By: Tia Politi, ORHA President
Date: 08/01/2022
July meeting report
The board had a fun and productive meeting in July at the beautiful Oregon Gardens Resort. Comfortable beds in affordable rooms, excellent on-site restaurant (best hotel breakfast ever), lovely gardens to tour, and right in the darling town of Silverton. I hadn’t been there in years and was just reminded of what a charming place this is in our beautiful state. Makes me want to live there!
September Board Meeting & Leadership Dinner
September marks our annual meeting in Bend. Always a great time! Our Leadership Dinner at McMenamins Old St. Francis is scheduled for Friday, September 16th after Committee Meetings earlier in the day. This is a great opportunity to share a yummy dinner, hear updates on our committees, and the direction we are heading for the next year. Attendance is open to officers of our local chapters, along with committee chairs and/or delegates, up to two per association, and each guest can bring a plus one. Hope to see you there!
Bylaws change, Finance Committee
At the July meeting, we voted in a minor change in our bylaws regarding who may chair the Finance Committee. We removed the Treasurer from that position and now require that the chair be someone on the committee other than them. Thanks much to Lance Leseuer, President of the Klamath Falls ROA, for stepping up to fill that role. Other committee members include Treasurer Dennis Chappa of Lane ROA, Chuck DeSeranno, Vice President of Salem RHA, and Jason Brush, Vice President of Klamath ROA.
With sloppy practices by our former employee, there’s been a lot of work to do cleaning up the books. We are so pleased to have hired Lori Black to be our bookkeeper. At every meeting she shows us her progress cleaning things up, and it’s better every time. Thanks for your hard work, Lori!
ORHA Bylaws
Even though we implemented a lot of changes to our bylaws last year, the work continues. The Bylaws Committee is meeting again beginning in September to address issues we missed last time. Please feel free to send any suggestions to Bylaws Committee Chair and ORHA Vice President, Ben Seamans at VicePresident@oregonrentalhousing.com. We hope to have updates to vote on at our January or March meeting.
Switch to Microsoft Teams and new Email Policy for Officers and Committee Chairs
Thanks to the hard work by Ben Seamans and Cloud Miller, ORHA has switched to Microsoft Teams and Outlook email for all Officers and Committee Chairs. The board voted in favor of a new email policy as well. Read about the changes and check out the link to the new policy in Ben’s August Office Update elsewhere in the newsletter!
New rules in Eugene
Following the radical tenant agenda in Portland, the city of Eugene has implemented Phase One of their planned three-phase “tenant protection” ordinances. The new rules take effect August 13, 2022. Read my article later in the newsletter that spells out the new requirements as well as the plans to implement additional phases down the road.
What’s coming?
Will these types of restrictions be in place statewide? Yes, and more, if we don’t change the makeup of our state government. We need to continue educating lawmakers about our business and why enhanced restrictions only serve to decrease the supply of housing.
Remember, there’s still time to donate to the ORH Key PAC. The Committee is in the process of distributing the donations we’ve received so far and will work on a second round as funding permits. Our ability to influence the direction of legislation is partly dependent upon your generosity – money talks!
Thank you for your support! :)
