I described yesterday my great luck to be paired with Grayson Moss, an appraiser legend, at an Appraisal Institute golf tournament. Grayson is 82 now and long retired, but spent half a century in the appraisal profession and served in many capacities in the Appraisal Institute including several years chairing the Ethics Committee nationally.
My group also contained three BHs ("Bright Horses" = Up & Coming Appraisers) from my team, and I made sure that all the great stories were shared with them.
But in reflecting on that golf round time together I realized that there was more to learn, and hopefully was learned. One of the great things about golf is that the individual player is responsible for following the rules and penalizing himself if one is violated. Self regulation.
It was a scramble, an event where each player hits a ball off the tee. The best ball is then selected for the next shot, with all players moving their ball to that best location. The player whose ball was selected as the best for that shot must then play first and all others play from a position as close as possible to the first player's divot.
Grayson was frequently the one to place a tee in the ground to mark the spot close to which the next players ball must be placed. He didn't say anything. He just did it. After a few holes the BHs would place the tee in the ground instead of Grayson.
In another instance, one of the team members tapped his ball into the cup before other players had finished putting that shot series. Walking back to the carts, Grayson commented that technically had any member of the team made that series putt after the tap in, we would not have been able to count that putt, costing the team a stroke. Thereafter, no one tapped in until all had putted.
Think it was a good choice to have Grayson Moss chair the Ethics Committee? You bet it was!
At 82, four years into retirement, he's still teaching. The lesson that day was that ethical behaviour applies to all of one's activities.
www.acornappraisal.net is a 20 year old firm offering a wide range of quality appraisal services to the Financial and Business Communities. Our market includes the greater Houston SMSA, including Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Waller Counties
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