It Takes a Village

It truly does take a “village” working together to make ASHI the strong organization it is today. The ASHI “village” is comprised of many different groups of individuals working together to provide vision, leadership, synergy and services that make our society the vibrant organization it is today. 

It all starts with your Board of Directors. The Board consists of 21 elected home inspectors from all over the country. The Board is responsible for creating and developing strategic initiatives and programs that will support and strengthen all of our members and the profession as a whole. As you can imagine, bringing together 21 individuals, all of whom are used to being paid for their “opinions,” creates lively discussions trying to deal with sometimes difficult issues and decisions.  

The ASHI governance structure also includes a Council of Representatives (CoR). The council is made up of representatives from the ASHI chapters and is meant to be a communication vehicle between ASHI national and the membership. It also has the responsibility of selecting and electing the members who serve on the Board. A Nominating Committee made up of CoR members also selects the officers’ nominating slate for the membership vote.

Much of the work of ASHI gets done in our committees and task forces. ASHI has over 100 inspectors working on its more than 15 committees and task forces. The committees take the visions and ideas of the Board and work to develop programs that will provide membership value. The committees are a great place for individual members to get involved in the workings of ASHI at the national level. 

For many members, the place where there is the most connection is through our chapters. The chapter is where many of us get valuable education and get to experience the camaraderie of other inspectors. If you are not attending chapter meetings, you are not using the full benefits available to you as an ASHI member. 

Working in the ASHI trenches is our incredible staff! Our executive director, Jeff Arnold, has done a great job developing a team of outstanding professionals to accomplish the day-to-day tasks that encompass the real “ASHI Experience.” Our staff is responsible for member services, creation of the Reporter, handling consumer inquiries, supporting our chapters, the ASHI store and resources, InspectionWorld, management of our budget, liaisons to all the committees and Board, Web site administration, technical support, and on and on. As president of ASHI this year, it has been a privilege working with all of these hard-working individuals. They deserve a great deal of thanks from all of us! 

Special thanks to Harry Rosenthal, ASHI’s long-time attorney. Harry has faithfully served ASHI for over 30 years. We are truly fortunate to have an attorney who is so familiar with our history, culture and ongoing concerns. He has been with us during the good times and the bad, and you can always count on him to give his heartfelt opinion whether you want to hear it or not. I’ve never liked attorneys much, but Harry has almost convinced me that there are some “good” ones out there. HA!

ASHI also engages the services of outside professionals to do work that is outside of our expertise. Randy Pence, our federal lobbyist in Washington D.C., has done a great job in pressing ASHI’s interests on Capitol Hill. Our public relations firm Gibbs-Soell is working to keep ASHI in the forefront of media outlets all across the country.  

We should all be proud of our “village” and its inhabitants. I encourage all of you to get involved and share in the community experience.

It is an honor for me to be able to participate with the “village people” to affirm ASHI as the number one
professional society.