HIGHER GROUND
A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE NEW
AMO CODE OF ETHICS Earning the AMO Accreditation
is just as important as maintaining it

JACK STAFFORD, CPM (JACKS@ MERIDIAN-GROUPREM. COM), IS SENIOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SUPERVISOR AT MERIDIANGROUP REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT, AMO, IN SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.

AS A SEVENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD ORGANIZATION that has had to adapt and evolve with the times, IREM has maintained its solid ethical foundation to this day. The IREM Code of Professional Ethics was last updated on January 1, 2007; however, at that time the Ethics and Discipline Committee chose not to address the AMO Code.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

In 2009, a workgroup was formed from members of the Membership Committee and the Ethics and Discipline Committee to begin the AMO Code revie w. It was determined that the simplest way to review the Code was by separating it into two distinct documents: Ethical practices and ethical standards. Together, these documents constitute the highest ethical standards in the real estate industry.

There were many challenges in creating the
new AMO Code. At the heart of the discussion
was the very concept of what constitutes an
AMO Firm and what the requirements of an
Executive CPM should be. Some asked how
an Executive CPM of a large company with
potentially hundreds of employees and many
branch offices could be held accountable for the
ethical behavior of each person in their company.
Ultimately, it was decided that earning the
Accredited Management Organization
(AMO) accreditation is just as important as
maintaining it, and that the accountability does,
in fact, rest in the hands of the Executive CPM.

CREATING A CULTURE OF ETHICS Ultimately, the new Code is just a piece of paper unless it is put into practice: Executive CPM Members must understand and embrace the new Code and work it into their corporate culture. Remember that every employee of an AMO Firm, whether or not they are an individual member of IREM, is under the umbrella of and subject to the AMO Code of Professional Ethics. n