President's Pen, Fall 2024

October 31, 2024

Posted By: Berry Craven in the ApartMentor,

Connections in the apartment industry can mean many things. Connecting with new people daily is what many of us do for a living. We connect with new residents on site, new employees in our offices or on our crews, we connect with new vendors, suppliers and business owners.

The quantity of possible connections that comes in this industry alone is almost hard to grasp the number can be so high. That leads me to a question. How many of us focus too much on the quantity of connections we make vs the quality of connection?

I, as an almost 24 yearlong employee with Ginkgo, have the pleasure of meeting so many new people, just from an internal company standpoint alone. When you throw in that I have been heavily involved in TAA for the better part of 11 years and have the humble opportunity of serving as your President, the amount of new people I meet on an association front dwarfs the number of new connections I make through Ginkgo.

I wish every connection I made could be as good as the best ones I have ever made but unfortunately that isn’t reality. Sometimes we just don’t have the time in our busy worlds to allow for that type of connection. I want to give an example of how someone simply taking the time to allow for a quality connection affected me for the rest of my life.

This connection didn’t happen in the TAA world but in Ginkgo’s earlier days the BNP world. Interestingly enough it crossed into my TAA world as this amazing man was a Past President for TAA in 2002. I am referring to when I met Larry Berry.

Larry Berry was a regional manager with BNP around 2005 I believe, and I liked him from the moment we met. I was a new Service Manager, and Larry was the first one I recall doing a Community Evaluation on me in my new role. I learned very early Larry was by the book but enjoyed himself while he did his job. He was always smiling even while showing you how to correct your deficiencies. Did you know sealed sterile water in eye wash kits expire? Larry seemed to think it was funny I didn’t know. Larry’s humor and positive attitude led to him being a natural leader and someone I wanted to please.

I learned what his pet peeves were. Staying in uniform, just like Larry as he was always dressed to impress, was important for him. I recall him stepping toward my foot; to confirm I was wearing my steel toed boots, which I was. This turned into a big joke for us as I out of instinct pulled my foot away before he could step on my boot and let him know he would have to get up a little earlier if he wanted to catch me sleeping.

He wanted to make sure his teams took pride in their grounds. He led by example and picked up the trash he saw as he walked a site. Not that there was much to find on my site but enough to where I learned Larry knew no one human was better than another. He also knew other ways to get buy in. He would hide a $20 in a bottle and stick it in a bush somewhere. If he found it when he came on site next time, he would let us know what we missed. We had very clean bushes on our sites when Larry Berry was around!

Somewhere along the way Larry felt the urge to show me some of this world’s most amazing places and he invited me to join him for one of his favorite hobbies. He was already set to go to Key Largo on a scuba diving vacation and asked if I’d like to join. I was a certified diver but had never made any dives besides swimming pools, rock quarries and lakes. The thought of an opportunity like that with someone who I looked up to wasn’t one I was passing up.

Larry, being the good leader that he was, wanted to make sure I was ready for the trip and insisted we go to a rock quarry to get some brush up dives in as it had been a while since I had blown bubbles. I wasn’t aware of the frigid temps we would experience in these check out dives as the rock quarry was around 50 degrees at depth. Larry being the experienced diver he was had planned for just these conditions. When we finished our dive, he started a fire to heat up some water and pour down our wet suits to warm us up. The fire also worked great to heat the left-over beefy mac he brought for lunch.

Larry and I became very good friends on this trip. Even though we didn’t keep up with each other as much as I would have liked, we were always happy to see the other. When my family visited Disney, Larry and his wife Anne took us by the hand and showed us the trip of our lives! My son and daughter will always remember Larry as the Magician.

I never knew Larry when he was TAA President, but I can only imagine his same enthusiasm and zeal for life carried over into that role just like every other role he ever filled. I am certain the number of lives he has connected with in the TAA world and all over are higher than I will ever have the honor of reaching.

When I became President, I was proud to reach out to him and inform him I had earned the right to lead our great association. I wanted to make sure he knew the date so he could join my induction if his schedule allowed. I can’t tell you the pride I felt walking into TAA and seeing as great of a man as Larry Berry being on the past president’s wall knowing I would hang there with him one day.

This is around the time I learned the terrible news. Larry had been diagnosed with cancer and due to this was unable to attend my Induction. Once I found out, I did a better job of staying connected with my good friend. We talked on the phone and texted. I asked him questions and kept him up to date with my TAA doings. To the very end Larry was offering me advice and words of praise.

Like all the other challenges in life Larry Berry fought a very good fight but unfortunately this was not one he was able to overcome. I write this on Monday 9/16/24 one week after Larry Berry passed away 9/9/24. I dedicate this President’s Pen to one of the strongest connections I have ever made in my life and that is to Larry Berry! Rest in peace my friend!

His happiness and willingness to connect with people on a basic level, a level where we are simply just all human beings and deserve each other’s respect, reminds me to value and honor the opportunity of these connections. It is important to take the time to hear what people are saying and to make these connections possible.

That is what TAA is all about. My first President’s Pen was focused on opportunity. TAA does so many things very well. TAA’s ability to provide opportunities for connections is by far one of the things we do the best. By getting involved and showing up, TAA provides the opportunity for these connections. The ones that may better you and benefit you the rest of your life are all over the place.

The relationships that can be formed by joining a committee, volunteering to work an event like Special Olympics or the golf tournament, going through a course like Leadership Lyceum/CAM/CAMT, these are just some the opportunities to make these lifelong connections.

TAA provides the opportunity but before the connections can be made you have to connect with your association. It reminds me of that old saying that you can’t help those who won’t help themselves. If help finding connections is what you need look no further. Help yourself and come join us for the fun. The opportunities and the connections are endless!