Response to our first webinar has been quite extraordinary with over 100 registrants eager to participate in discussions on Building Consensus to Avoid Assessment Appeals and Litigation on October 14th, 2009. We anticipate a follow up dealing with Assessment Litigation in an Economic Downturn in January, 2010.

We were extremely pleased to learn that IPTIpedia, IPTI’s information resource library was nominated by the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) for the Award of Excellence in Valuation to be presented at their Annual Conference in Bournemouth, England. In attendance at the award ceremony on October 2nd, 2009, were IPTI Advisory Board members, Philip Glenwright, Paul Sanderson and David Wilkes, during which IPTI was highly commended by the IRRV for the IPTIpedia database program. IPTIpedia currently provides a consolidated source of property tax and assessment information for 32 countries, with more countries being added on a continual basis. We are also pleased to announce that we have expanded our International Advisory Professional members who continuously update and monitor the accuracy of the information.

I am meeting with the International Conference Organizing Committee, headed up by Philip Western, on October 8th to finalize the date for our 13th International Conference in Adelaide, Australia. We anticipate that program content will be up on the web by the end of October. Dates for the 5th Mass Appraisal Valuation Symposium, which is being offered in co-operation with the Rating and Valuation Department, Hong Kong SAR and Polytechnic University, have been confirmed for June 17-18, 2010. This event will take place at the Polytechnic University, Hong Kong and is always much in demand.

Under the leadership of Jerry German, IPTI is entering into Phase III of the International Benchmarking Project. Current sponsors of this on-going project are the Valuation Office Agency, London, England and New South Wales Valuer General, Department of Lands.