Spring has arrived! Yes, I said it. No more false starts, no more snow storms and no more scraping windshields. The Red Sox are back, the Marathon kicks off the tourist season and the Magnolias bloom. What's not to like.
Spring is a time of growth after a long dormant winter. This is a great time to execute on those professional goals you set back in the winter.
Candidates, take some time to plan your education for the year. Contact your advisor to discuss a logical next step. Your chapter has a plethora of offerings and resources available to help you on your road to designation. Don't miss the candidates session prior to the April 15 chapter meeting in Dedham.
Trainees, we are offering courses for the basic appraisal package including the 15 Hour USPAP (April 10/11, Quincy) and Basic Appraisal Procedures (May 15/16 & 22/23, Quincy). Dates and location specifics are on our website.
Continuing education, we've got a number of exciting offerings starting with our spring chapter meeting on April 15. We are offering the following full day seminars in the near future; Litigation Assignments for Residential Appraisers on April 24 and Self Storage Economics on May 28. These are great opportunities to enhance your expertise and catch up on some CE hours. Check them out and sign up on the website.
On the government front. House Bill 3918 has been introduced by the governor's office. This bill seeks to correct the disciplinary action placed on some appraiser's records due to misconceptions regarding the USPAP cycle back in 2011. I urge all of you to contact your state legislators to voice support for this bill. The damage of the disciplinary action and blemish on appraiser records needs to be reversed. Do the right thing. Send a message to your legislator in support of this bill.
I take the liberty here to quote Section 43.
SECTION 43. Notwithstanding any general or special law or rule or regulation to the contrary, a licensed or certified real estate appraiser or a real estate appraisal trainee who timely completed, in accordance with the requirements of the Appraisal Qualifications Board of the Appraisal Foundation, the 7-hour national Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal update course before the effective date of this act and was the subject of disciplinary proceedings by the board of real estate appraisers prior to May 26, 2011 for failure to complete the continuing education requirements of section 184 of chapter 112 of the General Laws shall have that disciplinary action rescinded and permanently removed from the appraiser or appraisal trainee's record. Nothing in this act shall be construed to establish a cause of action by any such real estate appraiser or trainee against the board of real estate appraisers or the division of professional licensure related to any such disciplinary action.
Want some exciting news? Your public relations committee has begun to implement a social media initiative. We developed a Facebook page. Yes, you read it correctly. You can now follow current chapter events, national AI issues, government topics and more through social media. The site is up and we'll be enhancing it over the next few months. Check us out! Facebook.com/pages/Massachusetts and Rhode Island Chapter of the Appraisal Institute.
That's all for now. See you at a chapter meeting!
Joseph Comperchio, SRA, is the 2014 president of the Mass. & R.I. chapter of the Appraisal Institute, and works for commercial banking at Chase, Boston, MA.