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Hello WLIA Members,
As I move into my Past President Role, I wanted to send you all a final Message. The 37th Annual Conference was a record breaker all around. We had over 400 attendees, a record number of exhibitors and sponsors, and to the thrill of everyone have raised over $9,000 for the WLIA Foundation. For reference, we typically only hit the 400-attendee mark in Madison. To hit it in Green Bay is phenomenal, especially considering our post-pandemic numbers. We had a large student presence this year, which was awesome. Thank you to all who went out of their way to make them feel welcome. And thank you to those students who volunteered to help. Colter and the Annual Conference Team did a great job of pulling this together. Congratulations to all for a job well-done.
One of my favorite things from the past year was presenting the 2024 Awards. It was the highlight of the conference. Our awards winners this year are:
- Allen H Miller Sustained Service Award: Jim Landwehr
- President’s Award: Adam Dorn
- Government Achievement Award: Town of Grand Chute
- Outstanding Contribution Award: David Buehler
- Friend of Land Records Award: Joseph Kerski
- Emerging Leader Award: Emily Berth, Stephanie Pasowicz, Zakry Schwartz
- Distinguished Service Award: Kim Christman, Laurel Hodkiewicz, Joe Fleischmann, Kim Meinert, Shelley Witte
Make sure to read all about them in our 2024 Awards Winners article.
The Legislative Committee has been hard at work these past couple of months as several new bills have been introduced. Please keep an eye out for coming updates about AB966/SB927 which pertains to the privacy of judicial officers and will have profound implications around the land records/Registers of Deeds communities. The Technical Committee has been tasked with creating a task force to work with other land records organizations across the state for the implementation of the policies that are most likely going to come out of this.
Our financial situation remains strong. The Board voted last year to pull money from the reserves and put them into 7-, 11- and 15- month CDs to take advantage of higher interest rates. While we did finish with a small loss ($187), our reserves are still within the recommendations for a non-profit organization of our size. Food costs, our biggest conference expense, and meeting room fees are continuing to rise. Ann Barrett, our Executive Services Manager, is keeping an eye on things for us and negotiating prices.
Make sure to check out our 2023 Annual Report for more details about the work the Board has been doing and the Treasurer’s Report. You can follow the Board year-round by reading the Documents and Reports on the Board of Directors page on the website.
Thank you to everyone who helped make the WLIA 2023-2024 Membership Year a great one! I look forward to seeing what we accomplish moving forward.
Jennifer Borlick
Past President
Wisconsin Land Information Association
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