Letter from the Executive Director for January 2016

Happy New Year! At the start of last year, I set out to make us all aware of our twin goals: economically valuable services and legislatively effective size. I believe we have made great progress on both fronts. I would like to recap the progress made in 2015 and reaffirm these goals for 2016.

Our first goal, “economically valuable services”, is a baroque way of saying “money.” We need money to operate as a trade association that can hold its ground. And we need money to invest in the cooperative economies of scale that will help our businesses be more successful. To date, we have had only two ways to get money: membership dues and event tickets. We focused very intensely on both.

Considering membership dues, we invested in our Home Depot partnership and tenant screening discounts. For the first time since I’ve been a landlord, our dues now pay for themselves, on a cash-on-cash basis, when we take advantage of these savings. And the intangible benefits have grown even greater: a complete set of Massachusetts-compliant rental forms (everything from applications to eviction notices); a service provider directory (167 rated providers and counting); and our message boards for local, 24/7 advice.

Considering event tickets, we have been working hard to find what makes for top-notch meetings. Worcester has been our test case. The first meeting practice we’ve come to value is the “zero sales” strategy, where all presentations must be educational and the sales pitch is only ever implied. This has eliminated unwanted sales pitches. The second practice has been surveying local members and paying attention to the local news. In Worcester this fall, for instance, we covered refugees and opioids, two topics that had been in the news and on our message board. Finally, we’ve been learning to curate speakers and presentations in advance. We now have ways to help subject matter experts be informative and appreciated even if they are not professional speakers.

For 2016, we’re going to reaffirm the goal of “economically valuable services.” In particular, we will sustain what we have and grow: a new partnership for cost savings; a third source of revenue besides dues and event tickets; and the sharing of Worcester meeting best practices across local groups.

Underlying “economically valuable services” is a hidden piece of the puzzle, “sustainable business process.” I don’t mean sustainable in the environmental sense, I mean it in the business continuity sense. Right now we rely on the extremely generous support of our many volunteers and underpaid staff. As we grow, we want to reinvest our revenue by paying our contributors what they are worth and making sure our processes are written, repeatable, and well executed.

Now let’s consider our second goal, “legislatively effective size.” This is another way of saying “votes.” We have the potential to improve the landlord-tenant landscape in Massachusetts by our sheer numbers. There are 70,000 landlords. We house 800,000 residents. Our contributions to housing matter. Our contributions to housing policy can matter. And in 2015, our newfound sense of cohesiveness did matter when we were given a seat on the Senate Special Commission on Housing.

The Commission has been a very eye-opening and positive experience for us, and more than that, we have convinced them to recommend Insurance Against Homelessness (aka the Landlord-Tenant Guarantee) as one of their primary recommendations. This will be a win-win-win: it will save the Commonwealth money, it will give the homeless real homes, and it will help landlords deal with the risks we take.

The primary reason Insurance Against Homelessness is now the Commission’s recommendation is your active participation. When we sent out our survey asking you what you thought, you took the time to read it, and we got many responses that indicated strong approval for the version we espoused. When the compromise language came in, our follow-up responses gave a strong rebuke. The fact that we could connect with hundreds of you so quickly did not go unnoticed. As we grow, so too will our influence for the better.

In 2016, we’re going to reaffirm the goal of “legislatively effective size”. But we’re not satisfied with the 1,050 members we have currently, impressive though you all are. There are hundreds of landlords who are members of non-participating groups. We want to sign up two more of these groups at least. And there is almost an entire state left (outside of the Marlborough to Springfield MassPike corridor) where we have little to no meeting presence. We want to fix that, especially in greater Boston.

Overall, we will continue to make membership financially worthwhile. And we will continue to build the foundation of public policy advocacy.

Thank you most sincerely for making 2015 a tremendous year. Let’s make 2016 even better.

Sincerely,
Doug Quattrochi
Executive Director
C: 617-285-7255