12 ways to bring fair housing to team meetings: by incorporating fair housing education into regular staff meeting, apartment professionals can ensure that the courtroom will not be their classroom.

Hardly anything in the apartment management industry doesn't revolve around some aspect of fair housing practices, and team meetings should be no exception. In fact, a parallel exists between successful apartment management and the frequency of onsite team meetings (note flint is frequency not length). And there is a parallel between well-informed teams and the number of customer service complaints.

The length of each meeting is not as important as the outcome of each meeting. An easy way to increase the frequency of team meetings but cut the length of each meeting is to conduct more "knowledge" meetings. These meetings are 10-minutes standup meetings. There are no chairs, no beverages, no cigarettes and no food. The purpose of these meetings is in disseminate information and work plans. These meetings can be held virtually anywhere anytime during the workday.

Including Fair Housing Topics in Team Meetings

1 When team members volunteer particular challenges or successes they experienced that week ask other team members in attendance what fair housing implications there might he.

2 When team members share the outcome of recent encounters with residents or future residents, ask others attending the rotating how federal, state or local fair housing laws influence how the situation was handled.

3 Distribute a fair housing crossword puzzle encompassing the basics prior to the meeting. Bring fun prizes for those with the most correct answers. Crossword puzzle software can be found for $10 or less.

4 Subscribe to the Fair Housing Coach newsletter by visiting www.brownstone.com. Each issue discusses one specific fair housing topic with helpful rules and quiz questions. It takes only a few minutes to review the 10 or fewer rules and questions included in each issue at a team meeting.

5 Subscribe to the Advisor newsletter by visiting www.fairhouse.net. Distribute one article to several team members and ask them to prepare to discuss the topic. Rotate reporting team members.

6 Visit www.fairhousing.com to see what has been happening locally. Print these and distribute one item to each team member attending the meeting. Ask them to discuss this information at the next meeting.

7 Ask team members to clip recent newspaper or magazine articles that deal with discrimination or diversity. Copy and distribute ahead of time for a short discussion.

8 It is helpful to post at each meeting the federal, state and local protected classifications.

9 Display the federal fair housing prohibitions and discuss one at each meeting (i.e., setting different terms, conditions or privileges).

10 Ask team members for ideas for fair" housing inclusion. Give fun prizes or time off for" great ideas.

11 Register your accessible apartment with NAA's National Accessible Apartment Clearinghouse. Details can be found on the NAA Web site, www.naahq.org, within the tab "Find An Accessible Apartment."

This is an ideal opportunity for free marketing, as there is no charge to list the community.

For interested residents, NAA will search the accessible apartment database of more than 70,000 specially designed apartments based on residents needs and desired locations.

Prospective residents then receive a list of all the accessible apartments in their geographical area of choice. The listings include the accessible features of each apartment community and individual apartment home.

12 Other helpful Web sites are www.apartments.about.com; www.consumerlawpage.com/brochure/ fair-hse.shtml and www.hud.gov. Local apartment associations may have other Web sites and resources.

Remember, once is not enough. At a minimum, fair housing strategies should be revisited with all team members annually. The courtroom should not be your classroom.

Shirley A. Robertson, CPM, is EHO and ADA Compliance Officer and Community Liaison with Southern Management Corp., Vienna, Va. She can be reached at [e-mail]