To view photos from the Summit, click here.
While it is still fresh in my mind I wanted to share with all of our members the incredible experience that was the IREM Leadership and Legislative Summit in Washington, DC from April 19th through the 22nd. It was one of those experiences I can honestly say I wasn't thrilled about attending, but by the end, I realized it truly is the must attend event of the year and a memory I will carry with me for a long time.
Amy Borgerding, CPM and I arrived Sunday to the JW Marriott in time to attend the opening session led by National President, Pam Monroe, CPM. We received updates from many of the national committees and then were recognized as a Five Star Chapter for the second year in a row! Region 3 once again had all six chapters named as Five Star Chapters. This is an incredible accomplishment for our chapter, with a good deal of that credit going to everyone's favorite IAE, Mertie Pateros! Be sure to thank here when you see her next. That evening we were treated to dinner at Chef Geoff's in downtown DC along with the rest of Region 3.
Monday morning we got down to business at the Chapter Leadership Forum. Our keynote speaker was Carylann Assante, with ASAE & the Center for Association Leadership, which is in essence, an Association for Associations. She spoke to us on how we can weather the financial environment and retain our members and continue to provide them with meaningful experiences. The most interesting factoid to come out of this was that despite the economy, membership in associations across the country are experiencing very little drop off in memberships. IREM mirrors that trend. It appears that our members understand that in faltering economies, our expertise as CPM and ARM Members becomes more valuable. Let's remember that IREM was founded during the Great Depression as a direct result of those economic times!
Monday afternoon we attended a panel discussion led by Lawrence Yun, Ph.D., the lead economist with the National Association of REALTORS, and considered one of the top ten real estate economists in the country, and Bob Toothaker, CPM, 2007 National President. The topic was "Your Real Estate Portfolio: Troubled Properties; What's Happening Now". Dr. Yun discussed the Obama Administrations' Economic Stimulus package focusing on both the good and the not-so-good projects including first time buyer credits and continuing low mortgage interest rates via TARP. He also discussed the need to preserve low capital gains tax rates and the relaxation of mark-to-market accounting. He also provided to us several facts and figures that once again show us that the current economic cycle we are in is not as bad as several cycles we have experienced in the past.
Tuesday began the hard work of preparing to lobby on Capital Hill. I was extremely impressed with how well IREM trained all of us to speak passionately and informatively about topics that many of us had only discussed or seen for the first time. We had three topics that we would be trained on for our lobbying efforts: Carried Interest, Energy Efficient Buildings, and Commercial Market Liquidity. Three different speakers got up in front of us and discussed IREM's position, the opposing views, and status of any bills before the house and senate. We each received spiral notebooks that elaborated on each topic so that we could do additional research if necessary. And to round out the information, we all received a Congressional directory that gave us information on the entire country's representatives, their districts, and involvement on committees. At the end of the talks, we paired up and did some role playing as lobbyist and legislator. By the end of the two hours, we were ready to go.
Wednesday was the big day. I met up with the other chapters in our region at the Starbucks on Pennsylvania and 3rd, SE. We reviewed our plan of attack, reviewed our schedule and started the trek to the Rayburn House office building. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I wanted to sound intelligent, I wanted to represent our chapter, and I wanted to make sure that this was an experience I could take back to all of you with a sense of excitement.
Our first appointment was at Representative Roscoe Bartlett's (R-6th) office. We met with his legislative aid and began to discuss all of our issues. Representative Bartlett is very business friendly, so it didn't require a lot of convincing on our part. But I was impressed with how interested the aid was in getting the information she would need to take back to the Representative, often asking questions and asking us to elaborate on the topics.
As we walked the halls of the Rayburn Building, I couldn't help but get chills as we passed familiar name after familiar name on the doors to all the offices. Regardless of your political leanings, it is something to see it all in action: aids running here and there, other lobbyists waiting outside the doors, amazing architecture. In between the appointments with some time to kill, we poked our heads in on hearings that were going on. We couldn't get into the Finance Committee hearing, but did get to see it from the hallway in action. It was C-Span come to life!
Our next appointment was at Representative Dutch Ruppersberger's (D-2nd) office. We again met with his aid and discussed our issues. Because I have properties in Representative Ruppersberger's district, I felt like this was an especially important visit. The best part to come out of this was that his office expressed interest in having me set up a tour of one of my company's government facilities under construction. He sits on the Select Intelligence Committee and has an interest in seeing them. A little side benefit to performing these visits!
Our third appointment was with Freshman Representative Frank Kratovil (D-1st). We didn't think this one was going to go very well because there was not room in the office for us to sit, and we were relegated to the hallway for our lobbying efforts. As we were starting to wrap up our talk with his legislative aid, Representative Kratovil returned to his office, approached us and introduced himself. We were able to go over all of the issues again and he seemed very keenly interested in everything we had to say. Upon departing, he thanked us for our involvement in advocacy and promised to help us out.
Our final appointment of the day was with Senator Barbara Mikulski's (D) office. While we didn't get to meet with her, we did get a glimpse of her as she returned to her office. We met with her legislative aid who specializes in real estate and economics. Once again, we had someone keenly interested in everything we had to say and asked us to forward additional information to the Senator.
In closing, if you have never participated in something like this, I strongly urge you to. Not only do you get to see our country's legislative process in action, but you get to challenge yourself to do something you never thought you could do. I personally never thought I would be sitting with a group of my peers as the expert on Carried Interest, talking to a United States Representative with passion and enthusiasm. But there I was doing just that. Due to the proximity to DC, our chapter has an incredible opportunity that few chapters have, and as Members you also have this opportunity. I hope that next year each and every one of you considers getting involved in this way and joining us on Capital Hill to be part of the American Process. I am already counting down the days until I can do it again.
Steve Antonsen, CPM® president@irem16.org
