Garrett Goldfield, ASA
San Diego Chapter President

This has been an eventful 2009 for the San Diego chapter and 2010 promises to be even better. We have taken a deep look at our chapter and with your feedback we are making meaningful improvements. I would like to highlight some of the important changes that we have made, and I would like to thank all those members who are contributing to make the San Diego chapter a better organization.

We are moving to the Holiday Inn!

Based on member feedback, we evaluated new venues for us to hold our monthly meetings. While the King’s Inn has served our needs to this point, members have made it clear that cost and the quality of the venue are very important. We want a venue that not only provides us with a comfortable room, but we also need it to be in a good location and at a reasonable cost. For that reason we are moving to the recently renovated Holiday Inn San Diego. They have agreed to meet all of our needs at a very reasonable price. We will hold our January USPAP 2010 updates meeting there as a test run. Believe it or not but we have negotiated a meeting with dinner for $25 per member, this is quite a savings from our current rate of $35. One of our big goals for the year is to reduce costs for our members and it looks like we are already successful!

Another area we are concentrating on is bringing content to our monthly meetings that you care about. Based on the member survey we sent out a few months ago, we discovered that you wanted presentations on general appraising topics that can help you stay up-to-date with appraisal changes and also presentations on how grow your businesses effectively. We listened. We have created a slate of programs for you this year that focus on business growth, new USPAP regulations and discussions of how appraisers really work out in the field. I would like to thank Natasha Martinez and the program committee for their work on securing meaningful content for us. Program Committee: Bill Kasper, JR Westfall, George Lebaron, Jo Ellen Cole, Kathi Jablonsky, Christian Haven and Carl Sheeler. Special thanks for Paul Golubovs for helping to identify joint meetings between ASA and FCA.

We have also been slowly altering our meeting format to better use the time we have allotted to us each month. New this year, we are providing announcements, updates, and current events during the first hour of our meetings. Please let me know each month if there are current events that you think members of our chapter would be interested in.

Unfortunately, Greg Tesone has had to step down from his post as Secretary of our chapter. We want to thank Greg for all his work to improve our chapter. In his place, Kathi Jablonsky will take over the duties of Secretary for the remainder of the 2009/2010 term. Thank you Kathi, for giving your time and energy for the benefit of our chapter.

Finally I would like to acknowledge our current officers (Rick Engstrom, Christine Jones, Pamela Bensoussan, and Georgie Stillman) who have been devoting considerable amounts of their time to identify problem areas and have put in efforts to fix those problems. There are many areas that need improving and for a while this will be a work in progress.

Thank you and I look forward to 2010,

Garrett Goldfield
San Diego ASA Chapter President

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Our next 3 months of programming are:

• December 8, 2009 – Fakes & Forgeries. An overview of selected forgeries and forgers from the last 500 years. Presented by Mr. John Digesare, Registrar of the San Diego Museum of Art.
• January 20, 2010 – USPAP 2010 - Updates and Changes.  Are you in Compliance?  Presented by John S. Brenan from the Appraisal Foundation.
• February 17, 2010 – Marketing Your Business.  Tips for Growing a Personal Business.  Presented by Susan Almon Pesch. (www.market4profit.com)
• March 9, 2010 – Hard Drives & AB 5 – What can’t be hidden technically and legally. A presentation addressing what every Testifying Expert should at least be aware of  regarding the subpoena of their electronic files. Presented by James Sevel an expert in data retrieval (inter alia) from computers (what can't be hidden technically) and Janae Long  a paralegal ( what can't be hidden legally). Note: This is a joint meeting with FCA at their location (Sizzler on Tuesday March 9th).

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: Your ideas and expertise are needed.

There are multiple initiatives that we are trying to implement this year but we cannot accomplish it without your help. One area we hope you will contribute to is writing articles for our website. We want to keep the website fresh and useful for all of our members and we would love to include your ideas and expertise. Could you write a brief article for us to post on our website? Do you have appraisal news or information that would be valuable to our members? Why not write it up and increase your visibility within our chapter and to your clients. Take a look and see what others have written if you are not sure where to begin: http://www.sandiegoappraisers.org/article-results.php.  We will not ask you for more time than you can spare as we try to make this chapter a resource that is valuable to you and your business. Please contact Garrett Goldfield for more information.

For details about the ASA San Diego Chapter, contact information for Chapter Officers or to locate/contact an ASA designated appraiser to meet your needs, please visit our web site at SanDiegoAppraisers.org or call 1-619-781-8588.