2008 CATA Conference Summary

The 2008 CATA conference was held in Copper Mountain, August 25-28, 2008.  What a huge success this conference was and, thanks to a very outgoing and dedicated Executive Board, new things were tried and we went out of Copper Mountain in style.  We had a Monday night Fajita party and we served a hot breakfast on Wednesday morning and at our Board meeting we served a pasta bar. The 2008 conference was our biggest ever with 377 attendees including 23 Assessors, 333 county employees, 44 non-county employees. We offered 39 classes over four days with a total of 244 credited hours of continuing education. See the 2008 Photo Highlights here, and the CATA Business Meeting Minutes here. The Conference Evaluation Summary is available here for download. A Map of participating counties is here.

CLASSES

The Executive Board is extremely thankful for all the continued support we have for our conference.  The Division of Property Taxation continues to teach the bulk of our classes and we tend to stretch them out as far as we can.  The board appreciates everything they continue to provide for us.   Classes were taught by Apex, Robert Smoote, IAAO classes were taught by Garth Thimgan and Steve Snyder, we had Russ Thimgan teach SPSS and Kaplan College taught Appraiser Fraud/Polluted Properties and Site Valuation & Cost Approach.  James Felt taught 2 days of Colorado Water Law and Dean Wilson taught 2 classes for us this year, HP 12C and Logic and Critical Thinking.

VENDORS

We are so grateful to our vendors who continue to support our conference; they provide many things to make our conference a class act.  Spatialest provided the folders, STI provided the lanyards, Tylerworks provided the DJ for our dance and CCI, and Pictometry and Apex provided the kegs of beer on Monday and Tuesday night.  Thanks to all of the vendors we appreciate everything you do for our conference.

2009 CONFERENCE DATES

We will be moving our 2009 and 2010 conference to Beaver Run in Breckenridge, CO.   2009 dates are August 24-27, 2009.  We have signed a 2 year contract with them and we hope to see everyone up there.  The Executive Board is working on the 2011 and 2012 location.  We will be reviewing bids and exploring many locations.  There are not many places that accommodate our numbers of attendees and the breakout rooms for so many different classes.  We will continue do our best to fill all our needs and to keep costs down to where they are affordable by all.

CONFERENCE EVALUATION SURVEYS

The board would like to thank everyone that filled out our surveys this year.  We had a great response and will make it a priority to improve in the areas pointed out in the surveys.  We will make every attempt to accommodate all of the requests we can.  Please email any of the board members at anytime with suggestions or concerns, we appreciate any input the membership provides that will assist us in improving our conference.

A big thank you goes out to each Assessor!  Without your support this conference could not go on.  Thanks to those Assessors that allow the volunteer board to put so much time and effort in all year long and to all of you who allow your employees to attend, we appreciate it very much.

Sincerely,
Debbie Fangmeier
2008 CATA President

 

The 2009 CATA Executive Board is as follows:

President – Raelene Churyk (Weld County)
1st Vice President – Chris Bellegante (Boulder County)
2nd Vice President – Jeremy Maldonado (Adams County)
Secretary – Mike Peterson (Summit County)
Treasurer – Ronda Loboto (Costilla County)
Board Member – Sara Thorpe  (Jefferson County)
Board Member – Sara Waller (Montrose County)
Board Member – Debbie Fangmeier (Weld County)

The 2008 Conference Statistics are available here.