ideas for future events, please let us know.

We recently held our first Presidents’ forum in a few years on April 11. We had a great turnout and enjoyed meeting with the attendees, hearing their ideas and concerns and just having a friendly chat.

As well, we will be having another casual event “Condo, Concerns, & Cocktails” on June 8 from 4:30 to 6:00 PM at Smitty's Family Restaurant and Lounge at 580 Pembina Hwy.

We launched our CCI Manitoba Introductory course last year and I’m happy to see many of our members have registered and taken the course. It’s a great tool to help condo boards get a handle on their responsibilities.

On the CCI national front, the next National Leaders’ Forum and conference will be held at the Alt Hotel in Saskatoon from May 31 to June 3 2023. This year’s theme is “Bridging The Future” and I’m excited to see what will be presented. The Leaders’ Forum and Conference is a great opportunity to connect with other individuals from across the country that are involved in the Condominium Industry. It will be filled with discussions and presentations, networking with CCI members and includes some fun filled social events. I encourage you to attend and join us in this great event. I hope to see you there.

We changed our delivery method for our quarterly newsletter. Instead of the usual print version, this is our second edition in digital only. While there has been both positive and negative feedback, we feel it has been well received and have deemed it successful so far. We will re-evaluate the delivery method once our current fiscal year has ended.

Our Sponsorship and AGM committee is currently planning our Annual General Meeting to be held in late September. The Annual General Meeting has always been a fun event and I’m excited to see what the committee has in store for us.

All our committees have been working hard to address the issues and concerns of our members. The Government relations and advocacy committee recently met with representatives from the Provincial Government to discuss possible changes to and enforcement of the Condominium Act.

Aside from increasing membership, the Membership Committee’s first Management Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting was held on March 14. The meeting was well attended by a dozen property managers from several firms. They provided excellent ideas about their daily condo concerns. Stay tuned for more about this committee and their initiatives to improve condominium life.

All of our board members have been dedicated to making CCI- Manitoba a great organization and I know I appreciate the time and effort each of them devote to the Canadian Condominium Institute. I feel our future is bright and I hope you feel the same about your Condominium Corporation.

On the personal side, I will be attending the Leaders’ Forum in Saskatoon and I have also booked a vacation to Hawaii August 28th (my birthday by the way). I have some out of town work trips coming up through the summer as well, mostly to the Clear Lake, Dauphin and Russell areas. I’m also hoping to get away next winter, but I don’t want to talk about winter at this point.

As always check out our website at Home - CCI Manitoba Chapter (cci-manitoba.ca) and CCI National website at Home - CCI- National to find out the latest news in the condominium industry, events here and across the country and a host of other topics.

I’ll close by saying I’m looking forward to the National Leaders’ Forum and Conference in Saskatoon in May and I would love to see a strong contingent of people from Manitoba. Have a great spring and enjoy the finest summer you’ll find in this country.

Stay safe.

JOHN POPOWICH, President CCI Manitoba Chapter