Letter from the Executive Director for April 2016
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March was an incredibly busy month for our public policy volunteers. The Senate Special Commission released their report on housing, Boston had a much-anticipated hearing on Just Cause Eviction, we released our Housing Court study, negotiations over rent escrow continued, and SPOA released their exposé of unethical tenant advocacy. Each of these subjects receives full attention in this month’s newsletter, so I won’t elaborate here.
If policy is the long-term design, the short-term goal is a foundation. This is why we focus on helping landlords and service providers get the most out of MassLandlords for the least effort. So let me tell you about our progress on this front.
We continue to grow. We’re entering peak rental season, so we expect a lot of new members to sign up for our rental forms. If anyone asks you where to get a rental form, tell them “MassLandlords!”
We’re working on some new processes around renewals. Right now we all get a series of reminder emails starting 30 days before our renewal date. To this we will add print reminders. Our server is now pinging our printers, who have started sending renewal letters by mail. This print reminder should catch members who miss our emails. Please do pay with a credit card and allow auto-renew. It helps us lower the cost of paper invoices and you can cancel any time.
We’ve also rolled out our new event ticketing system, which we piloted in December for the annual meeting. The April meetings in Worcester (“Housing Court!”) and Springfield (“Fire Safety”) are using the new one-click purchase system. This is faster, and it also contributes to the year-end statement we can all access via the My Account page. All of these MassLandlords expenses are deductible as “Other: training and seminars” on our taxes (Schedule E).
If we ever get to the point of lobbying for specific candidates, we can let you know what percent of dues are not deductible. We’re not there yet, so everything is still fully deductible.
We continue to work on some big new services but nothing can be announced yet. Stay tuned.
Do me a favor: If you know anyone who’s a landlord, tell them about us! We’re 1,100 strong but we have a long, long way to grow. The more we grow, the more we can help one another and advocate for fair laws.
Sincerely,
Doug Quattrochi
Executive Director
C: 617-285-7255
