Philadelphia Metropolitan Chapter
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A Message from the President
James L. Klementisz, Jr., MAI, SRA
Happy summer to all! We made it through another long winter. I hope everyone is able to take some downtime this summer to enjoy time with family and friends.
In April, myself, along with
John Ciminera, Mike
Mignogna and Richard Wolf attended the Region VI meeting in Harrisburg. Lance Coyle was also in attendance and spoke about the state of the Appraisal Institute. Some interesting facts presented by Lance include:
The Candidate for Designation program has been a huge success with 984 new designations awarded in 2014 (up from 500 in both 2012 and 2013) and another 1,000 new designations projected for 2015. There are approximately 4,000 candidates.
Candidates are only replacing 77 percent of retirees
Even with the success of the candidate program, it is being projected that AI designees will decline by 50 percent in the next 10 years.
I will be attending the National AI conference in Dallas, Texas in July and will report back to the chapter in the 3rd Quarter newsletter.
Be on the lookout in the next month or two for an updated website. Sue Curran, Chairman of the PR Committee, has been putting in a lot of time to revamp and modernize the current site. Contact myself or Sue if you have any ideas on how we can improve the site.
On August 6, we will be having a joint membership meeting with the South Jersey and Delaware Chapters. The meeting will be held at McFaddens in South Philadelphia and will count for two hours of CE. The speaker at the meeting will be Stephen Mullin, President of Econsult Solutions, Inc. The meeting will begin at 10:00 A.M. and will be followed by the Phillies-Dodgers game at Citizens Bank Park.
We will be holding a golf outing at the Makefield Highlands Golf Club in Yardley, Bucks County on September 17. Craig Gleason has been putting together the details and our hope is to make this an annual event. If you have not done so already, contact Craig or Tiffany Lewis to reserve your spot. Also, we can always use volunteers. If you have time and would like to volunteers to assist with this event, please contact myself, Tiffany or Craig.
See below for more information on what is going on with the Chapter. As always, please feel free to contact me with any
questions, concerns or ideas as to how we can continue to better serve our Chapter, and the appraisal profession. Thanks again and I wish everyone a safe, relaxing, and PROFITABLE summer season.
2nd Quarter Board Meeting
The 2nd quarter Board of Directors meeting was held on May 14, 2015. Committee reports of note included:
Education- The Spring Seminar- Real Estate
Trends was a success for the chapter with an overwhelming attendance of 77 guests. The Chapter will continue to develop similar “homegrown” seminars in the future with up-to-date and relevant content.
Public Relations- Susanne Curran, Public Relations Chair has been hard at work on the back-end of the Chapter website, improving search engine optimization to draw more hits from a wider audience.
Government Relations: The Board approved an initial disbursement of allocated funds to the Coalition of Pennsylvania Real Estate Appraisers. The Coalition continues to be active in advocating for appraiser issues at the state level of legislation. To learn more or to support the CPREA financially, please visit www.cprea.org.
Board of Directors Meetings are open to the general membership. The next meeting is set for September 24 at 3 pm. Contact the Chapter for more information if you would like to attend.
Chapter Picnic and 2015 Elections
The annual Chapter Picnic was held on Wednesday, June 24 at Manufacturers’ Golf and Country Club. This year’s picnic did not feature continuing education and instead focused on presentations for our new designations and overall networking and socializing for our members. The first order of business was presenting the designations for our chapter members having recently earned their designations. Congratulations to all those receiving their designations.
Jerry McNamara, MAI, AI-GRS- Presented by Paul Quinn
Meghan Payne, MAI - Presented by Michael Lagreca, Paul Quinn
Susan Field, MAI - Presented by Albert Hughes
John Hosey, MAI- Presented by John Hosey
Carlo Batts, MAI- Presented by Jose Lopez
Blair Bates, MAI - Presented by Wayne Whitney
The 2015 Chapter Elections also took place. Congratulations to the new Chapter officers and Board of Directors members: President: Paul Quinn
Vice President: Trip Lukens Treasurer: Craig Gleason Secretary: Robert Lagreca New Directors:
David Arnoldi Bob Myers Christin Phillips
2015 Chapter Golf Outing
The Chapter will be hosting our Inaugural Golf Outing on September 17 at 12:30 pm at Makefield Highlands Golf Club in Yardley, PA. The Chapter has been gathering interest and will open official registrations shortly. Be on the lookout for email announcements.
A Day Out With The Phillies
The Philadelphia Metro. Chapter is teaming up with Southern NJ and Delaware to host a joint Chapter meeting/Continuing Education/Networking event on August 6, 2015 at Citizens Bank Park.
The schedule for the day is as follows: 9:30 am: Sign in
10 :00 am: Joint Chapter Meeting and CE Seminar Noon: Philadelphia Style Luncheon
1:05 pm: Game time! Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Registration fees cover the entire day! Contact Lisa Weiss, Executive Director of the Southern NJ Chapter at
Save The Date
Our next and final Chapter meeting of 2015 will be the annual Holiday Party on December 8, 2015 at the Sandy Run Country Club in Oreland, PA. Official invitations and registration will be announced in late October.
Leadership Development And Advisory Council
(LDAC)
Susanne M. Curran, MAI
On May 20 through 22, 2015, I served as a 3rd year participant and Team Leader at the Appraisal Institute’s annual Leadership Development and Advisory Council (LDAC) conference event in Washington DC. It was again a privilege to represent the Philadelphia AI Chapter at this national gathering that was also attended by current AI President Lance Coyle, MAI; immediate past President Ken Wilson, MAI; incoming 2016 President Scott Robinson, MAI; plus several other national leaders and 100 appraisers from all around the United States who are selected for their interest in rising into future leadership positions.
The group is addressed by several speakers in the opening session, and this year it was a pleasant surprise to listen to our own J. Brian O'Donnell, MAI speak on behalf of the AI Education Trust, of which he is a board member. Our LDAC Team comprised Ed Falkowski, SRA of our chapter, and Lana Lenovitz , MAI from the Maryland Chapter. Ed has compiled his first year impressions which are presented after these introductory comments. Our team also worked with the Pittsburgh team of Michael Leahy and Mark Smeltzer, SRA. Rounding out our local contingent were Joshua Garretson of the Southern NJ Chapter and James Meehan, MAI of the NJ Metro Chapter.
There are three main objectives of the annual LDAC meeting. First, each LDAC offers a unique opportunity to meet with other appraisers in four rotating sessions. In them, topics are set around which the group openly discusses business operation issues, asks questions, gives helpful tips and suggestions, and generally learns from others on how they attract potential candidates, market the designations, keep members coming to meetings, deal with clients, deal with education issues, etc. in a non-competitive environment. The three-year attendance cycle offers a special opportunity to get to know these far flung appraisers even better and gain colleagues and connections that would otherwise be next to impossible. Also, those of us on the East Coast gain an appreciation of the challenges faced by those in less populated areas for which attending a Chapter meeting means at least a 7 hour drive.
Second, the comments and ideas generated in the LDAC sessions feed directly into the national AI Strategic Planning Committee in its forward-looking planning to support the organization and the profession overall. Supplementing this information stream is direct interaction with a three-year span of national Presidents, who circulate through each day from breakfast to dinner and afterward, listening and talking with attendees.
The third and equally important purpose of LDAC is to strengthen national government relations. Attendees contact and meet directly with US Congressmen, Senators and their staff members on Capitol Hill, sitting down to discuss AI “talking points” on current legislation or pending bills which affect the appraisal profession. We also make ongoing contacts as “appraisal experts” available for consultation in the future.
Our two Pennsylvania teams coordinated calls for appointments and covered both the House and Senate buildings in the four-hour window for meetings. Thanks to Michael Leahy for helping on the Senate side and to Ed Falkowski for jumping in to make appointments with his local legislators. We were able to meet with the very professional staff aides for PA Senators Toomey and Casey, and PA Congressmen Rothfus, Murphy, and Costello. I was able to meet in person for the second time with Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick of my district in the Bucks County area, who has a keen interest in appraisal and real estate issues. A detailed explanation of the 2015 “talking points” are presented in Ed Falkowski’s comments which follow.
Another reason for these meetings is to keep actual appraisers in front of legislators, to supplement AI’s professional lobbying staff. This balances the Washington presence of many other real estate organizations which compete with us, and allows us to clarify our training and expertise in person, at the table in the legislator’s personal offices.
I would like to say thank you to the Philadelphia Chapter for selecting me to attend LDAC 2013 to 2015. In addition to gaining a tremendous amount of insight, representing our chapter, and learning about AI leadership opportunities, I met a bunch of great people and had a lot of fun. I look forward building on this experience by continuing to volunteer for the Chapter in the future. And thanks for Jim Klementisz, MAI , SRA for mentoring me during Year 1 and taking our group to “the Dubliner”.
Following Ed Falkowski’s comments are photos with our national leaders taken during LDAC 2015.
LDAC 2015
Ed Falkowski, SRA
For years I have read about the experiences of the attendees of LDAC and the wealth of positive ideas that have come from those past conferences. Many times I thought to myself: “If I ever had a chance to go then I would jump on it right away!” Therefore, when Jim Klementisz, MAI, SRA offered me the chance to attend LDAC on behalf of the Philadelphia Metro chapter, I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough. I knew that the trip would be well worth the wait and I’m glad to say that I was right. Also, even though I thought that I knew exactly what I was getting into, it was extremely helpful to have the help of Susanne Curran, MAI, a third year “LDACer”, to guide me throughout several stages of the conference. I owe a tremendous amount of thanks to Sue!
The brainpower that permeated throughout the conference and the discussion groups was nothing short of astounding. I had a chance to network with fellow valuation professionals from all over the country, all of whom were very generous with their ideas, experiences, and suggestions. The roundtable
discussions which were the majority of the conference were very helpful in generating new ideas to expand, improve and promote not only the Appraisal Institute, but the valuation profession as a whole.
As the Candidate Guidance Chair for our chapter, I found the ideas surrounding candidates and potential candidates especially intriguing. One heavily discussed topic was reaching out to students both at the collegiate and high school levels to introduce them to the valuation profession. A preponderance of the topic’s respondents noted that when college and high school students graduate, most of them are very unclear about the direction that their careers should take. However, most of them are heavily weighed down by student loan debt. It’s not terribly attractive to offer those students a job where you have to learn a profession where, in a majority of cases, their undergraduate studies probably did not focus heavily on real estate, valuation, real estate finance, etc. No one wants to start at the very bottom of the learning curve. Additionally, as we all know, the process of becoming a trainee and fully certified has become more difficult over years rather than easier. Therefore, if we could introduce these students to the valuation profession sooner rather than later in their scholastic times of their lives then it may be easier to attract them to full time positions upon graduation. This was just one of several topics discussed during LDAC, but one that I found particularly interesting. The second major focus of LDAC was the Congressional lobbying effort. We were tasked with presenting our AI position on two "talking points": maintaining the de minimus level for appraisals for residential loans ($250,000) and business loans ($1,000,000) as well as congressional monitoring of the plethora of local, state, national, client, and other regulations. A fundamental argument for not raising the de minimus level was: “Since the country is fresh off of a financial and real estate crisis, is it a prudent lending practice to relax the regulations regarding appraisals which help ensure that loans are properly collateralized?” Additionally, the various levels of regulations on appraisers can sometimes conflict with each other and can cause a dramatic amount of uncertainty in the valuation process, especially depending on the intended use. Our contingent, which consisted of Susanne Curran, MAI; Mark Smeltzer, SRA; Michael Leahy; Lana Lanovitz, MAI; and myself, participated in lobbying efforts with Congressmen Rothfus, Murphy, Fitzpatrick and Costello as well as Senators Toomey and Casey. Although we were not able to talk with all of the Congressional leaders directly, we found that their aids and staffers were extremely knowledgeable about the facts and salient points regarding our positions and felt that they
would accurately relay our concerns to the
Congressmen/Senators. Finally, it was very awe-inspiring to walk the same halls as those who help shape the direction of our great country on a daily basis while knowing that we were doing our part to make our country better!
Overall, it was my pleasure and my honor to represent the Philadelphia Metro chapter at LDAC and it is my hope to represent them again in the next two years. For those who have never been, I would highly recommend the LDAC experience and I promise that you will be amazed by the depths to which it “opens your eyes” to issues well over and above simply appraising real property. On a broader level, I encourage everyone in the chapter to become more involved either through LDAC, attending chapter meetings, volunteering for the various committees, or even submitting ideas/suggestions/etc. to help us improve! No amount of involvement is too small and all are welcome!
Pictured left to right: Ed Falkowski, SRA; 2016 AI President Scott Robinson, MAI; Susanne Curran, MAI.
Pictured left to right: Susanne Curran, MAI; Michael Leahy; Mark Smeltzer, SRA; Ed Falkowski, SRA; Lana Lenovitz, MAI.
Pictured left to right: Ed Falkowski, SRA; AI Immediate Past President Ken Wilson, MA; and Susanne Curran, MAI.
Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick R-Bucks Co., and Susanne Curran, MAI.
Upcoming Educational Offerings
October 6-11: Adv. Concepts and Case Studies Nov. 4-7: General Appraiser Income 1
Registration is available for all courses at the following site:
http://www.appraisalinstitute.org/educatio n/PhiladelphiaMetro/
Career Opportunities
Those looking for local positions in the appraisal field should always remember to check our Chapter
website for postings at
http://aiphilametro.org/jobs-listings/.
To post opportunities on the website, contact Tiffany Lewis with information about the position you have available ([email protected]).
2015 Officers and Directors
The following is a list of Chapter officers and Directors for this year.
President James Klementisz, Jr., MAI, SRA
Vice President Paul Quinn, MAI, AI-GRS
Treasurer Reaves C. “Trip” Lukens, MAI, SRA
Secretary Craig Gleason, MAI
Directors
Martin Anderson, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS Baker Bell, MAI, AI-GRS
John Crognale, MAI Susanne Curran, MAI Cathy Donley, MAI James Dougherty, SRA Erin Hannan, MAI Robert Myers, MAI
Donald J Reape, MAI, SREA
Immediate Past President: John B. Ciminera, SRA
