FROM THE PRESIDENT
SCOTT KIRKWOOD | GRIFFIS BLESSING
2019 AAMD Year in Review
O
nce again a record number
of industry professionals
contributed to our Who’s Who
issue of Trends Magazine.
Our goal with this special edition is to
showcase the leaders of our industry in a
fun and interesting way. Please enjoy this
month’s issue of Trends Magazine which
includes 79 profiles of the top decision
makers in Metro Denver. These are the
individuals who are leading and shaping
our industry.
The first six months as AAMD
President have been both exciting and
rewarding. I’d like to recap and several
highlights from 2019, and also thank Mike
Holt as the prior AAMD President for
teeing up several of these accomplishments.
But before I do, I’d like to thank all of our
members for supporting the organization
and our mission! This year we had record
membership renewals and we greatly
appreciate everyone’s commitment to
AAMD. We have over 2,400 members;
including over 1,450 communities and
nearly 245,000 apartment units. We also
have over 550 Supplier Partner Members!
One of most recent yet substantial
efforts was the contributions we made in
the 2018 local elections. Over 80% of our
invested contributions went to the winning
candidate. Although most of the local
elections were technically non-partisan,
our contributions went to both Republican
and Democrat candidates who support the
rental housing industry and whose positions
on issues are aligned with our association.
In October, the Association brought
on board Andrew Hamrick as our new
General Counsil and VP of Government
Affairs. Drew has already made a strong
impact on strengthening our ability to
protect our great industry. With the
legislative session just around the corner,
please reach out to Drew to see how you
6 | TRENDS NOV/DEC 2019
can help tell our story with our state
legislature. This past Fall, AAMD & CAA
launched the WeShapeHousing.org website.
This site communicates to our members
and the general public our views on
important issues surrounding the housing
industry, and is made possible by
a growing coalition of like-
minded organizations.
Beyond government
affairs, we had several
important Educational
achievements. In 2019 we
trained and certified over
1,700 people through a
variety of classes and
certification courses.
Watch for more great
things from our Education
Department as we launch new online and
live courses in 2020!
In 2019 AAMD continued to establish
itself as THE place to be seen, meet, learn
and network with industry professionals.
Several AAMD events broke attendance
records or near records, including:
Maintenance Olympics and TechCon; and
we had a record year for Exhibitors at our
Trade Show this year!
2020 will mark our 30th year
partnership with Family Homestead!
By raising important funds for this
organization, AAMD has helped thousands
of homeless children by enabling their
parents to take control of their lives.
Beyond the critical dollars we have together
donated nearly 15,000 man hours to Family
Homestead cleaning and upgrading their
apartments over the years.
In addition to Family Homestead,
AAMD contributed funds to many other
charities via our Apartments Giving Back
program, including: American Heart
Association, Susan G. Koman Fund, Rocky
Mountain Down Syndrome Association,
Dress for Success Denver, Archdiocese
Housing, Humane Society of South Platt
Valley, Go Humanitarian, Freedom Service
Dogs, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Friends
of Aurora Central, Friends of DHA and
others. Thank you to everyone who has
contributed money and time to these
outstanding causes – we all should feel
very proud!
We are so excited to kick off the new
year and new decade with a fresh take on
our Economic Conference. On January
28, Econ 2020 will take place at Mission
Ballroom with a management panel,
featured speaker and a concert too; it's a
great event for teams to start the new year
off right!
Enjoy this issue of Who’s Who, and have
a wonderful Holiday season!