Apartment Trends Magazine July 2015 | Page 8

FROM THE PRESIDENT DJ LONGO | TERRA FIRMA REAL ESTATE Thinking small will yield big results F irst, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who was at June Awards last month. The warm reception I received as incoming President meant a great deal to me. Special thanks to Don Werner, as our installation officer, he was excellent! Don’s friendship, leadership and mentorship has meant so much to me over the years. Many of you may not know that in college I majored in microbiology… four years of studying bacteria and viruses. I still find it as fascinating now as I did thenhow organisms can be influenced and changed so they behave in a desired way or produce a desired outcome. If you provide yeast the right conditions and food and they transform barley into beer! Just the right bacteria with milk gives us cheese! And of course millions of lives have been saved with penicillin! Just as uniquely, Apartment Communities can be thought of as microcosms. Under the right care and careful management- rental properties can produce desired outcomes of quality housing, happy tenants, great jobs and profitable investments. It was famous micro-biologist Rene Dubos who may have coined the phrase “think globally and act locally” that can be the epitome of being small. Our association has become the 6th largest NAA affiliate in the entire nation. As the association grows in membership with investors from all over the world, we must continue to think and become small-- and deliver our benefits on a very local individual basis. )Q