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President's Message
President' Message

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Linda Powers was unable to fill the position as Chapter President this year. I was installed as the interim president on January 31st and the chapter members elected me as President at the Chapter meeting in April. I appreciate your support. 


I would like to thank Linda for her hard work and dedication to this Chapter, and for her service as Treasurer, Secretary and Vice President over the past 4 years. She has been involved with the Chapter for much longer than these 4 years and is an invaluable resource. She volunteered her services again, and the Chapter members elected her as 2015 Secretary/Treasurer at the April meeting. 


I would like to assure everyone that the leadership is intact and there were very few problems with this transition. I was looking forward to being Vice President this year, but have received plenty of guidance and help from everyone on the Board, and am sure that I can serve as President with a reasonable amount of competency. I would like to thank everyone for their help, but especially Robin Stiles, SRA, Ron Alfred, MAI, Neal Hurley, SRA, Mike Dry, MAI, and Ruth Kelton. 


Financially, the chapter is in reasonable shape, and we finished the year in the black. Of course, the primary income source for the Chapter is education and this would not be possible without the support from our members. I have also seen a number of new faces from outside of the Appraisal Institute membership at the education programs, and this can be attributed to the quality of education that we offer. The Appraisal Institute national leadership has recognized the importance of education to the appraisal profession, and has announced a new education initiative to expand delivery of education to non-Appraisal Institute members and college students. This new promotion promises to educate other appraisal professionals about the quality of Appraisal Institute education, which in turn, increases appraisal competency across the board. This national initiative should increase enrollment in Chapter as well as nationally sponsored educational opportunities. 


On the legislative front, Richard Hix informed me that the Realtors made a last ditch push and successfully removed some of the BPO language from the Real Estate Appraiser Act. This is a serious blow to the appraisal profession in the state of New Mexico. This demonstrates that there is a concerted effort to undermine the appraisal profession and allow Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) to be used for loan origination. The AMC act is in place and has language in it that does not allow BPOs to be used for loan origination. However, the 2015 legislative session promises to be extremely important since the Realtors and AMC's are already working to remove this language from the AMC act. 


I urge all appraisers to join the New Mexico Appraiser Coalition (http://nm-ac.org/) to help combat this effort. The Rio Grande Chapter has provided substantial funds in the past, but we alone cannot compete with the deep pockets that the Realtors and AMC's have. It is now up to the individual appraiser to step up and join the fight to save our profession, and help stave off another financial crisis that will be due to inappropriate valuations of real estate. 


I would like to congratulate Marc Beatty, who is our newest MAI designee. He was presented his designation certificate at the last Chapter meeting in January. Way to go Marc!!


On a sad note, Oscar E. Kunkel, SRA (Pete) passed away on Friday, January 31. Pete had a long history of service with the Appraisal Institute. He served at all levels within the Chapter, including Chapter President. He also served on several National committees, and was originally awarded the RM designation which he later converted to the SRA designation.


I look forward to an exciting year as President and would like to thank everyone that has volunteered to serve as a board member, officer, or on a committee. The Chapter cannot function without these dedicated professionals.  I ask every Designated Member, Candidate, and Practicing Affiliate to set aside some time to volunteer for the Chapter. It does not take a significant amount of time, and you can be involved in improving our profession for all appraisers, as well as the general public. 

Chris Thomson, SRA