Board Meeting Report Out

Board Meeting Report Out

January 12, 2014
Nashville Renaissance Hotel
Nashville, TN

HEADQUARTERS REPORT

National Center for
Healthy Housing
Jane Malone, from the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), presented information about her organization for healthy housing and the work they are doing toward a national standard that could be an overlay for Healthy Housing Standards. These standards would pertain to existing housing in an effort to continue to bring properties up to modern standards.

Divorce This House
Kelly Murray, a professor at
Vanderbilt University School of Law and co-founder of Divorce This House, spoke to the ASHI Board about her program and the need
for a home inspection when there
is an exchange of property in a
divorce settlement.

Divorce this house is currently l
ooking for involvement from ASHI and its members in Indiana, and subsequently other states, as the program is rolled out.

Divorce This House is also looking for ASHI involvement in live training events, marketing the program to ASHI members, and help in developing videos that members could use on their websites.

Live events run two days and the fee currently charged to all real estate professionals for the two-day event is $225.00.

The ASHI School
Jack McGraw gave a report on The ASHI School, informing the ASHI Board that there were 24 students enrolled in the Commercial Class that took place immediately following IW 2014 and three Home Inspection Classes starting the week following IW 2014.

TAS will now be holding classes in Seattle, Washington, which is a new location for the school.

Jack McGraw is doing beta-
testing this month with Healthy Housing Solutions and should
be able to teach this process to students throughout the country.

Membership Department
Frank Lesh gave an updated report on membership, explaining the
decision to follow the policy this
year regarding membership drop
for non-dues payment.

Communications
Department
Steve Hawkins gave a brief update on the Communications Department ,explaining that, since the last ASHI Board Meeting, the main focus of this department has been on getting the Reporter out, IW 2014 and choosing a firm for the redesign of the ASHI website.
Standards of Practice
The following motion was made regarding the release date for the newly approved ASHI Standards of Practice.

Motion was made and seconded
to accept March 1 as the release date of the newly approved
standards of practice. PASSED

Legislative Update
Randy Pence, ASHI’s Washington government affairs representative, gave a 20-minute update presentation on what has been going on in Washington, D.C., with regard to home inspection.

Mr. Pence also encouraged all ASHI Board Members to attend the InspectPAC fundraising event being sponsored on Monday Evening, January 13th.

The ASHI Board reported the following motions from the Executive Session:

Motion was made and seconded to accept the Quill contract. PASSED

Motion was made and seconded to accept the Bug Lab contract. PASSED

Motion was made and seconded to accept the GEM Marketing contract. PASSED

CRC Committee Report
Tim Buell, Board Liaison to the Chapter Relations Committee, shared the CRC Committee efforts to help ASHI Chapters that are
believed to be non-compliant
with tax-exempt rules. The CRC Committee addressed the Council of Representatives Monday, January 13 asking them to take five minutes to fill out a form that would bring their chapter into compliance with federal non-exempt status laws. The CRC Committee will further reach out to ASHI Chapters not in attendance at IW 2014 after the conference.

CoR Report
Tony Smith, Speaker of the CoR, reported to the ASHI Board that the CoR continues to meet regularly and that attendance has been good for these meetings. In 2013, the CoR was successful in getting a revised ASHI Mission Statement, new standards and by-laws changes. Information on the Mentorship Task Force will be shared Monday, January 13, at the annual CoR Meeting.

IR Freedom Update
Bill Loden, with others, has
formed an independent, non-profit organization that has been incorporated as IR Freedom in the state of Pennsylvania. IR Freedom principals are working to develop business systems, accounts and a website. Tim Buell will be IR Freedom’s treasurer, and Bill Loden is working on the business plan to determine how they will challenge the infrared patent issues. This business plan will be used to gain funding from other organizations.

Bill Loden is working on getting individuals outside of ASHI to
participate in IR Freedom to make
it more of an industry coalition.

ASHI’s Washington government affairs representative, Randy Pence, shared that 43-states attorneys
generals have petitioned the government to investigate patent trolls.

Bill Loden was contacted by a reporter to do a piece on patent trolling. This interview took place on Friday, January 17 and should run sometime in February.

Motion was made and seconded that the ASHI Board grant permission to individual states, Canada and other entities to continue to use ASHI’s most recently approved Standards of Practice, contingent upon applicable legal arrangements. PASSED