Conference photos, Miami sunshine, and other NMA news

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the NMA and GoSection8 Housing Conference last week in Chicago. To view a gallery of photos from the event, go here. I’d like to extend a warm thank-you to our generous sponsors, GoSection8, HAI Group and HousingHub, COTG, Aurico, and National Credit Reporting, who helped make the conference a truly special event.

It was a real pleasure to enjoy face-to-face conversations with so many enthusiastic and thoughtful members of our industry who appreciate the unique challenges and successes we all navigate, whether new to affordable housing or an old pro. I continue to be inspired by what you're doing to improve the lives of the families in your communities. For some more impressive achievements, go here to read about the honorees of the 2014 NMA Housing Awards.

It's been a while since I've written for the blog, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share some news about what NMA has been up to over the past few months:

• I've been spending much of my time at our Miami office, where we're managing the HCV program for Miami-Dade County's Public Housing and Community Development department.
• We now have NMA Inspections contracts with agencies in 10 states. If you missed Michael Petragallo's recent article about the future of HQS inspections and the new deregulation options, read it here.
• Our calendar of classes for the last quarter of 2014 has just been released. Get more details here.

Finally, if you missed the NMA Housing Conference, we'd love to say hi to you at another event! The NMA team will be attending the upcoming conferences for PHADA (September 7–9 in Washington, DC), AZ NAHRO (September 18 in Phoenix, AZ), and national NAHRO (October 16–18 in Baltimore, MD).

John McKay has been with NMA since 1998, and has served as chief executive officer of the company since 2007. Prior to his appointment as CEO, he was vice president of operations, spearheading the creation of the new consulting and technology services departments. This initiative introduced the first fully functional NMA Performance Portal to the affordable housing market.

Mr. McKay brings his knowledge of housing regulations and industry best practices into his role as project executive on many of NMA’s contracts with large housing authority clients and HUD. He has assessed, analyzed, and provided feedback to some of the country’s most well-run private and public organizations.