Greetings everyone! What a successful year it has been for our Chapter as we have accomplished so much TOGETHER! I must start out by thanking this year’s leadership team. When you have a team of forward thinkers with a shared vision, all working together on the same page, they become unstoppable. This belief resonated from the group that served this year. A big thank you to Suzanne Brockway for bringing our ideas to life! Suzanne, you are a great friend, mentor, and make our roles and accomplishments so much easier. Thank you so much!

The focus of this year’s team was to provide educational and social opportunities for members, and I commend them on their successful efforts. One of the new educational opportunities this year was the State of Georgia seminar held via Zoom. While the State of Atlanta has been a phenomenal event for the past 23 years, this team was eager to also create an opportunity for Appraisal Institute members across the state. Our Chapter partnered with the Savannah Area Chapter and a team of AI members from across the state was created to develop State of Georgia. The amount of positive feedback from this seminar was incredible!

State of Atlanta continues to be the highlight event of our Chapter and this year was no different. Thank you to this year’s Chair, Patrick Adamson, MAI, SRA, for making this event once again a premier opportunity for education and networking. A highlight this year was having the Appraisal Institute’s National President Craig Steinley, MAI, SRA, and the Appraisal Institute’s new CEO Cindy Chance in attendance.

In addition to State of Georgia and State of Atlanta, our Chapter provided a variety of in-person and Zoom educational offerings by some of the Appraisal Institute’s most sought-after instructors.

Our Chapter offered Candidates for Designation a comprehensive exam study session this year. Thank you to Andy Sheppard, MAI, for putting this together and hosting. Also, thanks to Matt Albigese, MAI, Chris Calhoun, MAI, Chris Farrell, MAI, and Keith Nelson, MAI, for taking part and offering support to the Candidates. We recently received an email from one of the Candidates in attendance who stated he has since passed the comp and attributes the session to helping!

Our Chapter was extremely well-represented at the Appraisal Institute’s Leadership Development Advisory Council (LDAC) in Washington, DC. David Griffin, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS, Rick Kenny, MAI, SRA, and Peter Lamas, MAI, all had strong showings during the breakout sessions. I was fortunate enough to serve as a Discussion Leader this year and was blown away at the number of people from across the country that approached me with so many positive comments about the activity of our Chapter. Many of them stated that they observe our Chapter for ideas to implement into their own. We set a standard! So be proud of yourselves for all you do to make that happen!

For social opportunities this year, we started with an outing at Scofflaw’s Brewery at The Works. A big thank you to John McCullough for organizing this event! We also had a well-attended outing at an Atlanta Braves game, in which our Chapter had 40 attendees. Thank you to David Chamberlain, MAI, AI-GRS, for making that event happen! A new social opportunity this year was our first ever Bass Fishing Tournament at Piedmont Driving Club. Thanks to Lamar Ellis, MAI, SRA, John Cherry, MAI, and Mike Hunter, MAI, for putting this great event together! Most recently we had a ladies’ happy hour and dinner with about 20 in attendance, including the Appraisal Institute’s new CEO, Cindy Chance. Thank you to Suzanne Brockway for making this event happen!

As you can tell, we have had a tremendous year thanks to all who pitched in. I am so excited about the upcoming leadership for this Chapter and cannot wait to see what the future holds for us! While I am grateful for the leadership team and all their hard work in creating so many educational and social opportunities for our members, these events are not possible without support from the membership. So thank you for making these events so successful. 

I was recently reminded that we have only one life on this earth. Each and every one of us…that’s all we get. Question is, how are we going to live it? Are we going to make a positive difference? We all have that power deep inside; we just have to find it, believe it, and take action. I urge each of you to get involved and make a difference! Whether it be in your home, your office, your church, your community, this Chapter, or AI National. I promise you, the rewards of giving back and making a positive difference are incredible.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve as Chapter President this year. From the bottom of my heart, I am extremely grateful, and it has truly been an honor.

Sincerely,

Bo Bass, MAI

2023 Chapter President