VAR’s Legislative & Education Conference: a bit different in ‘09

What’s different?

•    We’ve added a Broker Education Day on Tuesday, February 10 with an optional Broker Networking/Roundtable Box lunch. Brokers will have the opportunity to get up to 6 hours of their Broker Management CE requirement taken care of on this day.

•    The Awards Banquet has become the Hall of Fame/Awards Reception — an hors d’oeuvres reception honoring not only the Hall of Fame Recipients, but the other major VAR award winners as well. With AG approval, the Awards Working Group this past summer revamped some of the processes associated with VAR awards and this change is one of them. No longer will the sum total of a winner’s recognition be a brief two-minute walk across the stage, but a reception during which friends and colleagues can congratulate the winners (who will be positioned at the reception for maximum exposure) and get a sense of the hard work and dedication required to receive it. Award winners will be notified ahead of time.

•    The Awards Reception is included in the registration fee so ALL registrants are welcome (no additional fee)  AND there’s still time to hit one of the restaurants in Shockoe Slip for an evening meal.

The pricing structure for this year’s conference:

•    Also new this year is a new cancellation policy regarding hotel rooms at the Omni. The new policy is as follows:
“Individuals holding confirmed reservations who cancel their reservations on or after January 16, 2009, or do not show up to use their room for the VAR Legislative  & Education Conference, will be charged for one night at the full group rate of $142 per night plus applicable taxes for each reservation cancelled. When you reserve a room in the VAR room block at The Omni Richmond Hotel, you are agreeing to this cancellation policy.”

And this is necessary because…
Every year, people call and hold rooms on the chance they will need them and then cancel them after the cutoff date. Once the cutoff date passes, those cancelled rooms are dropped from the block and are no longer available at our group rate. Members who would like to come and stay at the Omni are unable to get a room. When reserving a room block at this or any hotel, we walk a fine line in trying to reserve as many rooms as we’ll need without holding too many. By contract, we are only allowed to decrease the number of room nights held by a certain percentage before we are responsible for payment of the difference. We often hear “why don’t you hold more rooms?” The reason is that historically, there are a lot of room cancellations in the last week or so before a meeting so while we might actually have run out at some point before the cutoff, we often end up with less rooms used than what we originally contracted for because of the kind of cancellations mentioned above. This policy does two things: 1) It will hold those who contribute to this problem accountable, and 2) Canceling by a date prior to cutoff will allow folks waiting to get into the hotel an opportunity to do so.

Deadlines, deadlines….

Dec. 1: VAR AE Scholarship application. Please don’t forget to include the letter from your Association President

RCE Application. Submit your REALTOR® association Certified Executive (RCE) applicant data form (ADF) to be eligible to take the Spring 2009 RCE exam. Complete a one-minute application to see how close you are to obtaining the required points on your ADF, then update and submit your ADF.  Email RHolland@realtors.org or KrystalAllen@realtors.org know if assistance is needed.

Dec. 3: Registration opens for NAR’s 2009 AE Institute, March 20-24 , Colorado Springs http://www.realtor.org/assoc_execs.  NAR staff has been contacted and asked to make the  schedule available online as soon as possible.

Dec. 8: Webinar presented by NVAR on their data management system - 11am - for you and staff in the comfort of your own office

2009 Member Recognition: VAR presents several awards throughout the year to recognize outstanding leadership, accomplishment or professionalism in the real estate industry. .  Submissions for several of the awards are due January 10, 2009.  The date was extended from Jan. 3rd to Jan. 10th to give you a little more time to get the applications in to VAR.  Since that date has been extended, there can no extension of the deadline.  Please visit http://www.varealtor.com/MeetingsEvents/AwardsPrograms/tabid/207/Default.aspx for application forms.

January 1  CRS of the Year Nomination Form

January 10:   Appraiser of the Year; Hall of Fame; Omega Tau Rho; George Rink Outstanding Real Estate Educator; Ann Swearingen Property Manager of the Year;   REALTOR® Code of Ethics Leadership Award and VAR Manager of the Year

Pick & Choose: Loads of Virginia Homeowners Alliance Resources Available

In the past couple of months a few of you have invited me to speak to broker groups about the Virginia Homeowners Alliance and how their agents promoting it can help put money in their pockets. The response has been terrific.  I’ve never seen brokers more enthusiastic about a VAR program.  I’d love to come visit with your brokers or speak at your membership meetings about VHA, too, if you’re willing to invite me.  Just email gini@varealtor.com to schedule.

In the meantime, whether you need an article, ad, powerpoint presentation, or even just a sample invitation to a local elected official to speak, you’ll find these and much more at www.varealtor.com/VHAToolkit.  These items are just for Local Associations to use in helping get the word out about the Virginia Homeowners Alliance, as well as to help you with your own local political strategies. Let us know if you have ideas about new tools we can add to this page.

REB licensee list by Zip Code now updated

http://www.VARealtor.com/LicenseeList

Username: varae
Password: dporlist

List is current as of October 31, 2008.

Info on 2009 Pro Standards Road Show

I’m betting you’re all dealing with the prospect of declining membership and scarcer financial resources for 2009, and looking for ways to maximize the dollars you do aim to spend next year.

It’s the same for VAR.  As we finalize the 2009 budget proposal, we’re looking for ways that we can achieve maximum impact but spend our dollars more wisely. The Road Show is one program where we think it makes sense to scale back the number of programs, increase the number of attendees per session, and save money by paying instructors for fewer gigs.

Here’s how we’ve determined adjustments. Expected 2009 attendance numbers were gathered from each of you in order to figure out the best opportunities to combine locations and maximize audience sizes.  One Association Executive indicated that her association would rather provide its own training rather than pay the $10 registration fee being charged in 2009, for instance, and suggested we eliminate our session in her area.

Bottom line: While we had originally planned for 13 Road Show locations in 2009, our revised plan will be to offer 9 Road Show locations next year.  (If we need to, we’ll add a tenth Road Show onto the end of the schedule, to be held here at VAR, based on demand). No Road Show will be held without a minimum attendance of 40 members (This was our policy for 2009 even prior to this reduction in the number of sessions). This will impact the number of teaching assignments for each of the Road Show instructors.

Scottie and Carole will be communicating this week to let you know about 2009 Road Show locations and policies.

Thanks for understanding the need for this change in the schedule for next year.

VAR Holiday Hours

VAR will close at noon on Friday, December 19 for our staff Christmas Party.

We’ll also be closed December 25-26 for the Christmas holiday, and January 1-2, for the New Year holiday.

Running out of rooms at the Omni Charlottesville

As we near the cutoff date for our room block at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, it happens that we have filled the block. We have secured overflow accommodations for the night of December 2 at:

Hampton Inn and Suites (located about 5 minutes away)
900 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 923-8600
Rate: $114.00 (includes hot breakfast)
Cutoff: Saturday, November 22, 2008
Please mention Virginia Association of REALTORS® at the number above to get the preferred rate or go online to www.hampsuites.com  and enter the Group/Convention Code VAR to get our group rate.

For those of you who may be holding reservations. If you find that you will not be using your room and need to cancel your reservation, please, please, please let Tracey know. There are a number of folks who would like to stay at the Omni, but have been unable to get into the block. If you cancel after November 14, the room can no longer be used at our rate and someone else in our group, who might have used it, will end up paying a higher fee at another hotel. Thank you.

A must-read for REALTOR leaders (and me…and you)

Williamsburg broker Angela Dougherty loaned me a book the other day. I don’t know if she intended it as a not-so-subtle hint or if she simply thought it was worth my time, but I know this: It’s a great (and timely) read.

The book is TRANSPARENCY: HOW LEADERS CREATE A CULTURE OF CANDOR by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman and James O’Toole. I started it on the plane home from Orlando yesterday, and have been consumed by it ever since.  It offers great perspective on the benefits of transparency (and the woes that can befall leaders and organizations who don’t embrace it), as well as a wealth of good, practical advice.

Order yourself a copy. Read it. Give it to your incoming president. And consider changes that can make your organization more effective by becoming more transparent. That’s what I’m aiming to do, too.

October REALTOR® Institute & CIGB Graduates

­­Here are lists of October REALTOR® Institute graduates and members who have recently completed all 16 online lessons for the Code is Good Business and have earned one hour of continuing education credit. Please download these lists and recognize these members in your association communications. Thanks.

November 14-Last Day to Reserve Room

Making plans to join us December 3 for this year’s Leadership Conference & Delegate Body Orientation? Don’t forget to register and reserve your room.

This registration is completely FREE and VAR has negotiated a special rate of $99 per night that expires November 14 at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel where the event will be held.

To find out more, register, and reserve your room today visit

www.VARealtor.com/LeadershipConf

2009 Leadership Conference & Delegate Body Orientation

Meeting Schedule

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

6–7:30 p.m. Delegate Body Welcome Reception (Delegate Body members only)

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

7:30–10 a.m. Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:15–9:45 a.m. Delegate Body Orientation (Delegate Body members only)

9:45 a.m. Break

10–10:15 a.m. Leadership Conference Welcome, John Powell, 2009 VAR President

10:15–11:45 a.m. Leading in Turbulent Times, Glenn Tecker, Tecker Consultants, LLC

12–1:45 p.m. Lunch Buffet: Building Political Influence, Michael Dunn, Dunn Associates

2–2:45 p.m. VAR Resources/Partnerships, R. Scott Brunner, VAR CEO

2:45–4:15 p.m. Roles & Relationships for Volunteer Leaders, Adorna Carrol, Dynamic

Directions, Inc.

4:15 p.m. Wrap-up

4:30 p.m. Adjourn

Bylaws Cleanup Subcommittee meets this Wednesday

Structure & Representation WG Chairman Kit Hale has appointed Prince William Assn AE Denise Rosendaal to chair a small subcommittee charged with reviewing the VAR Bylaws and recommending to the full WG any cleanup and clarifying changes the Bylaws may need. (A separate subcommittee has been appointed to flesh-out a proposal on Policy Board structure/election process.)

If you have suggestions for Denise’s group — typos, inconsistencies, problems in the VAR Bylaws — on any issue unrelated to Policy Board and Delegate Body, please send me your input via email by 5pm this Tuesday, November 5, and we’ll make sure Denise’s group considers it.

VLA Retreat locations for 2009

In case you’re interested, the VLA Trustees have chosen sites for the four VLA retreats for 2009, as follows:

January 13-15:  Stonewall Jackson Hotel, Staunton

April 21-23:  Mariners Landing on Smith Mountain Lake

July 21-23:  Roslyn Retreat Center, Richmond

September (at Convention):  The Homestead, Hot Springs

2009 AG/Specialty Group appointments forthcoming….

Incoming VAR President John Powell and President-Elect Cindy Stackhouse met with VAR staff this past week to make 2009 AG and specialty group appoinments.

In the coming week or so, John and Cindy will be phoning the chairs and vice-chairs to get their acceptance of the appointment, then the members of each AG or group will be notified via e-mail.

At the same time, we’ll be sending each of you a list of appointees from your local association, so you’ll know which of your local members has been appointed to what group.  If you’ve been appointed as an AE liaison, you’ll be included on the list for your association.

Occasionally, we have appointees decline appointment, in which case we’ll need to replace that initial appointee with an alternate; which is to say: there may yet be minor changes to the make-up of each group. Final rosters will be provided in the Leadership Directory you’ll receive in January.

Decisions to make about AE Regional

I truly hate to bring this up again. Truly. But once again, VAR’s future participation in the Regional AE Conference (the annual event we’ve co-sponsored for the past few years with Georgia and North Carolina — and South Carolina, too, though 2008 is their final year as a sponsoring state) is being discussed, and I want to apprise you of the situation and (gulp!) get feedback.

There are two reasons for raising this issue again:

1. The Core Competencies WG has made a PRELIMINARY (as in, not yet final) recommendation to eliminate our sponsorship of the regional conference, suggesting it’s not a core service, and citing concerns about:

> The small number of Virginia AEs and staffers who who attend relative to the $4500 we pay to be sponsors. The WG notes, for instance, that if 15 of you attend, VAR is subsidizing your participation to the tune of $300 apiece. It would be cheaper, they note, to simply not sponsor, and let VAR pay your entire registration fee.  And even at that, some of you who attend would benefit while others do not. In these times of scarce dollars — which many of you are dealing with just like VAR — there’s a sense that this is not the best investment of VAR funds and, in the years in which we host the event, significant staff time.

> Doubts about the overall quality of the program. Some of you love it, but others of you also believe it’s not a high-quality program, and thus (at least half or more of you) don’t attend.  Even those of you who are supporters of our continued sponsorship acknowledge that the caliber of the program is at best, uneven session-to-session and year-to-year. It’s been suggested that VAR would be more effective in providing training and professional development for local AEs by funding and hosting our own instate event for local AEs…and we could do it more cost-effectively. Another (less popular) suggestion is simply to increase the AE Scholarship to fund more folks to go to NAR’s AEI. Overall, the point I’ve heard in the WG is that if the regional conference is worth going to, more of you would be doing so, and so they’re not convinced the regional sponsorship should be a VAR core service.  Simply put, if helping enhance the skills of local association execs is a strategic goal for VAR, they think there are better, more effective ways to do it.

2. Apparently, since South Carolina is dropping out of the rotation, VAR is slated to host the event again in 2010, so we must make some decisions fairly quickly.

The WG understands that some local AEs do find value in the event.  The question they’re grappling with is, is it enough of you to justify the expense, and is it the best approach to supporting local AE professional development? My sense at this point is that they’re MUCH more amenable to VAR hosting AE development activities at the VAR headquarters and/or in conjunction with our two major conference each year.

Laura Benjamin is your representative on that WG. She may wish to add perspective to what I’ve said here (or correct any impressions of the WG’s views that I’ve inadvertently misstated).

VAR adds value (= content) to your next member newsletter

Maybe you need a little extra material for your next member newsletter. Or perhaps an MLS login message is more your speed. Whatever your preference, VAR has a few helpful suggestions for your next communication to members.

Following are some blurbs you can use in upcoming member communications about VAR benefits your members can take advantage of (leave a comment on this post if there’s something else you’d like a blurb about):

VAR’s property management forms have undergone a major re-write. Keep your contracts clean by attending Update on VAR Property Management Forms with VAR’s Legislative Counsel Chip Dicks: In Richmond on November 6 or in Hampton on November 12. Visit www.VARealtor.com/PMUpdate-Richmond or www.VARealtor.com/PMUpdate-Hampton for details on these two courses.

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VAR’s StraightTalk, part of the Code is Good Business campaign, brings you NAR’s Code of Ethics in plain English — and helps REALTORS® earn more money. Now, all 17 articles are in layman’s language. If you need a refresher on the Code, or if you’ve ever felt confused by it, have a look at TheCodeisGoodBusiness.com.

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You can earn an easy hour of ethics CE and reduce your E&O insurance premium in one step. Complete the 16 ethics lessons on the Code is Good Business website and get one hour of VREB-approved ethics CE. Plus, when the majority of a firm’s agents complete the 16 lessons, VAR-endorsed E&O carrier Pearl will discount your premium! Get started on these lessons now at www.VARealtor.com/ethicslessons.

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Ever find yourself driving in circles when showing properties? Stop wasting gas! Log on to VAR’s new, IdealRoute.com, to find the shortest, most environmentally friendly route between up to 24 locations. You’ll save time, gas, and money – not to mention you can look like the neighborhood expert in front of your clients. Take it out for a spin at www.IdealRoute.com.

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The Virginia Homeowners Alliance gives REALTORS® practical tools to become trusted advisors in their communities and work with homeowners to advance our shared interests. Go to www.VARealtor.com/VHA for more information.

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Make plans now to attend VAR’s Legislative & Education Conference, February 11-13, 2009 at the Richmond Omni and help Virginia REALTORS flex our political muscle. REALTOR® Day on the Hill and the legislative reception at the Jefferson will be Wednesday, February 11, plus we’re planning a stellar program with legal updates from Lem Marshall, sessions on trends in green real estate, maximizing tax deductions, and nurturing client relationships through social media. Visit www.VARealtor.com/LegislativeConference for details and we’ll see you on Capitol Square!

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Be more than a saleman. Become a trusted advisor by keeping your client database informed about local public policy issues that impact their real property. With VAR’s free ClientDirect tool, you can send a personalized, customized (with your name, photo, firm logo, etc.) e-newsletter, put together in just minutes, that shows them how to protect their property value…AND gives you a good (monthly) reason to stay in touch with them. It’s simple, it’s included in your VAR dues, and it helps position you as the number one real estate information resource in the minds of your clients, past and present. Visit www.VARealtor.com/ClientDirect for information.

AUDIO: Q3 2009 Virginia Home Sales Report Media Briefing

Hear last week’s Q3 Homes Sales Report media briefing here.

The in-laws are coming…

We interrupt this blog for a personal query:

Okay, my wife’s folks are coming to town later this week, and I’ve been tasked with finding something tourist-y for the whole family to do on Saturday.  It looks like we conveniently missed all the apple festivals, which seem to have ended last weekend.  We’ve done Williamsburg, DC and Charlottesville with them before.  Whatever we do needs to be within a couple of hours of Richmond.  If you’re feeling generous, throw some ideas at me.  Anything not-to-be-missed going on in your area?

You heard it here first: All-member RPAC endorsement email…

Next week (likely Wednesday-ish) we’re planning to send an all-member email listing the Congressional and US Senate candidates RPAC is supporting in the upcoming election. The email will contain a photo of each candidate, as well as a brief (very) explanation of why RPAC is supporting that candidate.  And of course we’ll encourage members to vote for those RPAC is supporting.

Wanted y’all to be aware of it.  If questions, shoot me an email.

New format for Leadership Directory?

We’re pondering a new format for our annual printed Leadership Directory (yes, some folks still seem to want a hard copy to hold on to). Traditionally (at least, recent tradition) the directory has contained rosters of the various VAR groups, and that’s about it. For 2009, we aim to include those rosters, but are also thinking about:

> Current VAR Bylaws

> VAR Speakers Bureau Resources

> Standing Legislative Positions

> 2009 Master Calendar

What other “essentials” might you like to see included?

Oh, and we’ll also be asking you for a photo of your incoming president; we plan to include their photos in the directory this year. Send ‘em directly to Jovan@varealtor.com NOW and beat the rush….

Weigh-In: 2009 VLA Class Project suggestions

For the time being, set aside concerns a few of you may have about the funding mechanism for the annual VLA class project, and help me think about exactly WHAT the assigned project might be for next year. The VLA Trustees meet soon, and it’s a topic they’ll discuss. I’d love to have suggestions from you about issues or needs you’re facing in your local associations (that other local associations may also be facing) that could perhaps be addressed via the VLA class project.

We began assigning the project two years ago. The 2007 class produced the RPAC video. The 2008 class created the new agent orientation tool that debuted at Convention (and which you’ll be hearing more about very soon…including how to rand it as YOUR association’s own tool).

So throw some ideas at us…please.