Place: L’Olivier Restaurant, 465 Davis Court, San Francisco in the main dinning room. (415-981-7824) The restaurant is easily accessible via BART (Embarcadero Station) and $5 valet parking is available.

The Trouble with Easements: Dave Lewis, ASA

Easements are one of the most diverse and problematic instruments used in real estate. They are frequently misunderstood and are often center stage in diminution and other litigation claims. David R. Lewis, ASA, SR/WA, is the primary author and creator of the highly successful publication of the ASA RP Tool Kit. The Tool Kit series on easements was well received and to some degree controversial. Dave will make a presentation on easements and valuation problems.

A case study will be presented and discussed.

Dave is the Right of Way Manager for the County of Sonoma Department of Transportation and Public Works. He is an adjunct instructor for Santa Rosa Junior College, member of the Real Property Committee for ASA, and a California Superior Court expert witness. He is the author of Zoning and Site Analysis, Attorney’s Guide to Real Property Appraisal and Planner’s Guide to Real Property Appraisal.

Whatever your discipline, it is always beneficial to examine issues that come up with various types of property—both from a professional standpoint and for personal application. I’m looking forward to this program, and hope to see you all there!

NOTE: The dinner is being partly subsidized by the chapter, so the cost is a low $35. RSVP please by September 4 to Secretary Gil Mitchell at gil.e.mitchell@gmail.com and let him know you are coming. Do not reply to the email address—Gil is the one who needs to know! New! You can now pre-pay with PayPal! Go to www.paypal.com and “Send Money” to our account ASA-Norcal@gmail.com ($35 with cash or credit card). We hope this will be an added convenience for our members.

President’s Message

Robin J. Erdmann, ASA

I’m pleased to report that the NorCal chapter held its first meeting of the year with our new officers: Robin J. Erdmann, ASA, President (the handsome character on the right); Doug Baxter, Vice President; Bob Lentz, ASA, Treasurer; Gil Mitchell, ASA, Secretary; and, Will Schnitzer, ASA, Immediate Past President. Jim Brown, ASA Regional Governor, did the honors of presiding over the “oath of office” proceedings.

Following up on the strategic planning we conducted at our retreat last month, our business meeting focused, in part, on formulating a Mission Statement for our chapter. Nancy Stacy ASA, Carole Richbourg ASA, and I all participated in beginning to develop this statement. It has a way to go before we finalize anything, but once we do, we will let you know.

We also had a small discussion of our by-laws. Yes, that’s a real exciting topic, isn’t it? When we reviewed our by-laws (dated 1968) at the retreat, we noticed that nowhere in them does it state who has voting rights. On an interim basis, the board voted to ensure that all officers and discipline directors be given voting rights. It’s an organizational issue, and seemingly dull, but nevertheless, very important to formalize in our operating procedures. Jim Brown, ASA, our Regional Governor, will set up a conference call with me, Jim, and ASA’s counsel to discuss this issue in greater detail. And as for further work on the by-laws? Napoleon Forte, ASA has agreed to lead the charge on updating them.

The chapter has also agreed to cooperate with the Southern California Chapter to participate in the CD Directory that the SoCal chapter has created and updated annually over the past few years. The cost is minimal to the chapter, and it is another venue for getting your names out to potential clients.

Most importantly, this new directory should be complete in time for the upcoming California Bar Association meeting to be held in Monterey at the end of September. The CD will be distributed to the lawyers attending. This year, the NorCal chapter is responsible for organizing a vendor booth, and several of our members will be on hand to answer questions with the lawyers, including James McCann, ASA, Ray Mattison, ASA, Karen Mann, ASA, and many others.

The CD directory also has the option for including your photograph for a nominal cost to you. We are a bit late to the table in participating with SoCal on the CD this year, but in coming years, you will be able include your photo next to your name.

The chapter is also exploring the option of hiring a part-time administrative assistant. We are still in the process of identifying the role and responsibilities of that person. It is a needed function if our chapter is going to offer the increased level of services and educational seminars that we have in the planning stages.

The dinner meeting held after our board meeting this month was a great success. It was attended by 31 people who came to listen to Elyse Poppers talk about tips and tricks for tracking down lost or stolen art. Elyse started out her career to become an appraiser (she has a relative or two with ASA designations), majored in journalism, and married the two to become an investigator. She even has a purse/bag with a hidden camera in it to help her do her sleuthing!

Next month, Dave Lewis, ASA, will bring us up to speed on the “troubling issues of easements” as our dinner guest. In addition to specializing in this area with Sonoma County, Dave is also a member of the national Real Property Committee, and teaches Real Estate Economics at Santa Rosa Junior College. While this topic will certainly be of great interest to our Real Property members, I’ll bet many more of you have had to deal with an easement issue at one time or another. Come hear Dave’s pointers on the subject. Dave’s seminar on Zoning & Site Analysis is nearly complete, too. We will be scheduling this seminar in the near future.

Emily Newell AM, and Doug Baxter also reported that they are progressing on a seminar to be held at Filoli Gardens this spring. The emphasis will be on the fine art collection located at Filoli.

And don’t forget. Our very own Nancy Stacy, ASA, GG, will be holding a seminar for the Gems & Jewelry crowd October 25 in San Francisco. Even if you are not part of the G&J discipline, Nancy’s seminar will inform you on how you can value your own personal collection.

Finally, a special thanks to all who pitch in and help behind the scenes, and whose names are not often mentioned, but are real troopers. These are the people who contribute to making our chapter successful, and add value to your designation and membership.

Meeting Notes

Elyse Poppers’ presentation on her investigative work as part of the James Mintz Group reinforced the important issues of scope of work and due diligence by our profession.

Given the time and money, it seems just the smallest lead could be used to track down stolen artwork all over the world. Elyse shared some of her most productive websites with the audience showing the depth of research available today and highlighted by a case study of a stolen painting now located in Spain!

Our thanks to Elyse for an informative and fascinating program!

Regards,
Doug Baxter, Vice President

Upcoming Events

Thursday October 9

The Trouble with Easements: Dave Lewis, ASA

2008 6:30 pm (mixer)
7:00 (dinner)
Board Meeting 5:30 all members are welcome to attend

Saturday, October 25

G&J Workshop: Conquering Comps – G&J Market Modeling:
The workshop covers selecting relevant comps, adjusting for value of the dollar, adjusting for value characteristics, analyzing results, reaching an opinion of value and writing a persuasive narrative.

Instructor: Nancy Stacy GG, ASA

WHERE: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm at L’Olivier Restaurant, 465 Davis Court, San Francisco, CA (415-981-7824)

November 13 Meeting

“CARB Diesel Regulations and Consequences”

Erik White, CA Air Resource Board & Mike Lewis Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC). A must meeting for everyone, to learn the upcoming California regulations and how they will affect us all.

Legislative Corner

"Risky loans, why should I worry?
The government bails me out in a hurry!

Taxpayers’ pickin' up the bill,
Thanks to my friends on Capitol Hill!

Regulators stayin' off my tail,
'cuz they know...

I'm too big to fail
I'm too big to fail

This was published 4-24-98. Took a while. - Charles Warren

Tech Tips

Fun with Tabs

We are all familiar with using tabs, and setting tab stops on the Word document ruler. Try playing around with some of the specialty tab stops.

• Select the paragraph in which you want to set a tab stop.

• Do one of the following: To set tabs:

– Click at the far left of the horizontal ruler until it changes to the type of tab you want: left, right, center, decimal, or bar (see examples on right).

– Click the horizontal ruler where you want to set a tab stop.

• To set tabs with leader characteristics

– On the Format menu, click Tabs.

– Under Tab stop position, type the position for a new tab, or select an existing tab stop to which you want to add leader characteristics.

– Under Alignment, select the alignment for text typed at the tab stop.

Under Leader, click the leader option you want, and then click Set.

NorCal Officers

L to R: Bob Lentz, Treasurer, Gil Mitchell, Secretary; Robin Erdmann, Chapter President, Jim Brown, Region 5 Governor, Will Schnitzer, Immediate Past Chapter President, Doug Baxter, Chapter Vice-Chair

Chapter officers:

Chapter President Robin J. Erdmann, ASA (RP)

Chapter Vice President Douglas S. Baxter (PP)

Chapter Secretary Gil Mitchell, ASA (MTS)

Chapter Treasurer Robert P. Lentz III, ASA (BV)

Chapter Past Chair William C. Schnitzer, ASA (RP)

Discipline Directors and Associate Directors:

Business Valuation    James Schilt, ASA           /    Alan Karbousky, ASA
   Gems & Jewelry     Nancy Stacy, ASA          /              Maury Woulf
                             Master Gemologist Appraiser
                  MTS     Gil Mitchell, ASA             /                           tba
Personal Property     Roger Rapport, ASA         /                           tba
      Real Property     Will Schnitzer, ASA         /                           tba

Anyone interested in being an active participant in the chapter should contact Robin J. Erdmann, MAI ASA at robinerdmann@comcast.net

Images

September Meeting