Education and training budgets are thin during these economic times, if not non-existent. During the five year period from 2007 to 2012 when I worked as the chief assessor for a small jurisdiction, they had no budget at all for education and training. But during that time I managed to attend one international assessment conference, and several state-sponsored and appraisal organization-sponsored classroom or online courses.
For me, continuing education is not an optional undertaking, it’s a requirement. And in a fast-paced field like assessment administration and property valuation, it should be a desirable goal. While attending several courses attendees commented to me that it was a shame that my employer wasn’t paying for my educational expenses. My response was, well they are letting me take administrative leave with pay and I’m hoping my accountant agrees that it is a justifiable employee expense.
For those of you who run your own appraisal businesses, or tax compliance and management companies, I’m sure you can see the benefit of someone paying your salary while you are sitting in class or attending a three day conference. But this is seldom overlooked by people who haven’t been there. I have spent five of the last 10 years working as an independent property tax consultant. And I’ve attended educational courses knowing that I was not only paying to addend the course, but forgoing the opportunity cost of not producing any work while I was there.
No matter where you are in your career, invest in your education. It will be some of the best money you have ever spent and will endure for your lifetime. And knowledge is something you can pass on to others.
If you are an assessor or in the field of assessment administration, or property tax compliance and management, I urge you to buy the recently released Conference Proceeding of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO). I was fortunate enough to have attended the conference this year and it was packed with educational content. I spent about $2,500 attending the conference (I flew from Rome, Italy to Kansas City, Missouri), but you can get the proceeding for just $35, if you’re a member, and $55 if you’ve not a member.
And because there were so many interesting educational sessions each day, I will study the proceedings to find out what I missed while I was in my sessions. The following link will take you to the IAAO website to see a detailed description of the proceedings and purchase them:
http://www.iaao.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=EPROC_CONF-12
Be sure to give me your feedback on the proceedings. I really think you are going to enjoy them!
Richard
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