On August 22nd, I, along with regional representatives Barrie Gaman, MAI, Zach Bowyer, Karen Hanlon, MAI, and Ken Dicks, MAI, attend the 2011 AI regional meeting that was held in conjunction with the Appraisal Institute conference in Las Vegas. Below are some excerpts from the report I submitted:
Membership:
As of August 2011, the Massachusetts Chapter has a total of 429 members, making it one of the largest chapters in the Northeast region.
Chapter meetings:
The chapter held two of its four membership meetings through August. In January, we held annual Economic Outlook and Real Estate Trends program and had approximately 80 attendees. In April, the chapter held its Spring Meeting where over 40 members attended the LIA Administrators Insurance program. The chapter has three more chapter generated program including our Annual Appraisers Expo and our Annual Investment Market Outlook program.
Education and Seminars:
In 2011, the Massachusetts Chapter will offer a total of 24 courses and seminars. This is in addition to the five chapter-developed programs. Highlights in our 2011 schedule included the chapter offering the new Advanced Income Capitalization course in May.
Upcoming offerings include:
* The Uniform Appraisal Dataset from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - August 24th
* Business Practices and Ethics -September 15th
* General Appraiser Sales Comparison Approach - September 21st - 24th
* 7-Hour National USPAP Update Course September 28th
* General Appraiser Site Valuation & Cost Approach October 26th - 29th
* Advanced Spreadsheet Modeling for Valuation Applications October 27th - 28th
* Appraisal Curriculum Overview (1-day Residential) - November 3rd
* Appraisal Curriculum Overview (2-day General)- November 3rd - 4th
* Analyzing the Effects of Environmental Contamination on Real Property - November 14th
* 7-Hour National USPAP Update Course - December 1st
Hewitt Scholarship Fund
The chapter's, Hewitt Scholarship Fund continues to offer associate members an opportunity to apply for up to a $500 scholarship to help defray the costs completing the demonstration report.
Scholarships are available as follows:
* $350 to cover the cost of the application fee of either the MAI or SRA demonstration appraisal report
* $500 toward the course fee for the Appraisal Institute's General Demonstration of Knowledge Appraisal Report Workshop (to be offered in April 2010 in Massachusetts)
* $500 toward the course fee for the Appraisal Institute's Residential Demonstration Appraisal Report 45 hour package.
* $500 towards the course fee of the Online General Demonstration Report Alternative (known as the E-Demo)
Emerging Leaders Group
The Emerging Leaders Committee continues to be a great resource for our Chapter. Over the summer, the group hosted an AI after hours social event at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston, MA.

I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on September 23rd at the Federal Reserve Building in Boston.
Mike Tarello, MAI, ASA, MRA, is the 2011 president of the Mass. chapter of the Appraisal Institute, and senior appraisal analyst/appeals manager at Vision Appraisal Technology, Northboro, Mass.