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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Results are In


We are pleased to announce the results of the 2012 ISA Board of Directors Election. Three positions were available this year and we are delighted to welcome two new Members as well as a re-elected Member.

Congratulations to ISA’s two newest incoming Board members:

Christine Guernsey, ISA CAPP (Colleyville, TX)
Karen Rabe, ISA CAPP (Tucson, AZ)

and to returning Board member:

Libby Holloway, ISA CAPP (Beaufort, SC)


Thank you to all the members who participated in this important process by taking the time to submit your votes.  Also, special thanks to the three local Chicago area members, Ellen Kornhauser, ISA CAPP, GG, Kim Morrison, ISA AM and Cathy Peters, ISA CAPP for coming into the ISA office to supervise the ballot counting process.

Christine, Libby and Karen will become officially seated at the next ISA Board of Directors meeting on October 27 in Chicago. Officer elections will take place at that time, with results to be announced shortly thereafter.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Generosity of Others


We would like to send a big thank you to the following local Chicago area ISA members, who generously gave up a portion of their Monday afternoon to come into ISA headquarters and count election ballots.

Ellen Kornhauser, ISA CAPP, GG
Kim Morrison, ISA AM
Cathy Peters, ISA CAPP

Thank you, for helping to make this process run so smoothly and efficiently!

Be sure to check out next week’s blog post for the results of 2012 ISA Board of Directors election.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

What’s in a Profile?


I was recently talking with Tom Helms, ISA CAPP about our new website. Tom, who is a strong marketer, felt the new website was an excellent new tool for our members, yet in our discussion we also felt many ISA members were not taking full advantage of all offered options.  The new ISA website can assist our members in marketing their appraisal practices and gaining new clients.  According to our website analytics, the ISA website is getting nearly 30,000 total page views per month, with 6,000 coming to the ISA home page, and 2,700 moving on to the Find an Appraiser page.

The new website has been active since January and the responses from most ISA members, as well as non-members have been extremely positive.  Just the other day at the outstanding Foundation for Appraisal Education/Quinn’s seminar, an ASA appraiser mentioned how she liked the new ISA website and particularly liked the easy “Find an Appraiser” search functionality.

The latest site options which enhance an appraiser’s online profile and ability to gain new clients include the profile pages, the member spotlight, and news.  When we had the new ISA website designed, one of the main interests of the board was to not only promote ISA but to enhance the accessibility and profiles of our member appraisers. After all, ISA has many of the best personal property appraisers, and we wish for all website visitors to be aware of this and to easily locate them through our search function.

When developing the online member database and profile pages we wanted to make the search as accessible and easy as possible for the end user.  On the home page is a simple appraiser search box by location and key word.  But that is only half of the equation; once the visitor/potential client searches, and a list of appraisers is returned, the selection process begins. Information listed in the member profile area may make the difference between making contact with a potential client or not.

Have you updated your profile with an image, links to your website, LinkedIn profile or Facebook page?  Have you completed the bio section, and are you aware of the ability to include hotlinks and even some minor HTML code to enhance your profile page?  Visit your profile page to ensure all of your contact information is updated and correct. List multiple contact points such as phone, cell, website, email etc.  Many members have updated their profile pages, while unfortunately many have not. If you have not done so, you are probably running at a disadvantage to those who have.  If you have not updated your ISA online profile, I recommend you search through some member profiles that have been updated with images, links, contact information and HTML and compare.  If you have not updated your ISA member profile for the Find and Appraiser search, you might wish to ask yourself the question, if you had the option to call between two appraisers, one with an incomplete profile, and one with a complete listing taking advantage of all of the options, listing information, hotlinks, etc. who would you call?

The Member Spotlight function is a text box in the member profile area and when completed will place your content and image on a random rotating basis on the ISA home page as well as many of the secondary pages of the website.  It is easy to do, just type a few short sentences into the Member Profile test box on the members profile background page and save, and the website does the rest.  Imagine many of the 6,000 visitors to the ISA home page seeing your image and specialty area and clicking through to your full profile.  Again, this function of the website was developed to promote our member appraisers, it is free and is available with your membership at the ISA, ISA AM, and ISA CAPP levels.

Under the News tab there are four options, ISA News, Member News, Member Updates and the Calendar.  The news tab was also developed to promote ISA members.  The Member News page contains special news about our appraisers. Currently listed are member’s accomplishments and media notes and publicity.  We have news about new jobs, profiles in the media, videos, and lectures by our members.  I encourage ISA members (and don’t be modest) who have newsworthy achievements to submit to ISA staff for posting on the website.  Additionally, if you have a blog or newsfeed you would like to promote on the Members News Feeds page, please send the link to ISA staff.  We currently have 6 blog feeds, but can accommodate many more

The overall website is seeing nearly 30,000 total page views per month, the ISA homepage is averaging around 6,000 views per month, and perhaps more importantly, nearly 2,700 of those monthly visitors click through to the Find and Appraiser search.  With those types of numbers (and it is the ISA board’s desire to keep the visitor numbers growing), can you afford not to have a current and updated member profile on the ISA website?

Please feel free to contact me or ISA staff member Tom Radde at tradde@thesentergroup.com, if you have any questions about updating your profile on the ISA website.

Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP
President, ISA Board of Directors

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

How to win a free registration for Assets 2013


ISA is currently holding a contest for members.  How do you win? Encourage your fellow colleagues and friends to sign up for any of the upcoming fall courses.Then have them include your name in the “Referred by” field, when they complete an online registration.  The ISA member with the most referrals will receive a free registration to Assets 2013: April 12-15 in Chicago, IL.

Disclaimer:
No limit to referrals.  Registrant must attend the course for the member referral to count. Only one conference registration will be awarded to the ISA member with the highest number of referrals.  In the event of a tie the award will be decided by a drawing.  Winner announced by December 1, 2012. All members of ISA are eligible to participate.