Good evening,

My name is Bill Quick.  I am an Assessor and proud  of it.  I am grateful to you, the Assessors of our great state, for electing me to be your president.

Through the years, I have heard many of these speeches - some have been inspirational and some have laid out grand plans for our Association.  We even had one incoming President lead us in song!

As I agonized and procrastinated over my speech, I tried to think of what message I could bring tonight.  Then it came to me.  The one thing that has inspired me when things get rough and that one word is "FAMILY."

Why family?  Because we Assessors are a family.  True - a large and diverse family that doesn't always agree - but a family anyway. 

The most obvious is we share a proud and ancient name - Assessor. 

We nurture our young (meaning new Assessors).

We have family reunions - at Cornell, the Fall Conference and our county meetings.

When one of us has trouble fulfilling their duties, we help, even when we don't see eye to eye with our peers.  When push comes to shove, we all work together to solve the problem.

It is true, we have some black sheep.  But we don't let that deter us in our service to the taxpayer of this great state.

We have many aunts and uncles who teach us by example and in the classroom.  We call them mentors.

We celebrate life's ups and downs together.  We attend funerals, weddings and anniversaries together; we attend retirement parties, picnics and Christmas parties.  We celebrate births, birthdays and many others of life's victories together.

Over the next year, I believe we will be dealing first with a lame duck administration, and then with a new group whose number one concern is property tax reform.  My aim is that we are considered as part of the cure and not the problem.  To that end, I plan on creating a Blue Ribbon Panel to guide the new administration in that direction and to include us in any reform discussions.

Family - think about it!

The other concern is reappointment.  Many of you will not be here next year because of retirement or non-reappointment.  To those of you who are retiring - Godspeed!  You will be missed - keep in touch.

To those of you who will not be reappointed, there will be many vacancies - make sure to check our website.

Family - think about it!

I would like to thank some people who have guided me to this point.  Sue Otis, Tom and Pat Frey - without you, this Association would not be what it is.  Dave Briggs, Roger Tibbetts, Mike Fogarty and his right-hand man, Tom Masten.  Rick Hubner, Andrea Nilon, Curt Schoerberl, Todd Wiley, Nick Longo, Pat Duffy, and Fred Pask.  My County Director, Paul Burkhard, and two who are no longer with us: "JR" - Jim Ritter - and Tom Logan.  Also, three County Associations I consider as my own:  Sullivan County, my home county, and Orange and Ulster counties who have adopted me as one of their own.

Also, I would like to thank my eight kids and their spouses, my 22 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

And last, but not least, my wife of 51 years, Jackie, who has put up with me no matter what.

There are many more, but time limits my list.

Family - think about it!

Over the next year, I plan on traveling from one end of our state to the other, to visit as many branches of our family as possible.

Invite me - I will come.

Family - think about it!

To go back to my opening - one other thing I learned about from listening to speeches: the best ones were the shortest.

With that in mind, I bid you a good evening.