The New Realtor Organization

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The New Realtor Organization

• JWL Associates

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Looking At Ourselves
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Whooo Are Our members?
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Geezers
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Geezers

• geezers often
• Have had only one to three jobs in their careers
• Consider their work a vital part of their "social
  identity"
• Have not generally recognized the value of
  diversity until late in their careers
• Consider "paying your dues" essential
• Learn in traditional ways such as reading and
  classrooms
• Dislike and distrust technology
• Are unfamiliar with the pressures of two-career
  families.

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Geeks
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Geeks

• geeks often
• Are committed to making a life, not just a
  living
• View team-building, engagement, and partnerships
  as essential to leadership
• Recognize that with diversity come new
  perspectives, ideas, and insights
• Desire and believe that they can better the
  world
• Are experimental and entrepreneurial, less loyal
  to employers
• Learn through both traditional and experiential
  means
• enjoy technology
• Are more secure with insecurity and change
• Have multiple careers, thanks in part to longer
  life expectancy
• Have limited time for association work

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Barriers to realtor membership success
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Barriers to reAlTor Membership Success

• Outdated governance models
• Delivery models for goods and services
• Expectations of participatory membership
• Time Commitment
• Poor technology track record
• Lack of response to membership needs

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Outdated governance models
Board of Directors-one viewpoint
Applications/exclusion of members
Punishment, exclusion, fines
Written Ballots
Committees
Long Career path
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Delivery models for goods and services
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Expectations of participatory membership
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Time Commitment
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Poor Technology Track Record
RETS
RIN
NRDS
Realtor.com
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Lack of response to membership needs
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Eliminating Barriers

• Inclusive membership
• Avoid outmoded exclusions (licenses)
• Consider new sources of community building
  memberships (public, suppliers of services)
• Service delivery
• Ramp up alternative service delivery options
• Push v. Pull Technology
• Access options
• Menu pricing
• Cyber membership
• Public membership

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Association Committee Structure

• fluid and flexible,
• focused,
• form following function, and
• fiscally sound.

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fluid and flexible

• A fluid and flexible committee structure
  maximizes volunteer opportunities by fitting
  people to the issues and not issues to the
  people. This type of structure allows the
  Association to maximize volunteer opportunities
  while minimizing crossover and duplication
  between volunteers and staff members. This leads
  to prudent use of Association financial resources.

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Fluid, Flexible Committees

• Avoid fixed purpose standing commitees
• Use work groups with specific tasks
• Provide for ease of meetingsinvest in technology
  and training for participants
• teleconference
• on line conference
• list serves and forums
• Disband committee when work is complete.

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Focus

• Regardless of how the committee structure is
  defined in the Associations bylaws, the mission
  and strategic plan outline the constitution. The
  strategic direction of the Association is to be
  of service to its members. The key initiatives in
  a strategic plan focus on governance, education,
  practice, and policy. Work groups are required to
  facilitate these initiatives annually. This need
  will not change.

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PLANNING

• Much Work Remains to be Done before We Can
  Announce Our Total Failure to Make any Progress

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Focus of the plan

• Make sure the committee has a stated objective
• keep this in the forefront (print on agendas,
  meeting notices, etc.)
• Disband this committee when the objective has
  been met.

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ACHIEVEMENT

• YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO WHEN YOU
  HAVE VISION, DETERMINATION, AND AN ENDLESS SUPPLY
  OF EXPENDABLE LABOR.

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Form follows function

• Flexible governance includes regular assessment
  of existing committee and work group
  contributions to the Association and
  restructuring them when appropriate. Simplifying
  the committee process and increasing volunteer
  participation for members is key to a strong
  Realtor organization.

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Fiscally sound

• In a menu-driven organization, the members are
  customers who vote with their pocketbooks.
  Managers must use business accounting practices
  and profit and loss product development as
  regular tools. Business approach to consumer
  satisfaction and customer care are cornerstones
  of successful management.

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Here are your tools What AEs need to know
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Tool 1

• 3-5 Year Strategic Plan
• Mission Statement, and a Vision
• 4-5 Big Goals
• Implementation Plan for the Strategic Plan
• Annual Plan
• strategies coordinated with budget
• Annual review and progress report

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Tool 2

• Annual Work Plan
• Measurable Objectives
• Reflected in annual operating budget
• approved by the Board of Directors
• CEO Reports on progress throughout the year
• Used in CEO annual evaluation
• Objectives of the Plan are reflected in working
  group structures

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Tool 3

• Work Groups based on annual objectives
• need a clear job description and a measurable
  goal
• include a time frame
• budget appropriate resources
• assign a work group manager (chairman)
• monitor and report the progress
• provide staff support/technology support

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Tool 4

• Alternatives to committees
• user groups (evaluate products and services
  propose changes)
• interactive communications
• blogs
• forums
• surveys
• list serves
• SIGs (Special Interest Groups)

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Technology Support for Workgroups

• List serve (yahoogroups.com)
• Conference calls (set up at association office)
• Online conferencing/web conferencing
• online MS Office Exchange
• Instant Messaging VoIP based communication
• Two most popular "communities" NetMeeting and
  InternetPhone
• Private conference services
• Caveat take minutes of every meeting

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Asynchronous communications are based on
store-and-forward principle
A little lessonpart one
e-mail interactive Web pages forum news
whiteboard collaboration (WikiWikiWeb) UseNet
Both Persons dont have to be on the web at
the same time.
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  Synchronous communications inside IC require
that both persons are online at the same time

A Little Lesson.part 2

• chat
• IRC
• talk
• gaming
• VR (virtual reality) 3D
• P2P file sharing
• Internet telephone

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Why use online tools?
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Group Brainstorming

•   Two decades of research in behavioral science
  came to the conclusion that individual
  brainstorming is more effective than group
  brainstorming. Groups with individual members
  developed more ideas
• Reason is production blocking - only one person
  can talk at a time listening to discussion
  leaves less time to come up with original ideas
• Electronic version bypasses production-blocking
  problem - you can glance at group members
  contribution at convenient time
• Group brainstorming on Internet is killer
  application if you want to develop ideas.

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Online workgroups

• Research shows that members are more focused in
  online settings and can accomplish more tasks
  than in face-to-face group settings.

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Vendorsknow the products
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Vendor--www.conferenceplus.com

• AudioPlus - We offer options for both fully
  automated and operator assisted audio
  conferencing services to best suit the purpose of
  each conference call. WebPlus - We provide web
  conferencing services for presentation
  (one-to-many) forums and interactive
  (collaborative) meeting places. WebPlus can be
  integrated with AudioPlus or as a stand-alone
  meeting. VideoPlus - Our videoconferencing can
  be delivered over an IP and/or ISDN network. Pre-
  and post-conferencing services are available for
  those extra special meeting events.

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Vendor--Webinar/gotomeeting

• GoToMeeting Monthly Plan 49.00/month Annual
  Plan 468.00/year Best Value (Save 20)
• GoToWebinar (includes GoToMeeting) Monthly Plan
  99.00/month Annual Plan 948.00/year Best Value
  (Save 20)

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from Cindy Butts (maine ae)

• I'm also collecting names of members who have
  MySpace pages, and may do a MAR site on there
  with Maine REALTORS as the "friends" on it  --
  It's one of the things going to our BOD in June. 
  And then they can communicate using that when
  they know what other members use that technology.

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from cindy butts (maine)

• The entire Board of Directors (13) of our
  commercial overlay board is younger than I am. 
  Their Board meetings are three times per year -
  45 minutes long.  And I don't try to organize any
  of their committee meetings -- they decide what
  to do, and then I just ask whoever agrees to be
  in charge of a detail/project/issue to email me
  whatever they decide (and who was there, when
  they did it) and I throw together the minutes.
   Sometimes a few of them will meet for breakfast,
  or they'll set up their own call -- but it's not
  remotely about me picking out a place and telling
  them where and when to be somewhere or how to do
  it.  All their education programs (which are FAR
  high-level than any other group I manage) are
  always at the end of the day, and all include a
  drink ticket.  They say they are "building a
  community one drink at a time".  They also do one
  significant networking event a year -- a bus to
  Fenway park to watch a Boston Red Sox
  game (middle of the week night game - they don't
  want to give up any weekends).  Can only get two
  tickets each, and we sell out all the tickets. 

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Internet search positioning

• A Major Topic which impacts boards
• Our members spending advertising money
• Our associations public internet image
• White paper on Google Universal Search

• The power of Google
• Universal Searchno longer vertical silos
• The site that comes up first will be media-rich
• Blogs
• U tube
• Podcasts
• Other media presentations
• Press releases

WWW.ONEUPWEB.COM
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In conclusion

• Know your members
• Reorganize your governance model
• Learn new techniques of communication and
  involvement
• Cultivate new cutting edge technology skills.
• Make Technology Acquisition a regular budget item.

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Enjoy the opportunity!
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Judith lindenau

• Association Management Consulting
• Leadership Training
• Personal Coaching

judith_at_judithlindenau.com