I would like to thank those who were able to attend the President's Night at Lombardos on January 14th. We had over 50 members and guests. Richard Dennis, MRA, swore in the new officers and board members. There were nine past-presidents in attendance. They were thanked for all their time and support and recognized individually. Most of the board of trustee members were also in attendance. The new board members are John Easton, MRA & Bill Pastuszek, MRA. The new vice president is Stephen Dunn, RA, the new treasurer is Russell Harris and our new clerk is Gregory Accetta, MRA. After handing our new past president, Peter Vadala, his gavel and a gift certificate, I shared some memories of my experiences with the MBREA.
Over the last two weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet with the marketing and membership committee, the expo and programs committee, the education committee and the designation committee. All have them have laid out their goals for 2010.
Marketing and membership committee, chaired by Ellen McDonald, plans to build upon their very successful 2009 goals. They hope to maintain our current membership and add new members each month. Some of the other goals include having a presence at local trade shows, offering free member workshops, and looking for more sponsors for the 2010 Expo.
The expo & programs committee has a new chair this year, Paul Sullivan. Sullivan is fresh with new ideas and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the MBREA. I would like to thank the former chairman, Lane Nordquist, and his committee members for all of their time. Last year's expo and breakfasts with the experts were well attended and educational. Sullivan and the committee have planned four breakfasts with the experts for this year. They will also be planning for our annual expo in the fall. They are looking for topics for these events and welcome any suggestions.
The designation committee also has a new chairman, Richard Goulet, MRA. Goulet is a long time member of the MBREA, a current board of trustees member and a past president. His committee met to review the current members who have begun the process of getting their RA or MRA designations. Each committee member has been assigned one or more of the candidates. The committee plans to contact these members to discuss their progress. We have a common goal to have all board of trustees members designated by the end of the year.
The education committee has a new chairman, Greg Accetta, MRA. Accetta has taken over this committee from our new vice president, Steve Dunn, RA. I thank Dunn for his work with the committee during the past year. Dunn's committee discussed plans to develop new courses and to look for new instructors. We recognize the need for having both on-line and classroom courses to meet all of our members needs. Our new, smaller classroom is almost ready. The committees goal is to offer a quality product at the right price for those taking our courses. The committee plans to work with the expo and programs committee to bring to the members the best and most topical breakfast and expo subjects.
The MBREA will keep you on top of and aware of what is happening now and what is coming around the corner. If you have not set up your profile on My MBREA Online, do it today. It takes less than five minutes to be in touch with your fellow members.

Gary Minnehan, RA, is the 2010 president of MBREA and president at Affiliated Appraisal, Abington, Mass.