Jetrader - September/October 2012 - 51

International Appraisers’ Program

Points of Progress for IAP
By Phil Seymour Chairman, International Appraisers’ Program Greetings, I start this edition of my column with a point of clariﬁcation as I ﬁnd myself answering questions that may seem obvious to the appraiser community but not to the wider membership. Clearly the membership has grown considerably, so I should not take for granted that new members interrogate the ISTAT website to ﬁnd out about the Appraisers aspects of ISTAT. So to keep it simple, here is the summary: On 8 March 1989, after conducting a six-year development program, the ISTAT Board of Directors ofﬁcially instituted the International Appraisers’ Program (IAP). The IAP is controlled and governed by the International Appraisers’ Program Board of Governors (IBG). The IBG has the responsibility to administer, oversee, and modify standards and procedures of appraisal practice and the code of ethics. Since a couple of decades have passed since the inception of the IAP, last year, under Fred Klein’s leadership as Chairman of the IAP, a process was started to engage with the appraiser community and ISTAT members. The purpose was to solicit views of the appraiser program and to provide guidance on how improvements could be made. Forums were also arranged during the ISTAT Americas event. Carol McGury of SmithBucklin managed the process, and the results were issued ahead of June’s board meeting. The summary of ﬁndings and recommendations is provided below. Simply put, after years of anecdotal comments and concerns from within the appraiser group itself and the broader ISTAT community, the conclusion is that more work is required to improve the IAP. However, the consensus is that the IAP does add value to ISTAT and the relationship between the IAP and ISTAT is a mutually beneﬁcial venture. 1. The majority of the respondees valued year-round education (in particular to support re-certiﬁcation of appraisers). 2. There was enough feedback on the need for program changes, including the applicant process, to warrant a recommendation for focus (handbook improvement, review of the exam process). 3. The image of certiﬁed appraisers received enough internal feedback that it is worth the IBG looking at expanding marketing and PR efforts. 4. The concept of variance in valuations is one that was signiﬁcant, but it was noted that there are limited ways to address this; the IBG should continue to evaluate and educate on these concepts. 5. It was clear that the lack of international focus for the program should be addressed, in particular the growing market needs outside of North America. 6. The IBG should be more communicative and transparent with the certiﬁed appraiser community. As the incoming Chairman, there is much work for me and the IBG (and other willing appraisers) to carry out on several action points, and I will deal with the “easy hanging fruit” ﬁrst:

Points 3 and 6: Marketing and PR
This is being progressed on three main fronts: 1. Keeping the ISTAT community informed: I have provided Jetrader with my ﬁrst article, and I hope this will continue during my Chairmanship. I have also asked for and received positive feedback to present a 15 minute “IAP update” at ISTAT Europe and will encourage all conference committees to offer the same slot in future ISTAT conferences. 2. Keeping the appraisers informed: I have produced an informal e-mail and distributed it to all appraisers from candidates to fellows. I will do this each quarter. This should provide a solution to point 6 speciﬁcally as there was a perception that there was a lack of openness between the IBG and the appraisers. 3. Keeping the aviation press informed: I intend to have regular correspondence with them to promote and support the IAP. We discussed whether we should issue occasional press releases, and it was agreed that it would be useful so long as there was a speciﬁc point to them being issued and not simply being issued for the sake of it.

It was clear that the lack of international focus for the program should be addressed, in particular the growing market needs outside of North America.
Jetrader 51

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Jetrader - September/October 2012

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