Credentials
Everything I hold, in one place: state license, auction school, benefit-auction training, continuing education, professional memberships, and military service, each with the document that proves it. If you are doing diligence on a vendor, this is the page to send your board.
Tennessee Auctioneer License
Issued by the Tennessee Auctioneer Commission, Department of Commerce and Insurance. Tennessee requires a license for any auctioneer who is paid to call a charity auction.
Document: license certificate, available on request. Verify at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance license search.
Nashville Auction School
The state-approved pre-licensing program required before sitting for the Tennessee auctioneer exam.
Document: school transcript, available on request.
BOOTCAMP for Benefit Auctioneers
The benefit-auction business course created in 2008 by Jenelle Taylor, CAI, BAS, of GALA GAL, Inc. Focused specifically on fund-a-need design, live auction item strategy, and the run of show for nonprofit galas.
Document: completion certificate, available on request.
NAA Benefit Auction Summit
The National Auction Association's annual continuing-education program for benefit auctioneers: three days of sessions, hands-on workshops, and case studies from real fundraising events, covering current strategy for live auctions and fund-a-needs and how to deliver more for nonprofit clients.
Document: registration confirmation, available on request.
Professional memberships
Member of both the national and state professional associations for auctioneers. Memberships, not designations — listed here so a diligence check finds them.
Document: membership confirmations, available on request.
U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret)
Twenty-three years of Army service, most of it in Special Forces. Green Berets are selected and trained to plan from the end state backward, to rehearse before anything counts, and to work through partner forces rather than around them. It is the background behind every method on this site.
Document: DD-214, available to clients on request. Public record: WKRN News 2, October 2023, describing Todd as a former Green Beret in Franklin working with the Next Response Foundation.
Next Response Inc.
A nonprofit I founded and lead as an unpaid volunteer, serving veterans and first responders. Public record on the IRS Form 990 series.