There's Still Time! Submit Your Nominations for ISA Awards

Libby Holloway, ISA CAPP
Awards Committee Chair

Thank you to all of you who have nominated fellow appraisers for ISA's 2018 Awards so far. I've been impressed to learn of the accomplishments of some of our members and can't wait to recognize everyone at Assets. There is still time this week to nominate others who deserve recognition for their achievements. You may also nominate chapters that have been examples of working together to build professionalism in their regions.

Award nominations are due by this Friday, January 26. You can submit your nominations via our online nomination form.

Though all the awards recognize special areas of service, I feel the Rising Leader award may be one of the most important. The involvement of new leaders is a sign of health in any organization. It has become an important feature of conference to recognize those among us who are just starting their businesses. With Ambassadors and instructors in place who are willing to guide new appraisers, it is easier than ever to start and maintain a successful practice. In this vein, I believe it is also very important to recognize the hard work of others as an example to those who are just starting out in this profession. Not only do they learn who has been successful in certain areas, and can give them tips toward their own success, but are inspired to reach for the same type of recognition.

Each one of our committee chairs puts a lot of volunteer time into keeping our organization running smoothly and adapting to our changing business climate. Please take the time to let us know about the achievements of your ISA colleagues.

This year, awards will be given in the following categories:

• Lamp of Knowledge - for a singular outstanding educational work product pertaining to the appraisal profession as a whole or in a specialty area.
• Leadership - awarded to a member in a leadership position for outstanding service above and beyond what is normally expected.
• Rising Leader - awarded to a member who is new to a leadership position for outstanding service above and beyond what is normally expected.
• Distinguished Service - awarded to members for outstanding achievements or participation in the appraisal profession.
• Chapter of the Year - one award for a chapter that is less than three years old and one for a chapter that is older than three years.
• Service - Awarded to two members who are outgoing in leadership positions in either Board Member of Committee Chair Positions.
• ISA Instructor Distinguished Service - for outstanding appraisal instructional achievements in and beyond the physical classroom.

You may make more than one nomination, but must revisit the form for each. Awards are given based on merit rather than frequency of nomination, so please be detailed when you are describing your nominee’s accomplishments.

We are now on a short countdown to our Assets 2018 conference in Pasadena. I’m looking forward to seeing long time friends and meeting many new ones. If you haven't already, be sure to register on the ISA website. With your help, I am also looking forward to helping recognize deserving ISA members for serving an organization that I'm proud to be a member of.

- Libby Holloway, ISA CAPP, is chair of the ISA Awards Committee

The Fine Art Specialty Tour at Assets 2018

Irene Szylinger, ISA AM

With the holidays behind us, I am getting very excited about our annual conference, Assets, coming up March 9-12 in Pasadena, California. Be sure to register if you haven't already! The specialty tours at Assets always provide a wonderful taste of our host city, and on our Fine Art tour in Pasadena on Friday, March 9, we will visit two outstanding institutions. There will be something for everyone when we view the art collections, grounds and libraries at the Huntington and the Norton Simon Museum.

The Huntington, where we will go first, has a long and respected reputation. Established by Henry E. Huntington in 1919, the institution is a non-profit educational and research-based complex comprising a library, art collection, and botanical gardens.

In the Library, the general public can view some of the finest rare books and manuscripts of Anglo-American civilization, including the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a Gutenberg Bible on vellum, the double-elephant folio edition of Audubon’s Birds of America, and a world-class collection of the early editions of Shakespeare’s works.

Thomas Lawrence,
Sarah Barrett Moulton: Pinkie (1794)

The Huntington's permanent art collections are displayed in three galleries while a fourth space is dedicated to changing exhibitions. The collections focus on European art from the 15th to the early 20th century and American art from the late 17th to the mid-20th century. The Huntington Art Gallery, originally the Huntington residence, contains one of the most comprehensive collections in the US of 18th and 19th century British and French art. It serves as home to Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy and Thomas Lawrence’s Pinkie.

After an orientation talk about the Huntington, we will be divided into groups. Each of the groups will have two fine art talks based on the vast Huntington collections. Afterwards, we will have some free time to visit parts of the collections on our own before we depart for lunch.

Thanks to ISA member Wendy Gerdau, lunch has been arranged at The Raymond, a charming restaurant in the craftsman architecture style filled with California plein-air art offering 4-star Zagat-rated cuisine. ISA Fine Art and AFDA members will have the exclusive use of the entire restaurant.

After lunch, we'll head to the Norton Simon Museum. The Norton Simon came into existence in 1941 as the Pasadena Art Institute before it merged with the Pasadena Museum of Art. In 1953, the Museum received nearly 500 artworks from the Scheyer estate, including works by German Expressionists Kandinsky, Klee, Jawlensky, Feininger and others. The gift not only included art works but an archive of correspondence with the artists. In the 1960s, the Museum added works by Larry Bell, Richard Diebenkorn, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

Norton Simon collections featuring
Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas

Norton Simon’s activity as a collector spanned more than 30 years and encompassed the purchase of more than 8,000 works of art during his lifetime. Today, the collection is comprised of about 12,000 objects, including the only painting by Raphael on the west coast, three portraits by Rembrandt, six superb paintings by Van Gogh, over one hundred works by Degas, an important collection of Indian and Southeast Asian sculpture that spans over 2500 years, and other superlative works.

At the Norton Simon we have a custom-designed tour of the Degas as Sculptor exhibition. Towards the end of the presentation, the exhibition’s curator, Emily Talbot, will address our whole group. While we are at the Norton Simon, we are free to visit the special Rembrandt exhibition as well as the permanent collections on view.

I can't wait to see all of you at Assets!

Irene Szylinger, ISA AM, is a specialist in American, Canadian and European art from the 19th century to the present. She spent over twenty-five years working in museums and art galleries, and is now principal of an arts management and appraisal business as well as a provider of Public Art Commissions. She has been an accredited member of ISA since 1997.

New Year is Time for New ISA Report Checklist

Meredith Meuwly, ISA CAPP
Director of Education

Happy New Year! The Education team and I wish everyone a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2018.

With the new year, it is new USPAP time. Everyone should now be writing to the USPAP 2018-2019 Edition, even if you have not taken the class. All appraisers are responsible for knowing and implementing the new USPAP changes that were effective on January 1 of this year. The manuals are available for sale in hard copy and electronic versions at The Appraisal Foundation’s website. If you haven't already, please review ISA’s upcoming schedule of USPAP classes and register today. We are offering classes online as well as special in-person sessions, including one coming up later this month in Dallas, Texas.

Also new for 2018, the Education team and I have updated the ISA Report Checklist for Appraisal and Restricted Appraisal Reports.

Download the ISA Report Checklist (PDF)

This January 2018 Checklist has a few updates in the hope of streamlining and clarifying the information necessary for your reports to be written to the current ISA Appraisal Report Writing Standard. We do realize the that the ISA Appraisal Report Writing Standard is very comprehensive and exceeds that of USPAP standards. As the largest professional personal property appraisal association, our members are the most highly trained and rigorously tested. We are proud that we hold ourselves to the highest standards.

A few of the important updates on the 2018 ISA Report Checklist include:

• (#12) We added that a citation for the definition of cost or value should be included in your report for every cost or value, not just fair market value. If there is no federal, state/province, or local regulation or law to cite, then you can cite the Core Course in Appraisal Studies manual as the source for your definition. The newly revised January 2018 edition will shortly be available for purchase on the ISA website.
• (#16) When describing the appropriate market for the intended use of your appraisal, we added the level of the market to the checklist. We know that occasionally there could be multiple markets that appropriate for the property being appraised. Thus, when there are multiple markets, it is important to identify the one you chose and why to show that you have selected the most appropriate market for the most common use of the property.
• (#24) The USPAP certification statement has been condensed into one check box. We highly recommend inserting the statement directly from USPAP Standards Rule 8-3, then editing the statement as applicable to your assignment. The phrases in parentheses mean that you should choose one or the other phrase as applicable to your assignment. You should also include the year of the current USPAP Standard.
• (#31) You should make sure to include any specific extraordinary assumptions and/or limiting conditions that are applicable to your assignment. You should also include a statement that if any assumption made is found to be false, then it could alter your opinions or conclusions. This will help your client understand your report more clearly.
• (#38) The "Qualified Appraiser" statement is the same as the "Pension Protection Act" statement that was included on the 2016 Checklist. As it is now more commonly known as the "Qualified Appraiser" statement, we updated the verbiage. See 2018 Core Course manual L12-14 for sample language on how to include it in your report.
• Other minor clerical edits for consistency and clarity.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or one of your instructors if you should have any questions regarding the new checklist. You can also register now for the free Office Hours with the Director of Education webinar to be held on January 30, where I will be answering questions about the new checklist and reviewing common mistakes the Education team sees when reviewing appraisals of all levels.

I hope to see everyone at Assets in Pasadena, California, March 9-12. You won’t want to miss it.

- Meredith Meuwly, ISA CAPP

ISA Director of Education