The RAM Compliance division held a team meeting on June 25th and 26th at the Panama City Corporate office. The entire team including Wendi LeMense, Sonya Knight, Nikki Winecoff, Nadine Jean-Noel, Denise Medina, Eric Sangster, Kelsey Brites and the two newest RAM Specialists, Barbara Loughner and Yasi Otero, met for OneSite and Tax Credit Compliance training and some good old fashioned team building. Barbara, previously the manager at Magnolia Pointe Apartments in Panama City, FL is now a Compliance and OneSite Specialist, devoting half of her time to the Compliance Division and the other half assisting in the OneSite Division. We are happy to have her assistance. Yasi comes to us from Seminole Ridge Apartments in Orlando, FL where she worked as a Leasing Agent. She has a great deal of knowledge with Tax Credit Compliance and has hit the ground running. She is assisting Eric in the Orlando office and he is very happy to have her and so are we. It was a great opportunity to introduce Barbara and Yasi to the division and to give them some insight into just how everything works in our department.
Being spread out from Miami to Orlando to Charlotte, NC, we rarely have an opportunity to have the entire group together so we all enjoyed this opportunity to spend time together and train on OneSite and a variety of compliance topics and issues. As you are probably aware, maintaining compliance for our extensive portfolio of apartment communities, each with its own unique layered funding and regulation requirements, is not an easy task. There are many gray areas and each community has its own set of requirements. Nothing in this business is uniform. Fortunately, our Compliance Specialists are top notch and they have an excellent understanding of what is required to maintain compliance. They also provide outstanding support to the site staff and are here to assist them in any way possible.
Of course our team meeting wasn’t all work. We had a great time taking a sunset sailboat cruise, visiting our beautiful beaches and sampling the local fare eating at Spinnaker Beach Club, J. Michaels and Schooners. We all enjoyed our time together and everyone went home re-energized with a better understanding of OneSite and how it relates to Compliance, as well as how we can continue to support the on-site staff and assure that our communities stay in compliance.
February 12, 2014 – Regional Manager Meeting – Panama City Corporate Office
“Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars!” Les Brown
On Wednesday, February 12th a Regional Manager Meeting was held in the Panama City Corporate office. All regionals were in attendance as well as Regional Vice Presidents. They all arrived safe and sound Tuesday evening, despite weather issues, delayed flights and lost luggage! The joys of traveling – but these “stars” arrived with smiles on their faces and eager to work and play with their fellow RA comrades!
The meeting opened with a welcome from Kerri Toth and Denise Ost, followed by a discussion on miscellaneous topics.
Then came the “fun”, a team building game called “Saving Joey!” Everyone was divided into groups of two and each group was given a small clear plastic cup placed upside down with a gummy Life Saver under the cup. A gummy worm was lying across the cup, along with a swizzle stick and two paperclips. The cup represented the capsized boat, the life saver was the life jacket, the swizzed stick was the oar and last but not least the worm was Joey! Joey’s boat had capsized in the rough seas and his life jacket was trapped underneath his boat. His oar was his only means of movement to get back to land safe and sound, but it had fallen into the rough waters! Joey now sat perched on top of the capsized boat and he needed help. It was up to the teams to flip his boat over and get him back inside with his life jacket ON him and his oar lying across the top of the boat.
Sounds easy right? Well here is the catch! Read more
It is our pleasure to celebrate the voyage of Denise Ost throughout Royal American over the past 32 years. We were honored to have the opportunity to learn her story and we are very excited to share it with you. Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for an interesting read.
Denise Ost began working for Royal American in 1980 as a Property Manager during the construction of Palmetto Apartments, a HUD property in Tallahassee. There she worked on the lease up of Palmetto from the office of Mission Hills Apartments, another HUD property managed by Royal American. Five years later, once the property was in good standing, Denise made use of her talents at a smaller management company. That same year, she moved back to Panama City, where she was born and raised. Denise spread her wings and ventured outside of management to work for Nerving Travel Agency for 5 years as well as working in the Insurance world with her brother. She then spent 6 months as a stay at home mom. Read more
