PRIA to Address MERS, GIS During Annual Convention
September 22, 2011
The Property Records Industry Association (PRIA) will host its Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 24-27, at the Hotel Contessa.
On Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24, PRIA will offer a pre-conference workshop on “GIS, The Integration of Land Records with GIS.” This program is designed to attract a local audience of recorders, clerks and GIS professionals to learn more about the efficiencies that are attainable by overlaying the GIS and Land Records systems within county governments. Attendees will learn about what an integration of systems entails, including workflows, data sharing and records improvements. This session is hosted by PRIA’s GIS Workgroup, chaired by Diane Swoboda Peterson, real estate/recorder deputy, Woodbury County, Iowa; and Peirce Eichelberger, ILS, Silver Spring, Md. Brent Jones, Esri’s manager of surveying, cadastral and land records, will be part of the presentation team.
A much anticipated highlight of this annual gathering will kick off on Sunday morning, Sept. 25, with a three-hour, general session focusing on “MERS – a 360View.” This panel discussion will be moderated by Mark Monacelli, recorder, St. Louis County, Minn.; and Richard Bramhall, senior vice president, Business Control Executive, Bank of America Home Loans. The panel will include Bill Beckmann, CEO of MERSCORP Inc. and its subsidiary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS); Marjorie Bardwell, senior staff underwriting counsel, Fidelity National Title Insurance and chair of ALTA’s Title Counsel; and Jeff Thigpen, register of deeds, Guilford County, N.C. A representative of the lending industry has also been invited to participate.
Recognizing that the scope of the land records industry extends far beyond the activities in the county recorders offices, PRIA reaches out to all industry partners to facilitate understanding and effect solutions to problems that touch the entire industry. Key among these allied interfaces is the title and lending industries, as well as MERS. The Q&A promises to be interactive and lively with the prospect for future discussion and planning scheduled for the PRIA 2012 Winter Symposium in March.
The overall conference program also includes a general session on indexing practices in the recorder’s office, consolidation of recorders’ offices, a GIS general session and a roundtable discussion on eRecording and how to achieve widespread acceptance and implementation of the PRIA/MISMO standards.
PRIA committees and workgroups will have two opportunities for working sessions during the conference with the XML Standards and Business and Technical Requirements workgroups of the Technology Committee both meeting, along with the GIS workgroup; Archival, Backup and Disaster Recovery workgroup; Uniform Numbering System workgroup; Redaction Best Practices; Notary Re-write and PREP all holding sessions in a concurrent format. With early registration figures showing a lot of interest in this year’s conference Co-Chairs Dallas County Clerk, John Warren, and Tarrant County Clerk, Mary Louise Garcia speculate, “Here in Texas everything is always bigger, so it’s no surprise our attendance is projected to be the highest in three years. Attendees should get ready for a Texas-style welcome at the Meet ‘N’ Greet on Saturday evening following the GIS Pre-conference Workshop.”
Registration materials and hotel reservation access can be found on the PRIA website.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].