Letter from the Executive Director for June 2016

May was a blockbuster month. We continued onboarding our new communications hire, launched a rent collection pilot, opened an office in Cambridge, and experienced a landlording “earthquake” in Springfield. I’ll tell you about each of these.

Our new Manager of Communications and Social Media is Susan Manning, based in Worcester. We first announced her hiring in the May newsletter. Please extend a warm welcome to her if you haven’t already. If you are subscribed to updates about local events, you may have already seen her event reminders. Susan will be helping to craft emails, perform real journalism for the newsletter, and help with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Previously this work was performed mostly by volunteers and by me. Susan can do much of the heavy lifting needed to grow our organization.

In Worcester last month we also launched a rent collection pilot. This is a partnership with a third party provider. MassLandlords will receive an affiliate commission. The pilot is focused on landlords who have difficulty collecting rent from tenants with cash flow challenges. We are targeting a neglected niche. The service cannot collect money that doesn’t exist, but it can help improve communication, and it can help particularly if a tenant would be more stable on a weekly or biweekly payment schedule synchronized with their income. The service is cheap and requires zero computer skills of either party. If interested, please contact me.

MassLandlords is a state-wide organization. We grew up in Worcester, and maintain a physical presence there. And now we also have shared office space at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC). You will see us using this as our primary mailing address going forward. I’m there two or three days a week. The CIC is a nursery for fast-growing companies and other organizations like MassLandlords. We have already started taking advantage of their beautiful event spaces and well-appointed meeting rooms.

Those are the first three updates. I have saved the best for last. The big news from Springfield, the “earthquake”, is this: The Rental Housing Association of Greater Springfield wants to become one with MassLandlords. Currently it’s a separate legal entity and we have a service contract with them. Their board has voted to dissolve and transfer their operations to MassLandlords. We would give their members a full vote, collaborate closely on Springfield operations, and pull our resources together for stronger, even-handed policy advocacy. The MassLandlords Board of Directors approves this plan.

The Springfield plan requires ratification by voting MassLandlords members. This means “Digital” members and all memberships named “WPOA”. Early indications are that the vote will be “yes”. If you are a member, you must vote on Wednesday, June 8. See later in this newsletter for details.

May was not without setbacks, hurdles, missteps, and challenges. But with such positive developments, it’s hard not to be both optimistic and proud of what we’re accomplishing together.

Tell a friend about MassLandlords. We’re on to great things.

Sincerely,

Doug Quattrochi

Executive Director

C: 617-285-7255