MAA President's Message
January Message
I hope you have all had a warm Holiday and a Happy New Year with your families. I am truly honored and humbled to be able to serve you in 2020 as your MAA President.
Just a little about me, I did not start my working career in assessment administration, for the first 27 years I was a small business owner in the City of Detroit. I operated a job shop that manufactured wood patterns for sand mold metal castings, most of this work was related to the auto and machine tool industry.
I got started in assessing when my neighbor began prompting me to run for the position of assessor for the City of Trenton. Yes, Trenton is one of the four cities in Michigan that has an elected assessor by charter. The other three are River Rouge, Ecorse and Wyandotte, all these cities are in the Downriver Community which Trenton is a member. I was elected to this position in November 2005 and I replaced Mrs. Mary Batcheller upon her retirement, Mrs. Batcheller was a level 4 and had worked in Trenton for over 20 years.
I did not have assessment experience when I was elected, and the City relied upon the Wayne County Equalization Department to oversee the assessments in the city until I was able to perform these duties in 2010-11. I was very fortunate to have the likes of Gary Evanko, Tom Colombo, Gordon Gillis, Philip Mastin, Micheal Racklyeft, Matthew Raftary, Fred Morgan, Robert Brazeau and all the other assessment professional that gave their time and talent to help me along through this process.
I would be remiss not to thank Past Presidents Paula Jastifer, Amy DeHaan and Ruth Scott for the help they provided to me on my journey through the MAA Chairs, their hard work and dedication to the association has been tireless over the past three years.
As we move forward this year the Board has had challenges that will continue, we have made great strides with education this past year and it is still a work in process, but we believe that we have found solutions to provide our membership with quality education opportunities in the future.
The Board is creating avenues to inform people outside of the assessing profession, the opportunities that a career in this business may afford them through our newly formed ad hoc Recruitment Committee. MAA is working on many ideas to help promote this profession and our membership. I would like to ask our membership to get involved with the association by participating in one or more of our committees. As a team we are only as strong as our members. What is your goal and how can MAA help you reach it professionally? Your input and participation are essential to making your goals and the goals of the MAA a reality. Let’s come together to for this win!
Please continue your support of this great organization by renewing your membership and by encouraging other Assessors, Appraisers, Treasurers and Attorneys to become members. We are a very unique group of professionals that provide a valuable service to those that we serve.
John Dahlquist, President