Positive Changes Made Possible Thanks to Hundreds of Hours of Hard Work!

I am responding to the most recent Blog where the writer wrote about how much ISA has changed and is changing. Since I joined in 2008, I have noticed enormous changes all for the better. ISA has gone from being one of the three top appraisal organizations to the personal property appraisal organization of choice, with many member driven benefits and support.

 I would like to publicly thank all of the selfless hardworking and committed ISA members who have made the CHANGES in our organization possible. I say “selfless, hardworking, and committed ISA members” because without the hours and hours of volunteer efforts put forth by ordinary members who run successful businesses, have families and lives, and activities in other organizations, the changes we have all witnessed and enjoyed in the last five years wouldn’t have been possible. These changes haven’t happened because everyone “just didn’t do much –or haven’t done anything”.

So thank you -and you know who you are- (the list of names is much too long to list individually) for:

• The many hours devoted to developing continuing educational opportunities for all ISA members through classes, webinars, the new online learning systems which are about to be launched, the very informative speakers that are booked for conference each year and special study opportunities. 
• Three cheers for the volunteers on the Designation and Review Committee who help us to get our CAPP! 
• A very special thank you to our members who serve on the Foundation for Appraisal Education and all they do to help support the educational needs of ISA. 
• A big thank you to all of those involved with conference every year! What is essentially a fun and educational 3 day get-away for most of us, is a year- long gut wrenching planning event for a few. Conference attendees have no idea how much work goes into planning what seems like a seamless and wonderful event. There are thousands of moving parts - trust me. If you have never been to a conference, you are missing out on one of ISA’s best benefits! 
• How about applause for all of those members who put in many hours of their spare time initiating programs that benefit all of us as members? In this last year we have seen a major overhaul of our ISA website, “Find an Appraiser”, a national advertising campaign that promotes ISA and its members to the public at large and target those who use appraisal services. Not only do we have professional ads now being placed in targeted media but we also have templates for members to customize and use in their own marketing. We also have a new program inviting major non-appraising businesses who are appraisal related to join our organization. This collaboration can only benefit all involved. 
• What about our new mentoring program? Don’t you wish when you were starting out that you could mentor with a seasoned appraiser to learn the ropes? I don’t ever remember a time in ISA when there were so many initiatives being launched that directly benefited its members. 

So who is making all these great changes? It’s the ISA members who realize how much ISA has done for them as appraisers both in personal development and professionally with their businesses. It’s the members who appreciate the organization, want to say thank you and step up to the plate to take their turn at “paying back” and keeping our great momentum forward going.

So thank you to all of you who have made these changes possible! You know who you are. A big pat on the back for all the thankless hours that we all enjoy but sometimes forget to say THANK YOU!

Submitted By:
Christine Guernsey, ISA CAPP
ISA Board of Directors, Secretary and former Fine Art Chair