The Board met for its regular quarterly meeting on Thursday, February 9^th to elect officers, appoint committees and mentors, propose and adopt rules, and consider disciplinary cases. It was a full agenda as usual and staff did a great job of preparing for the many business items we needed to attend to.

We also planned this meeting for Thursday instead of our normal Friday meeting day so that we could be co-hosts for the 1^st Annual Residential Realty Summit in Austin on the next day.  The Summit turned out to be a very successful event and being a co-host was a very good decision by the Board. While only about 20 appraisers attended (out of 120 total), the discussions were very insightful. We look forward to growing this important event next year with more valuation professionals in attendance.    

I was appointed Chair by the Governor last year and will continue to serve in this role until replaced. The current Vice-Chair Jim Jeffries and Secretary Buster Renfrow were both reelected.  All of the Board members agreed to serve and were appointed to one or more committees of the Board where much of the policy development exploration research gets done.  We also appointed 11 mentors to serve for a two-year period. Mentors are extraordinarily valued resources as one of the educational alternatives for appraisers who need assistance resolving issues that arose in the context of a complaint or audit.   

The Board considered regular reports from the Commissioner and all of the division directors and conducted its annual review and adopted an updated investment policy.  The Board also adopted a beneficial modification to the interagency Memorandum of Understanding with the Texas Real Estate Commission that reduces costs borne by the Board and preserves its position in any long-range facilities planning.  This is something we have been working on for over a year and we are pleased it is done. We also approved the 3^rd biennial Texas survey of fees and we ask both appraisers and AMCs to participate.

The Texas Legislature is in session and we heard a report of bills that are being tracked because of their potential impact on the agency.  The Foundation Appraiser Coalition of Texas (FACT) has found a sponsor for a bill the Board requested that amends Chapter 1104 regarding Appraisal Management Companies to align it with certain federal requirements.  And because of the change in executive federal administrations, and the temporary freeze on some federal rules for further review, we also expect some shifts in emphasis that may require an agency response.  To assist us in the ability to make a rapid response, the Board delegated to the Executive Committee the duty to approve certain responses that may become due between regular quarterly meetings of the Board. 

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for 10 AM on Friday, May 5^th at which time we will continue our normal business, hear about progress on legislative matters and also consider the first draft of the Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget.  Know that you are always welcome to attend or follow our meetings streamed live on our website at www.talcb.texas.gov.    Hope your Spring is productive and joyful.