By: Tia Politi, ORHA President
August 2024

Wow!
A huge THANK YOU to the Salem Rental Housing Association (SRHA), the Southern Oregon Rental Owners Association (SOROA), and Diversified Property Management for their amazing generosity to the ORH KEY PAC. Each of the associations donated $5000, as did the Conser family, owners of Diversified where Legislative Director and Education Chair Jason Miller serves as General Manager.

Now for the rest of you…even if you can’t match it, remember that the work we do through the ORH KEY PAC opens the door to our message that landlords are not the problem, but partners in the solution to Oregon’s housing crisis. Please ask your boards whether there is room in your budget for a donation. Time is running short; the committee plans to distribute the final round of campaign contributions in late August/early September. Thanks for whatever you can contribute. 

July meeting recap
We had an adventurous time at our July meeting in Silverton. For those of us who chose to hike Silver Falls on Thursday we got a mixed bag. First, I fell after about the first half-mile, but thankfully was not seriously injured – the trails were rockier and less smooth than I remembered. Then Veda Bell of TVRA decided her knees couldn’t take a longer hike and she detoured to a shorter loop. We saw several gorgeous waterfalls, of course, but my idea of hiking the entire 7+ mile loop was kyboshed after we went halfway! We were tired by then and called Veda to see where she was at.

Turns out our lady with the bad knees got sidetracked on a loop (the signage at the park is less than ideal), ended up on the road and was still walking when we called her. She ended up back at the parking area and came and rescued the rest of us at the halfway point! Anyway, we got to see a lot of beauty and had some great conversations about the future of ORHA along the way. Even when we go out and do things, the topic always comes back to ORHA – funny how that works.

On Friday after committee meetings, we were still tired from the hike the day before so just took the tram through Oregon Gardens. We were lucky to get a knowledgeable driver whose interpretive talks taught us all more about the different facets of Oregon Gardens including the reuse of waste water to form wetlands on the property, as well as their research gardens and composting workshops.

At the Saturday board meeting we approved the revisions to the bylaws that the Executive Committee (EC) had worked on under the leadership of Vice President and Technology Chair, Cloud Miller. This was our second round of changes over three years, so we’re glad it’s done, and we can move on to other things. The revised bylaws will be sent out to the association offices soon from the ORHA Executive Committee email.

To ensure that meetings run on time, and to prevent the meeting agenda from becoming overloaded, the EC presented the new ORHA Meeting Attendance Policy. This policy is not intended to silence anyone or prevent any member of any association from contributing to the ideas or issues facing our organization. Input may be directed to the Executive Committee, a specific committee chair, or through your local association delegate. We hope you will consider taking your turn at leadership and participate meaningfully in the success of the Oregon Rental Housing Association. Share your ideas, contribute your time using your strengths. This policy was sent out to the association offices on 07/31/2024 from the ORHA Executive Committee email.

The EC has worked on a new Advertising Policy as the office has continued to receive complaints about the number of ads they get and how the offering of free classes is impacting on their class attendance. What was cool about it was that we didn’t have the policy fully formulated so the board worked together to finalize it and had a great time. We may do that more in the future when we’re looking at changes. This policy was sent out to the association offices on 07/31/2024 from the ORHA Executive Committee email.

Unfortunately, that didn’t give us enough time to really dive into another policy proposal from Technology Chair Cloud Miller, which was to include everything that ORHA does in Profit Sharing, including our sales of paper forms. The motion did pass, but there was some resistance, and the vote was closer than I would have liked: seven yes, to four no. For the ‘no’ folks who got outvoted, I reassured them that if it doesn’t work out, we can always vote to change it back. This policy will be sent out to the association offices soon from the ORHA Executive Committee email.

And this last year printed forms did make a small profit which would have increased the profit-sharing checks that are due out at the end of August. Sometimes, printed forms sales are in the negative but as Cloud successfully argued, we should all have skin in the game for better or worse, and with the astronomical growth of the Forms Store, even in low-profit years it should have little impact. The new system for calculating profit sharing will be added and implemented starting with the 2024-2025 annual calculations.

Both policies will be updated in our ORHA Policies document and sent out to the association offices soon from the ORHA Executive Committee email.

September meeting in Bend
Looking forward to our September meeting in Bend. It’s always one of the best. This year, everything will be happening at McMenamin’s, including the hosted Leadership Dinner on Friday night (with a no-host bar) after committee meetings, the Saturday board meeting and Sunday morning training. Check out the ORHA Office Report from Ben Seamans for details and remember to get your room reserved and RSVP before 08/06/2024.

See you in September for work and fun!