Latest Events

Have your community start their own March Madness Bracket! Here's all the how-to's and some great resources to help set-up the pool. For a quick tutorial, March Madness is the single-elimination NCAA Division 1 college basketball tournaments performed each spring by 64 teams. It starts with this time-table, of Selection Sunday, March 15, 2015, and has a posted run date thru Monday, April 6, 2015. Generally, the tournament is played over 3 weeks starting after the middle of March. Each team has their own rank, and then is separated into 4 region brackets of 16 teams each. Within each region bracket, the top (1) and bottom (16) teams play, and so forth, with the winners of each playing the next winner of the previous game. Each bracket of playoffs has corresponding names like Sweet Sixteen, Final Four, and so...

Think about helping your community encourage children to read by setting up a cute March Reading Madness Contest! Create a Bulletin Board with a Goal theme like a March Madness 'Book Bracket' board, showing the competing contenders as books in a certain age range. Color print outs of the book covers will help the competitors recognize their choices and make the board POP. Although this is a "March Madness" themed event, logistically it probably works better as a year-long event, with a "Book of the Month" each month. The first two months will feature the first two books that square off in your March Reading Madness bracket! So after two months, those who have read the books can submit their votes for their favorite of the two, and you can announce the winner of the first round for that contest. ...

Who isn't watching Downton Abbey?! Your residents are, and loving it! Offer your community the chance to watch it together with other like-minded groupies, and make a fun night of it! Either have them show up in normal wear, or liven things up by having a Pajama Party! Plan on using your community theatre or set up an outside viewing screen, depending on the weather in your area. Of course, we always want to immerse the residents in a full event experience, so make sure to add Downton-themed goodies, such as English Breakfast tea, scones, and lemon curd for a proper English "High Tea", although a few hours later than normal! Group together cute and simple theme props related to the must-see drama like easy printable...

February is best known for Valentines Day; so why not capitalize on that. Everyone will be doing events that are for couples; however there is not a lot to do for the single people out there. This Valentines Day host a Box Social event at your community. Have everyone bring a boxed lunch in a decorated box or basket and assign each box a number and have people choose the box they want, the person who made the box will have lunch with the person that chose that box. To make your event stand out it is all about presentation is everything! Have a nice picnic area set up with the necessary essentials: Blankets, silverware, napkins, cups and a delicious dessert. For great decorating ideas please see my Box Social Pinterest board. ...

A simple and fun activity for your residents! Have them come outdoors for some winter fun and build a Snowman! The theme can be up to you or the resident, but the more creative the better. You can go 'Plane Jane', 'Disney.', 'Sports Icons', 'Farmer Joe', 'The Unmain-Mainstream Hipster', whatever you can think of. Take lots of pictures with the residents and their snowmen/snowwomen! Make sure to have snowman criteria, you don't want any surprises!  Give a building timeframe, and date the winner will be announced.  We've added photos of several different types of snowmen!  

This is going to be one of those strange events that has almost nothing to do with your actual residents. I know that sounds strange, but bear with us. Although our clubhouses can be absolutely beautiful, as they should be considering the investment we make in them, another descriptive word can also apply: Empty. Of course this does not apply to all communities, but oftentimes, the clubhouse is an attractive wasteland, used only to entice prospects into moving into the community, but not really serving much function beyond that. So the next question is, "does it really matter"? Does it matter that our community clubhouse is deserted? Well, maybe not, but here are some thoughts we should consider about the apartment community clubhouse: · ...

Thinking of throwing a Resident Appreciation Week at your community? It doesn't have to be costly or too far-fetched from resident events already in your arsenal. At CMC Apartments in Florida, we have hosted an all-portfolio Resident Appreciation Week (or RAW) for the past three years. The following is an snapshot from various properties during CMC RAW 2013. For more photos and ideas, check out #cmcRAW. Do you host a RAW? We'd love to hear about it. Send us a tweet - @CMCapartments In 2013 our leasing and maintenance staff in Gainesville, Winter Park and Lakeland, Florida engaged in cutthroat healthy competition to outshine the other participating CMC communities for our annual CMC Apartments' Resident Appreciation Week - a fun, festive and free lineup of events offered to all residents. Here's a recap of Day 1....

Ah, the joy of a cardboard box when you are 5. Something so simple can turn into something magical when you have the imagination of a child! This idea is to make a simple drive in movie experience, even though it is doubtful any kids in your community have actually experienced the real thing. They get to decorate their cars with wheels, brake lights, racing stripes, and anything else they can think of. Then let them watch an outdoor movie in their new rides! Maybe my own imagination is getting away with me, but I think it would be a blast to arrange the cars like they were racing and do quasi action shots with the kids looking like they are in a bitter race for first. Could probably get some great pictures of the event this way! ...

Part of creating a lifestyle for your residents is keeping a pulse on what is popular when it comes to group events. Several years ago Texas Hold 'em took the country by storm, as did UFC fighting a few years later. Over the past few years, creative fun runs have really come to the forefront, and now it is just a matter of leveraging these events to create connections between your residents! Fun runs used to be simple 5K, 10K, etc runs that catered to fitness oriented people, but over the past several years they have exploded into a variety of themed events that now cater to a much wider audience! From a Zombie Run to a Hot Chocolate Run, themed events offer a variety of creative ways to entertain runners as they compete. Also, races that...

What’s better than a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies? Well, a plate filled to the brim with an assortment of homemade cookies, of course! Hosting a cookie swap in your community is a fantastic way to bring your residents together to get to know one another and enjoy the holiday season. It’s easy to do: simply invite your residents to bring their best, favorite sweet treat – enough to share, of course! You can either request that they also bring an empty plate or container to hold treats, or you can provide a treat bag for each participant to use to collect their sweets. Set up tables in your clubhouse or gathering place for participants to place their cookies. Consider providing notecards and markers, so each person can put the recipe title (and their name!) in front of their cookies. Once all of the...