2004 CATA Conference Summary

2004 CATA Conference Summary

The 2004 CATA conference, held at the Village at Breckenridge September 13-17th was a rousing success. Providing 26 classes from 7 different course providers was a challenge, but with the hard work of the all-volunteer CATA Executive board, the support of more than 350 members and the hard-working staff at the Village at Breckenridge, we were able to provide more than 6,100 continuing education hours, with a minimum amount of headaches and a maximum amount of affordability for our membership. See the 2004 Photo Highlights here and the 2004 Cata Business Meeting Minutes here.

The 2004 conference was our biggest ever, with 43 of Colorado’s 64 counties represented, including 15 Assessors attending classes. We had our most non-county employees attending ever, including 5 hearing officers from the Board of Assessment Appeals, 4 DPT employees, as well as attorneys, realtors, private fee appraisers, tax agents and the Property Tax Administrator for the State of Wyoming (our old friend Wade Hall). We even had 2 fee appraisers from California attending (Where the heck did they come from?).

The conference started off with a bang on Monday, with both appraisal and administrative classes from the DPT being presented. The conference continued to gain momentum throughout the week with our added Appraisal Issues meeting on Tuesday evening (attended by over 50 members), a raucous good time at the DJ dance on Wednesday and another great luncheon on Thursday. All the while the DPT and six outside course providers kept our feet on the ground and our heads in the books. We wrapped up the conference with a great Friday business meeting and door prize give-away. Many thanks to all the vendors who donated door prizes and to the more than 150 people who attended. We concluded our conference with the election of new officers, and presented a special plaque to out-going board member Paul Beacom for his 7+ years of dedicated service to our organization.

The 2005 CATA Executive Board is as follows:

President – Daniel Martinez (Mesa County)
1st Vice President – Vern Penton (Adams County)
2nd Vice President – Debra Fangmeier (Weld County)
Secretary – Mike Peterson (Summit County)
Treasurer – Loren Morrow (Adams County)
Board Member – Sam Forsyth (Boulder County)
Board Member – Andria Collins (Eagle County)
Board Member – Ken Larson (Boulder County)

The Wednesday night DJ Dance theme was “Have a Yaba-Daba Good Time”, sponsored by Teller County. The decorations were excellent and quite a few revelers were decked out in their best caveperson attire. The coveted CATA Cup was awarded to Elbert County, who graciously accepted the award and responsibility for next year’s theme. They have tentatively set the theme for 2005 as “Return to the 70’s”.

The 2005 CATA Conference is shaping up to be a good one. We will again be descending upon the Village at Breckenridge (albeit without the construction hassles they assure us they will be done with). The conference is scheduled to run from Monday, September 12th through Thursday, September 15th. So, mark your calendar now and keep a look out for the conference registrations this summer.