Our Association held the annual awards banquet last night at the River Palms Hotel/Casino in Laughlin Nevada. Our Association has outgrown any one place in Kingman to hold such an event so the last two years we've been heading to Laughlin for these events. Bright lights, blackjack tables, and cocktail waitresses... oh my!!
It is tradition that this event is hosted by the outgoing Association president, which just happened to be me. I never knew how much time and effort went into planning such an event and now that it is all over I can tell you with a straight face that this is not something I'll be doing again anytime in the near to distant future.
I think it was a smashing time highlighted by a couple of events. First for the awards, I made it very apparent to everyone that the featured awards were going to those Members that gave of their time and effort to the Association at the expense of possible production of business. Of those awarded winners two really stood out from the rest and they were Sofia White and Wayne Wissenger.
Sofia was awarded the Affiliate Appreciation Award by the local Affiliated Members of the Association (think lenders, title companies, etc.). She was visibly moved by the recognition. I also awarded her with the first Rising Star award given to a newer Member that has always been willing to step up and be involved in Association matters. I think Sofia is in her second year of real estate and she has already Chaired the education committee, organized the Realtor picnic last year, and now has been elected to the Board of Directors. She also managed to qualify for a production award even with all the extra time she has given of herself to better the Membership.
Wayne was awarded with two awards. The first was the Presidents Award, another award that I basically created for our Association. I awarded it to him and it was an easy decision because of the high hundreds and perhaps thousands of hours he has put in helping Members throughout last year with our old MLS system and our new Data Exchange program that is hardly a finished product. Wayne runs a firm full of agents and could have easily just helped his own agents, but he stepped up and offered the same kinds of help to any agent and office. Frankly this was an easy decision and I doubt that anyone in our Association would argue that no one was more deserving of such recognition.
We also awarded a REALTOR of the Year for the first time in many years. I received 4 nominees for this one. I privately showed the nomination letters to some 20 plus brokers, agents, and affiliates. All four nominees were deserving but it became apparent towards the end of my search for counsel that the winner would again be Wayne Wissenger for this award.
The other highlight was our special 'guest star' that we had perform right before the awards were to be handed out. It is a shame that there is no video record of the performance. The property manager at my office has an alter ego named 'Irma Goldstien'. You'd really have to see it to appreciate it, but Irma had her chance to have some fun at many Members expense. Off color humor for sure at times, but all in good fun. It had been a few years since the last time the Association invited Irma to speak so she did have plenty to say. She brought the house down on many occasions. I will be 'efforting' to find some pictures of Irma to share with you.
I was basically stressed the entire day getting everything set up. So stressed that I realized I forgot things like my dress shoes, belt, and tie that was in my overnight bag that I left at home. With no time to head back to Kingman I had to power-shop in fast fashion at the local mall for those items. I managed to get my act together just in time for the beginning of the event. Now that everything is all over and I reflect on the event it was a great time. If you asked me what I thought last night I wouldn't have said so. The stress level is back to normal though.
In some weird and sad way, hosting that event was my last official duty as president of the Association. I've promised our new president that I would write some memoirs to share with her so she has a better understanding of what to expect throughout this year.
I'd also like to thank the Association for the gifts I was presented as a token of appreciation. The gifts were golf related and Crown Royal related, two things that I can enjoy more now that I'm not the man in charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment