member benefits | National Inventory Certification Association

03 May 2017

Introducing NICA’s Newest Associate Member, Renovation Angel

A few months ago, Steve Feldman of Renovation Angel and Ray Nugent of Nugent Appraisal Services, held a conference call for NICA members. After explaining how they work together, and their vision of including home inventory professionals to assist with these projects, we determined that there is an obvious synergy with Renovation Angel. We are pleased that they have chosen to become an Associate Member.

Renovation Angel is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Providing their recycling services in all 50 states, they are North America’s premier luxury kitchen renovation and furniture recycling enterprise. They have conducted thousands of projects including members of the Forbes 400, celebrities, sports stars, and high-net-wealth property owners.

It all started when Founder Steve Feldman saw a “Demolition in Progress” sign at the former residence of Farah Pahlavi, the Last Empress of Iran, who had lived in a 10,000 square foot Rockefeller mansion. When he drove up the driveway, he found that the house was gone. Completely demolished, with nothing saved or recycled!

With a desire to raise funds for other non-profit organizations, this gave him the idea to start a demolition donation program. The idea turned into a pilot project, and in 2005, Steve started Green Demolitions. In nine years they became America’s leading recycler of luxury pre-owned kitchens and showroom displays. Then in 2012, Renovation Angel was formed as the official donation program of Green Demolitions, and has since supported dozens of non-profits, with the number of programs continuing to grow.

Homeowners receive financial benefits of tens of thousands of dollars in savings for qualified projects. The clients receive

a full tax deduction
free, white-glove, insured, professional removal/pack/transport
no disposal fees.

Since 2005, Renovation Angel has created over $17 million in jobs, donated over $2.2 million to charitable programs, recycled over 4,700 kitchens, and diverted over 27 million pounds from landfills!

Teaming up with NICA is a benefit for Renovation Angel, our inventory professional Members, and Associate Member Nugent Appraisal Services. Tapping into the NICA membership, Project Angel can save travel time and expenses by utilizing your expertise. When Renovation Angel receives a recycling project, NICA members located near the renovation site (preferably those who have achieved the Certified Appraisal Examiner designation) will have the opportunity to assist. You will inventory the items to be donated, which entails measuring, logging descriptions, and taking photographs. Since these donated items need to have a value assigned for tax purposes, Nugent is called on to provide the appraisals.

This is what NICA has envisioned since its inception, and we are very excited to see it coming together, bringing all an additional benefit of membership. Working together on projects and calling on each others’ expertise is very exciting. Associate members have ready resources, and the inventory professional members have access to additional income streams – this enables all to find new opportunities and business growth.

05 Oct 2016

New Membership Category

As we continue to focus on creating a firm foundation for our member association, we realized the need to include companies that have a synergistic relationship with the home inventory industry. Therefore, we are happy to announce a newly created membership category – Associate Member.

This membership level is designed for companies that have a quality service or product that brings value to the asset inventory industry.

Associate member benefits

The Associate Member receives a variety of promotional opportunities via the newsletter and our social media accounts, referrals to do business with their target market, and a listing in the NICA online directory.

This benefits the inventory professional members by having access to companies who focus on the asset inventory industry and have been vetted by our management team. We anticipate referral opportunities between our regular and our associate members as well.

If you know a person or company that would be interested in working with and marketing directly to home and business inventory professionals, please share this information with them, and recommend that they contact us to learn more about becoming an Associate Member of NICA.

17 Aug 2016

We Asked; You Answered

Over the past few ,months, we asked you to take surveys, telling us what you think. We truly appreciate all of you who took the time to respond.

We kept the questions, and the number of questions, to a minimum, respecting your time. Knowing that everyone is busy, we truly do appreciate your responses. By giving us your preferences, you are enabling us to serve you in the manner you choose.

Survey categories

The three categories that were included were 1) member benefits, 2) continuing education courses, and 3) customer service. We discovered:

what benefits you find most important, so we can continue to focus on those first
what courses you want to see added to the curriculum, and one is already contracted
that we are very responsive to your calls and emails, and we commit to continuing to retain that level of assisting you.

That’s a lot of information!

You helped create the vision

We now have a vision for the remainder of 2016 and for 2017. We will use your survey results to guide us as we make these decisions of what to work on first, and what should be tabled for later.

We offer each of you a BIG thank you for your participation!

29 Jun 2016

Benefits Survey Results

Our May survey focused on benefits. It is extremely important for NICA to know what benefits we offer are valued, and what benefits are good, but not ranking at the top of the list. Knowing what you, as members, value from your education association will help guide us as we grow and improve.

Following are the questions and the responses we received from members and nonmembers.

Please rank the NICA member benefits in order of importance

Being listed on the website directory, which provides referral opportunities
The opportunity to achieve certification
Being affiliated with other professionals in a national association
Having a press release written and distributed announcing your earned certification
50% discount off continuing education courses and the certification exam
Having a press release written and distributed announcing other industry news about you and/or your company
Being promoted in NICA social media posts
Opportunity to be a guest blogger on the NICA website

Overwhelmingly, being listed in the directory is the number one benefit. Each member who owns a home inventory business is listed once all the information if provided to NICA. When you achieve certification, your listing is in bold text, which tells those visitng the website that you have achieved your CIS designation.

The opportunity to be certified ranked second. We will continue to concentrate on our focus as we learn what topics are of greatest interest to you.

What other benefits would you like to see NICA offer?

A second (higher) level of certification (after set # of years in business and further education). TIED with #2
Specialty recognition of expertise, such as specializing in Home Inventories, specializing in Loss inventories, etc., with required courses to achieve these specialties. TIED with #1
Virtual (online) convention that might include webinars for CEUs, Google Hangouts, etc.
Onsite convention.
Conference calls for information-sharing.

The certification options (#1 and #2) will be researched and given a great deal of attention. We will keep you updated on this initiative.

06 Apr 2016

New Benefits for NICA Members

A key benefit for all National Inventory Certification Association members is the opportunity to have a professionally written press release prepared announcing the achievement of certification. This press release is distributed to national press release sites and posted on the NICA blog. Additionally, the blog post and press releases are shared on the association’s social media Facebook and Twitter accounts. The member also receives a pdf file of the press release to send to local media outlets if they choose.

All of these efforts help promote each achievement and provide additional recognition for each NICA member who chooses to achieve certification.

Realizing the value of this type of exposure for the member as well as the association, we have added two new benefits that provide additional promotion opportunities for our members.

Press releases for NICA members

Adding to the current press release benefit for announcing certification, NICA will now also write industry-related press releases for all members. Member Jo Soard recently achieved her Graduate Personal Property Appraiser (GPPA) and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisals Practice (USPAP) designations, as was the first to receive this new benefit. She provided the information to NICA and the press release was created, distributed, and posted for her, as well as being placed as one of our blog posts.

In addition to becoming a certified appraiser, some of our members are also professional organizers, photo organizers, project managers, insurance agents, etc. When milestones are achieved, if you add a service to your home inventory business, or want to announce any other industry-related activity, let us know and we will have a professionally written press release created and distributed for any member who requests this benefit.

Guest blogging

Gain more exposure by being a contributing blogger for the NICA blog! In our continued effort to provide education and valuable knowledge for the inventory industry, NICA has chosen to offer a new benefit for members who enjoy writing. Do you already write blog a blog? Do you write newsletters or articles about the home inventory industry? If not, do you want to start?

We encourage all members who have a talent for writing to consider this. Along with your article, we will include your bio, photo, and link to your website. If interested, contact the NICA office and we will provide the details for you.

717-827-6422

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