TitleBytes News & Happenings

MLTA President’s Report

By John Bommarito, MLTA President

Education and Representation are two of the primary values the MTLA brings to its members. So far, it’s been a busy time on both fronts since our July convention.

On the education front, the Education Committee is busy setting the agenda for all the education seminars through 2018. They are also continuing work on producing our famous “boot camp” series. In addition, the Education Committee is working with the Board in reviewing the education seminar survey results (thanks to all who participated!). One suggestion the Board is contemplating is a switch to ONE of the 2 annual education seminars to more of a “summit” style conference format in a more central location.

On the Representation side, the Steering committee is finalizing a draft that will suggest changes to the Marketable Title Act. We will advise all of you once we have something tangible to introduce as a bill. In addition, we have been recently contacted by the Secretary of State’s office to begin discussing the concepts of electronic signature and electronic notarizations and what changes to the laws, if any, might be necessary in order to facilitate those concepts. It is important to point out that Cami Pendell, our lobbyist, was contacted BEFORE the Sec of State took any action or introduced any legislation. They want to talk with us first and we have already started a dialogue.

After the September Board meeting, all the committee chairs and vice chairs were invited to have lunch with the Board. Primarily, we discussed expectations of the various roles and the Board and ways the committees could work more effectively together. The Board encouraged the committees to set 2 goals each for the upcoming year. I think getting everyone in the same room was a great success and I hope it will begin to foster more effective communication between committees and the Board as well as empower the committee chairs to find more efficient ways to deliver value to the MLTA membership.
Thank you to all our committee members who, thus far, have participated to improve our MLTA.

Our next event is the fall education seminar, presented in Grand Rapids on October 18 and again in Livonia on November 15. See the MLTA website for more info and to register. If you haven’t already done so, download our event app. We use the app for many of the MLTA events (except the boot camps at this time) and it contains a lot of useful information right at your fingertips. We will be using it for the fall education seminars.