Letter from the Executive Director for February 2018

In January we announced a new affiliate relationship with New Leaf Legal, started Lisa Tardiff in Event Hospitality and Sales, and rolled out our new Square point-of-sale to decrease check-in times.

The New Leaf Legal affiliation results from a long and successful history. New Leaf Legal drafted MassLandlords’ bylaws during our 2013 restructuring and have been helping us since. Under the affiliation, members receive discounted flat-rate pricing on the creation of new LLC’s and Inc’s. New Leaf is a boutique firm that specializes in business and intellectual property law services for startups, small business, entrepreneurs, and creatives. MassLandlords receives no compensation for this affiliation, it’s just something we think will help our members.

Our hiring continues, this month with Lisa Tardiff in Event Hospitality and Sales. Lisa travels with Brent Perry and me to our four directly managed monthly events in Springfield, Worcester, Waltham, and Cambridge.

On a related note, we rolled out a new Square point-of-sale system, which is our first step towards automated check-in and attendance tracking. Now we can quickly process credit cards, checks, and cash. We can print receipts and better control our process. We are looking at ways to recognize membership status as at a health club, where members “beep in.” We are also looking to allow “shopping cart” functionality on the website so that event tickets can be purchased the way you’d expect. We believe we have answers to each of these.

We have also posted a very part-time position for “Curriculum Designer,” a role we want to fill long-term as a director of education. Short-term, the Curriculum Designer will plan events and make sure that slides shown meet our learning objectives and are correct.

Alexis Gee, who you will know as our Manager of Marketing and Events, is now officially Manager of Communications and Member Service. Alexis will continue supporting events and will focus on helping each of us take advantage of our benefits as we grow. Alexis, Sue, and I can all be reached most quickly via hello@masslandlords.net.

Going forward, pay attention to your email because we have rolled out our annual Policy Priorities Survey, and we are preparing for our April 14 Policy Forum. The survey and the Forum are your chance to democratically steer the association’s limited resources. There are many more challenges than we will be able to address, but when we decide as a group which one or two priorities to focus on, we can share that perspective and together create better rental housing in Massachusetts.

Sincerely,
Doug Quattrochi
hello@masslandlords.net