Tom Lico Passes On the President's Gavel for the Michigan Land Title Association
As July ends, so does the 1 year term of President of the Michigan Land Title Association (MLTA) for our President and COO, Tom Lico.
Tom passed the gavel to the incoming 2020-2021 President, Darlene Wilsey last week, during our 2020 MLTA Annual Convention, Virtual-Style. As you can imagine, Tom’s term was fraught with unexpected and unprecedented events with the corona virus epidemic.
Much of what his term will be remembered for are the things that kept our industry viable during the last 4 months. Those things included:
Register of Deeds – During the initial Stay at Home Order, title companies were busy closing deals in their pipeline and continuing to close refinance transactions. A priority was identifying which Register of Deeds’ offices were open and which were closed, and getting those that were closed to open. Weekly Zoom calls with the Michigan Association of Realtors (MAR) and the MLTA helped to keep track and report this information to the membership.
Communication with the Governor’s office on the following areas:
“Essential Service” - It was important that the MLTA leadership kept in contact with the governor’s office to make sure that our industry remained an “essential service” during the Stay at Home order, educating her and her staff on how title companies support the financial industry’s transactions.
eNotary – With the focus of minimizing personal contact during closings, MLTA worked with the governor’s office on shaping the directives for the temporary allowance of audio-visual online notarial acts (AVON) executive order, and the extension of that order.
American Land Title Association (ALTA) – Keeping in contact with our national association (ALTA) and sharing Michigan’s orders and challenges on a regular basis was done via the hosting of Town Hall meetings on Zoom between the MLTA and ALTA.
Educational Offerings – Created, produced and completed MLTA’s first virtual Boot Camp: Title 101 with about 200 in attendance for each of the 5 sessions, which was a record number of attendees!
Organized and produced the first ever all-virtual MLTA Convention, held Monday, July 13th. Four National Speakers presented with the theme of “innovation”; each with their own twist on how to innovate in different aspects of our business. And back by popular demand for the 2nd year in a row, our very own Dan Elsea gave his Michigan Market Update to the membership.
While this wasn’t the year you expected, your leadership and dedication resulted in making the title industry known and respected by those in our community and throughout the state. Please make sure you say “thank you” to Tom the next time you see him.
By: Lisa Rozmarniewicz