AIME secures lobbying firm services to broaden its voice

“AIME is in the process of expanding our existing member-led committee and sub-committee structures,” she said. “Included are sub-committees specifically focused on Black homeownership, Hispanic homeownership, veteran homeownership, and a community development sub-committee that will focus on ways to create more broker owners, and broker originators in these underserved communities.

“FTP will help guide these committees in a multitude of ways by establishing relationships with associations that focus individually on these issues and identifying both Federal and local grants that may be applicable for these specific causes. Additionally, they will create introductions to politicians and their staff members who are passionate about these causes.”

She described how AIME and FTP would work hand in hand: “Our Immediate Action sub-committee will be constantly staying abreast of issues that are coming at us. FTP will be integral in ensuring that these issues are on the horizon and how to best get ahead of them. These types of actions will occur as legislation is being mulled.

“The foremost goal of expanding AIME’s Government Affairs efforts is presence. We need mortgage brokers to have a seat at the table so that they will never be left out of conversations. This is what happened in 2008 and we don’t want it to ever happen again. To have a seat at the table, we need the lawmakers to know who we are, who our members are, and the consumers that they fight every day for. The groundwork for this is laid in meetings with lawmakers that may not serve any purpose other than getting to know them, and them getting to know us. They have to know who we are before they’re going to ask for our opinion. And they have to trust us to value our opinion.”

AIME staffers will have a direct hand in the lobbying work, she added: “Step one is meeting with staffers as much as the actual politicians. Our current focus is on individuals that either serve or staff committees that are tied to our industry, most immediately, the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. We are meeting these individuals, telling them how our members serve their constituents, and asking them how we can help.”