2013 Fall Newsletter

NAVIGATING THE RAPIDS IN TURBULENT TIMES: A GRAND VISION

An IAAO Conference Update from FCIAAO Attendee The 79 th Annual International Conference on Assessment Administration (IAAO) was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 25-28 th . A number of your fellow FCIAAO board members attended including President Nick Nikkinen, Vice Presidents Alice Weinberg and Todd Finlayson, Directors Tracy Drake and Brian Loughrey, and Representative Dorothy Jacks. A number of other non- board FCIAAO members also navigated the rapids.

Alice Weinberg

Some very exciting news for Florida occurred at the Tuesday morning Awards Ceremony; your Florida Chapter was again awarded the prestigious “Chapter of the Year Award”. This award is “presented to an IAAO chapter or affiliate organization that has made an outstanding contri- bution to the IAAO mission”. Your board annually submits the lengthy submission for review. Our chapter has been the proud recipient 15 times – rumor is they might re-name it the “Florida Award”. (Of course that rumor was started by your representatives!!!!). We wish to extend our sincere appre- ciation to Director Justin Edwards (Putnam County) for his hard work compiling, organizing and sub- mitting all of the required documentation for the award. Other exciting news this year is that we submitted an application to be considered for the John A. Zangerle Award; “presented in recognition of an outstanding periodical or publication of an assessors’ association, an IAAO chapter, or other similar organization that promotes the IAAO mission”. This past year, Director Brian Loughrey (Sarasota County) redesigned the format of our quarterly FCIAAO newsletter and the new application was submitted for consideration. Again, we were honored to re- ceive the coveted award! IAAO Committees met on Sunday including the Chapter/Affiliate meeting; your President Nick Nikki- nen (Orange County) represented our organization. The meeting was a great opportunity for network- ing and hearing about what other chapters and affiliates are doing in their states. The State Reps are also in attendance and Dorothy Jacks (Palm Beach County) was there to represent our state. A kickoff reception was held at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on Sunday evening and attendees were able to network and view the “Titanic Exhibit” at the museum as part of the event. Monday morning’s Opening Session was held and the keynote speaker was Steven Ford. The Ford family hailed from Grand Rapids and now is the site of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. The keynote address by the President’s son was a motivational beginning to the conference. Following the Opening Session the conference began with Plenary and education sessions continuing through Wednesday. Vendors were set up in the exhibit area and attendees were able to view all of the latest resources available for the valuation process and to speak face to face with the representatives. On Wednesday evening the closing banquet was held allowing IAAO President Rob Turner to wrap up his year and to introduce the 2014 President, Kim Lauffer. Florida was well represented by the following conference participants: Conference Content Commit- tee: Colleen Keene (Alachua County); Moderators: Nereia Cormier and Warren J. Weathers

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Fall 2013 Newsletter of the FCIAAO