Letter from the Executive Director for October 2016

Letter from the Executive Director: September’s Fits and Starts

Overall September was a good month but it was not without disappointment. I’ll talk about what went well and what didn’t. Remember that we’re growing the first trade association for landlords in Massachusetts, and that our two goals are economically valuable services and legislatively effective size.

First on the list of “what went well” is completing the major pieces of the dissolution and transfer of the Rental Housing Association of Greater Springfield. There are a few loose ends to tie up, but the hardest work is done. We have accepted their assets, activated voting privileges for RHAGS members, and hired their previous staff, Sue McMahon, as our Senior Manager of Member Service and Marketing. There’s an article elsewhere in this issue that explains our annual election cycle for new voting members.

Second, we updated our single-most popular website article, “Which Tenant Screening Service is Best?” We now have over a dozen services listed and rated, and we have updated our recommendations slightly to include both SmartScreen and Zumper.

Third, we submitted our idea for Insurance Against Homelessness to the team behind Freakonomics, a national podcast that explores surprising or innovative ideas. They liked it, and we presented the topic for a few minutes on their new spin-off, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. I was recorded on Thursday, September 29. When the link comes out for public listening, we will share it.

Fourth and finally, we sold out of tickets for the Crash Course in Springfield. (Technically the course was October 1, but we’ll count it as a September victory.) The Crash Course is unique in Massachusetts, in that it places less emphasis on the law and more emphasis on succeeding in the rental business. Because we limit class size, everyone leaves having had time to ask all their questions. It’s fun and highly rated.

But not all that happened in September was positive.

First, we didn’t win the United Way Grant. We proposed to create a pilot for Insurance Against Homelessness. Our 10 page proposal (with supporting documents) hinged on our ability to engage landlords, so we asked our members to call the United Way to show support. A day later, after what our analytics indicate might have been as many as 40 calls or emails, we were contacted by Jeff Hayward, Chief of External Affairs, who asked us to stop. We immediately emailed members asking them to stop. But what we didn’t say in that email was that Jeff was angry. He told me that we had hurt our chances of getting the grant. It seemed to him that we were trying to bully them. I apologized, and explained that the purpose of the calls was only to demonstrate positive support, and our ability to engage landlords. I said if he had received any negative communications at all that he should say so, and that I would deal with it. But he didn’t. That was the last we spoke. Three weeks later, we received an unformatted, four-sentence email from Russet Morrow. It thanked us for our proposal and told us we had not been chosen.

Second, related to the grant, the Small Property Owners Association Newsletter voted not to act as our fiscal agent. We needed a (c)3 to accept any grant award, but SPOA News decided Insurance Against Homelessness was too far afield and not the win-win-win we had asserted. Some part of the SPOA News decision may have been related to internal politics. In any event, we are now left without a state-wide, landlord-oriented (c)3. We cannot apply for any more grants until we find another (c)3.

The failure of politics to address hard problems seems to be the theme of the season. In Massachusetts, 79% of legislative elections are unopposed this year. We are trying to showcase “democracy in action” (or is it, “democracy inaction”?) with our Worcester and Springfield Candidates’ Nights, but that’s all we can do for now. Stay tuned, each month we get bigger and better. The best is yet to come.

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