July - September 2006

Going to the source: NPA meets ABA

Inez Killingsworth, Brenda LaBlanc, and Marilyn Evans stand with Ken Markisen of the Mortgage Bankers Association at the 35th National People's Action Conference in May. Killingsworth, LaBlanc and Markisen met in August to follow up on commitments made at the conference.

Washington, D.C. -- The dog days of August brought a merciless high noon sun that baked the concrete pavement and the passing pedestrian traffic in one hundred degree temperatures. Inez Killingsworth had a smile on her face as she stood outside the glass walled entrance doors to another non-descript high rise office building on Lobbyists Row in Washington, DC.

“Let’s get out of the heat and go inside to get something to eat and get ready for our meeting,” she said to Brenda LaBlanc, who stood next to her shielding her eyes from the glare.

“Sounds good to me,” Brenda said as she pulled open the door to the coffee shop and felt the cool air conditioned breeze wash over her. “It’s been a long day for me already as I had to catch my flight from Des Moines at dawn.”

“It’s nice to have an hour to relax and do some final preparations for our meeting with the Mortgage Bankers Association,” added Inez. “Too bad that Michele and Sam’s flights from Chicago were cancelled, since they had the agendas and materials . . .Brenda, its just you and me but we will handle this meeting without a problem.”

After meeting with officials at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Inez and Brenda felt that they both did a good job and agreed that the meeting was a sucess. This meeting was the follow up to a commitment made by top MBA officials last June before 800 cheering neighborhood leaders at the plenary session of the 35th NPA national neighborhoods conference.

It appears that the MBA’s Ken Markisen agreed. Markisen, who attended the plenary and also the meeting with Inez and Brenda, is the MBA’s Senior Director and Regulatory Counsel of Government Affairs. As he bid goodbye to the two women, he told Inez and Brenda “This is the beginning of a good relationship.”

In a follow up letter which summarized the agreements, Inez wrote that “We are looking for, and you [at the MBA] suggested some places where we could find opportunities to get our message out to your members about our work to revitalize neighborhoods. To that end, we discussed the following opportunities to be involved . . .in the upcoming year as follows:

• A presentation at the Loan Administration committee meeting at the MBA’s October annual meeting in Chicago on the NTIC Hot Spot foreclosure prevention process
  
  
• A presentation at your Servicers’ Conference in February, 2007 and at the MBA Secondary Market conference in New York City – May, 2007.
  
  
• Spreading the word through your monthly magazine, which focuses on the various MBA conferences and could highlight the pioneering work we did with Fannie Mae to develop the My Community Mortgage loan product for your secondary market conference . . .”

“It seems to me that once again we will roll up our sleeves and make this partnership work,” said Inez.

“At various points in our past history we had to get tough and pushy with the MBA as they seemed to be on the wrong side of our issues,” concluded Brenda. “But now it is a new day and I look forward to what lies ahead in our relationship.”