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It is hard to believe that time of year has rolled
around again. Your CATA executive board has been hard at work since
the last conference ended planning and organizing for the 2006 conference.
The review of some of the old records, dating back as recently as
2002, reveals that our conference has undergone some amazing changes.
Over the past several years, as a board, we have worked very hard
to listen to the needs of the membership and have attempted to meet
those needs. We added some non-CE credit, (self improvement type
classes) to the class survey this year, and your votes indicated
that you were not interested at this time. We saw that many members
were not able to participate in the business meeting so we added
a dinner meeting mid-week to allow for greater participation. We
saw, and were informed that the dinner meeting was too long and
did not fully meet your needs last year so we are improving it this
year. These are just a very few of the many things we work to improve
on each year as you express your needs. I say all of this just to
let you know that the CATA executive board is working very hard
to meet the needs of the membership. Participating in the surveys
and evaluations is paramount if you do not feel your needs are being
met.
Conference Dates – Monday October
2 through Thursday October 5, 2006. This
is about a month later than prior years. This change was driven
mostly by room rates and minimum guarantees. The initial reaction
is that this is more convenient for some and less convenient for
others. Ultimately, if the room rates are not reasonable, it is
our current feeling that attendance will be dramatically less.
Conference Events
| Pizza Party
Monday Night |
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The Pizza Party last year was a huge success.
We are working on different venues to pull this, or something
similar, off again this year. There will be more details later
if we can get something put together. |
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| Dance Tuesday Night |
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Who will win the coveted 2006 CATA Cup? In its fourth year
of existence, this honor goes to the county who has the most
spirit at the dance and the county which most consistently dresses
and behaves in the context of the theme to the dance. Last year’s
winner was Park County as they showed us what the Disco
70's were all about. They inherited the award from
the Neanderthals from Elbert County as they had the most “Yabba
Dabba Good Time.” This year’s theme, chosen
by the current CATA Cup holders, as is the custom, is
Mardi Gras. Prepare your costumes and get festive! |
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| Wednesday Night Dinner Meeting |
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The CATA executive board was very attentive to the many concerns
with the dinner meeting last year. The dinner meeting can be
a very good idea, as it can facilitate more participation from
the membership on voting issues. We hope to have learned from
last year and hope you will give it another chance this year. |
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| Speaker |
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We asked JoAnne Groff, the new property
tax administrator, if she would be willing to introduce
herself. Many of you may not have had a chance to meet,
or get to know her, and this seems like a very appropriate
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| Election |
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 Our
mid conference plenary session gives the most members
the greatest opportunity to participate in the most
important decision that CATA members make – election
of CATA Executive Board Members. Along with the dedication
to professional practice which is the hallmark of CATA
members, and along with the support Colorado counties
have given to this conference, CATA’s well-deserved
excellent reputation is directly attributable to its
dedicated Executive Board Members. All positions but
the Treasurer are open this year. Those positions are
President, Secretary (two year term), 1st Vice President,
2nd Vice President, and 2 board members.
Loren Morrow will fill one of the
three board positions, as it is customary for the past
president to serve in this capacity to give insight
and guidance to what could be a substantially different
board. The board asks that any members who are assured
of their Assessor’s support, and are willing and
able to devote a fair amount of time, consider running
for this board. The current board members get a lot
of satisfaction from their efforts, but that is in large
part because of how actively involved they are, and
are expected to be, in order to have the conference
organized in a timely fashion. |
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 Important
notice to members – due to budgetary and planning considerations,
in order to attend this dinner, members must get a dinner
ticket when you register – if you do not get a ticket,
you will not be able to get dinner at our business meeting.
Unfortunately, there will be no exceptions to this.
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Refreshments
As always, there will be a Continental breakfast
each morning, and refreshments for the morning and afternoon class
breaks.
Classes
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We began offering classes on Monday to better
meet the needs of the membership. We found that many individuals
were given Monday as a travel day and were arriving fairly
early in the day. We made some classes, and therefore CE hours,
available for the afternoon for those wishing to take advantage
of this time. The participation has remained very favorable,
which in turn encourages us to continue to make this option
available.
DPT – Our conference could
not exist without the equally affordable and high quality
education provided by the Division of Property Taxation. Appraisal
Standards Manager Curt Settle and Harry Fuller have worked
very hard with our Education member of the Board, Debbie Fangmeier
(Weld County), to provide yet another fresh assortment and
broad spectrum of classes which have wide appeal. Thanks also
to Property Tax Administrator JoAnne Groff for her continued
support of the CATA conference.
Class Note: DPT (2-day) Class - Cost,
Market & Income Review is NOT Tested!
This class is NOT tested, and is approved for continuing education
credits ONLY.
The CATA Board of Directors apologizes for the error.
Private Sector Providers – If you
haven’t taken Jim Felt’s Colorado Water Law, this
is the year to do it. This class has gotten great reviews
in the past. “The history of Colorado is written in
water.” If you don’t know this, you are from Ohio.
We are also welcoming back several of our past instructors
and assessment education providers including Deane Wilson,
ASFMRA, and McKissock. We have a couple of new education providers
on the schedule this year including the Lincoln Graduate Center
and Thimgan & Associates.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The SPSS class offered by Thimgan and
Associates is an introductory class and is for those with
little or no current experience with SPSS. This class is only
available to county assessor personnel.
Appraisal Institute – CATA
welcomes back the Appraisal Institute to our conference. We
are very pleased to be able to continue our association with
the Appraisal Institute. They will be offering a class called
“Rates & Ratios: Making Sense of GIMs, OARs, DCF.”
Once again this class is being offered at far below normal
Appraisal Institute prices. We are very appreciative of their
willingness and ability to work with us.
Apex – Randy Garret, Apex
president, who has been a loyal and long time supporter, vendor
and contributor to CATA and to the assessment industry in
Colorado, again contributes his time and energy to present
the Mobile Technology class. This is a great way to see new
and fun tools and to kick off your participation in the conference
on Monday, while attaining 3 CE hours.
Vendors – We are extremely
pleased with the participation that our Vendors have provided
over the past few years. Last year we were excited to welcome
Ian Lamont from Spatialist, our first international guest
to the conference. He will be joining us once again this year.
We have grown to really count on the tremendous support we
receive from Apex (Randy Garrett,) Tylerworks (Dave Hawker,)
and CCI. These vendors have gone far beyond the minimum vendor
fee we have instituted. These particular vendors also give
us tremendous moral support in their commitment to our conference.
There are a host of other vendors that may return. We have
contacted several other vendors to come on board this year.
The Copper Mountain facility gives us more room to have vendors
set up and we hope to encourage a few more to participate
with us. We are pleased to announce that CCI has agreed to
provide our name badges again this year. This gesture translates
into about a $1200 gift to CATA. It has only been through
the generosity of vendors such as CCI that we have been able
to do a few new things the past couple of years that we were
unable to do previously.
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DOWNLOAD YOUR REGISTRATION FORMS HERE!
All registrations must be submitted by mail or FAX to Treasurer,
Ken Larsen. Please submit one registration form per member. One
check may be submitted per County to cover all of those registering.
All forms should be mailed or faxed (and followed with payment by
mail) to:
| Mail To:
Colorado Association of Tax Appraisers
Ken Larson - CATA Treasurer
PO Box 891
Boulder, CO 80306
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Fax To:
Ken Larson – CATA Treasurer
Fax Number: 303-441-4996 |
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