In early 2007, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) approached the Appraisal Institute (AI) regarding possible affiliation. Following an initial meeting with AI Executive Committee members, a project team was appointed and a second meeting with the NAR was held.
The project team briefed the Board on this meeting and the Board directed that the project team continue to meet with NAR representatives in 2008 to further explore possible affiliation. Please note that those discussions with the NAR are independent of unification efforts with the ASA and ASFMRA.
The Appraisal Institutes memo "Update on Possible AI-NAR Affiliation" ( Download AI_NAR_Affiliation_Update.pdf ) dated 2/25/2008 says:
Several key points were acknowledged during these meetings. Because this would be an affiliation, rather than a merger, it was acknowledged that the AI would retain certain autonomy within the NAR structure under the terms of this new relationship.
Another key acknowledgment pertained to ownership of appraisal designations. As an affiliate, the AI would retain ownership of its designations and exercise sole authority to confer the MAI and SRA designations.
The memo indicates that the AI will solicit the membership’s views through extensive surveys, meetings and dialog with all 92 chapters through the AI’s 10 regions. Once this information is gathered, the project team is to report its findings to the Board of Directors for its consideration and review at its next meeting in Austin, TX, June 24-25, 2008.
In response to this and many other issues, ten AI members (including past presidents) have issued a scathing letter questioning many of the policies of the current AI leadership.
Here are just a few of the allegations in the attached response letter sent to AI members and affiliates: Download AI_Are_You_Aware.pdf
That a Unification Team, comprised of members from the AI, American Society of Appraisers (ASA—business valuers, machinery & equipment, etc) and ASFMRA (rural appraisers) have been working for years on a plan for the true unification of the appraisal profession in the U.S? And
- that the AI leadership opened discussions with NAR in 2007—without notifying our own members on the Unification Team or the other organizations’ members, knowing that re-affiliation was a "deal killer" for unification of the valuation profession and probably for Valuation for Financial Reporting (VFR)?
- that the AI Board of Directors made a decision in 1999 not to re-affiliate with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), because they deemed it in the best interest of their members to be a major player in the Valuation Profession instead of a minor player in the real estate trade?
- that member input regarding the re-affiliation with NAR, a real estate trade organization that we left years ago, has not been sought?
- that the Unification Project Team presented their plan to the boards of the three organizations in the Fall of 2007 for dissemination to their members for consideration, but that only the AI leadership decided not to do so?
- that after the above decision, the AI put forth a press release asserting that they continued to support unification, while the other two organizations put forth press releases stating that the AI had turned the unification efforts down?
- that the 2007 President fired the AI members of the Unification Project Team on December 31, replacing them with the 2008 AI officers without consultation with the 2007 Executive Committee?
- that in January 2008, the AI officers told the ASA and ASFMRA that the profession could not afford to create a new consolidated organization, but that the AI would proceed only if ASA and ASFMRA were assimilated into the AI?
- that the ASA and ASFMRA declined and believe they were misled by the AI leadership, thus severely damaging AI’s long-standing relationship with these well-respected professional associations?
For the complete "Are You Aware" letter: Download AI_Are_You_Aware.pdf
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