It’s hard to believe, but we are halfway through the year. With all of the early year cold and the seemingly endless rain, the year has flown by. I hope that the damp weather has not slowed your listing and sales activity. Since our last Directors meeting, I have been busy making plans for the next half year meetings and events.
On May 31st, I attended the monthly meeting of the Huron County Land Bank. The Land Bank is starting to receive revenue from the County delinquent property tax fund. The land band identified several properties to acquire that will be forfeited to the State of Ohio. The goal of the Land Bank is to help speed up the process of eliminating blighted property in Huron County.
I attended the Ohio REALTORS Association Executives meeting along with Connie, MLS Director held in Canton. Ohio REALTORS Staff conducts this annual event and includes selected speakers to allow Board and MLS staff from the State additional education opportunities. Our Speaker for day one was Don Klein, former CEO of the Nashville REALTORS. He discussed the role that Association Staff has in leading change. We looked at reasons efforts to change fail;
- Not Enough Sense of Urgency
- Not Powerful Enough Guiding Coalition
- Lacking a Vision
- Under Communicating
- Not removing Obstacles
- Not Creating or Celebrating Short –term wins
- Celebrating Victory Too Soon
- Not Anchoring Change in Board Culture
His message was that culture drives both success and failure. He defined two types of culture, constructive and defensive. He concluded that culture would either allow you to succeed or fail, even over strategy.
Another part of these meetings is vendor talks from sponsors. This year Realtor.com was a prime sponsor, and they talked about their new agent's success tools. They shared statistics showing the high amount of agents who still have not claimed their profiles. I have a two-sided handout that is available for Brokers to share with their agents.
Showing Time was also a sponsor and talked about some of their enhanced tools available for both Brokers and MLS to offer to agents. Some of the tools allow Brokers more details on showing activity.
The second day Ohio REALTORS Leadership and Staff explained some of the staff and proposed governance changes to the attendees. Attendance at this event satisfies one of NAR core standards in regards to staff education.
On Friday, June 14, Frank Corder, Steve Mack, D. J. & I represented our Board at the Manning golf fundraiser in Avon. This is an annual event, and we are a sponsor through Ohio RPAC. Both Senator Nathan and Representative Gayle Manning have been great supporters of REALTOR issues in Columbus.
On Tuesday, June 18th I attended the Regional Council of Governments annual meeting. The COG is the group that allows the Regional Income Tax Agency to collect income taxes for member taxing authorities. As the Treasurer of Bellevue, I am a voting member of the Council. The staff gave updates on the effect of both HB5 and HB47. We also heard an update on the legal action taken by some of the Cities against the payment of Net Profits to the State.
And last but certainly not least I want to congratulate our new State Representative for the 89th House District Mr. Douglas J. Swearingen. Steve Arndt held this seat, and he is resigning effective July, 31st. The Speaker of the House put together a search committee, and six individuals applied. Part of the committee included Representatives Stein, Manning, and Reineke from our area along with two members from the southern part of the State. D.J. has been a great assist to our Board for the past seven years. While he will not be leaving us totally, he will have a much fuller schedule. I know that he will do a fantastic job and will always do what is in the best interests of our area.
Respectfully submitted,
David W Freitag RCE, CEO