President’s Message

Dear Chapter Members, Colleagues and Friends:

I would like to thank all of you for attending our events and for continuing to choose the Long Island Chapter for your education needs.  You are the professionals that make our Chapter unique and it is a privilege to serve as your 2026 President of the LI Chapter along with my fellow Elected Officers, Directors, and Committee Members.

Thank you, Don Franklin, MAI, for your leadership as President this past year and many thanks to all of you who attended and sponsored the Installation Dinner.  Mike Mignogna, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS and 2026 AI National President honored our chapter by attending.  Mike presented the Appraisal Institute’s Strategic Plan and fielded questions from the membership at this event.

To help our members achieve their educational and professional goals, the Long Island Chapter has several offerings scheduled in 2026 including a virtual Artificial Intelligence seminar hosted by Roy Meyer (February 26th), virtual 2026-2027 USPAP course (March 6th), two new back-to-back URAR companion courses created by the Appraisal Institute (both on March 16th), the next installment of the Litigation Appraising series in-person with instructor Stephen Roach, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS (March 23rd-25th), virtual Business Practices and Ethics with instructor Bob Smith, MAI, AI-GRS (April 17th), as well as additional USPAP opportunities later in the year, both virtual (July 10th) and in-person USPAP (December 11th) with instructor Bob Smith, MAI, AI-GRS.

To initiate relationships and promote our membership, dinner meetings and programs with allied and complimentary organizations will be organized in 2026.  Joint events with the Suffolk County Bar Association and the CBMF Community Bankers are being planned for later in the year, along with 2-hour continuing education dinner seminars with dates and topics to be determined.  Be sure to check our website’s calendar for the dates of our 2026 events.

The planned social events for 2026 include our annual baseball and golf outings.  John Biordi, MAI, AI-GRS is organizing the Mets-Yankee Baseball outing, which will be held on May 15th at Citi Field.  Bob Smith, MAI, AI-GRS, Matt Smith, MAI, SRA, Tony Marmorale, SRA, AI-RRS, and Patrick Smith will organize the Chapter’s Annual Golf Outing to be held at the Harbor Links Golf Course on August 4th. Last year’s event turned out to be a major fundraising and networking event that was attended by appraisers, lenders, attorneys, environmental inspectors, and other allied professionals. We are also looking forward to our “Next Generation of Appraisers” social event especially for all new appraisers - both new, young trainees first starting out and those finding appraising as a second career. More details to follow soon!

The LI Chapter website, ailongisland.org, is comprehensive with links to education, scholarships, candidate issues, events, contacts and member profiles. Some of our Chapter sponsors have already committed to renewing their sponsorship.  We appreciate your financial support as it enables the Chapter to serve its members. Please consider an individual or a corporate sponsorship. Events and dinner sponsorships are also available. Specific information and benefits can be found on the Chapter website.

I am looking forward to seeing you at a Chapter event in 2026!

Steven J. Salerno, MAI                                                                                                                                              2026 President, Appraisal Institute Long Island Chapter