Very nice event this year. It did not live up to it's winterly name though this year, as the days in Prescott were very nice and warm (last year it did snow while I attended). Of course I was stuck in-doors all through the days in various meetings and presentations.
Over 350 Arizona Realtors attended the conference this year, it was announced as a record for attendance. Many of the usual suspects were there, by that I mean many faces are of the leadership variety.
On Wednesday I made it in time to catch an informative course presented by CRS instructor Chuck Bode. It was called 'The Question is the Same, the Answers Are Different'. This was a very timely presentation based on the current sales market. I'll have more on this later as I'm going to use much of the materials in future blog posts. I'm so glad I made this course.
I was going to try and make a local pro hockey game on Wednesday night, but our Kingman leadership group scheduled a nice dinner that attended instead. I'm not one to pass up a nice paid for meal. Prescott has many nice dining options... something that I hope Kingman will offer someday in the future. Maybe I'll catch a hockey game next year.
Thursday was all business all the time for the entire day. Starting at 8:30am in the morning the open session featured two prominent speakers. The first speaker was our new state department of real estate commissioner Sam Wercinski. This guy has a ton of energy and I can easily see some positive changes coming our way from the licensing department. He even talked about a proposal to renew our real estate licenses every four years, instead of every two years like we do now. His rational, this would allow the department to focus resources on protecting the public instead of using many resources in administering renewals. I hope he can pull this off. I think that licensee's will like the work that Sam is planning to do.
The other open session speaker was the current NAR president, Pat Vredevoogd-Combs. Don't ask me to pronounce her name, our state AAR president simply introduced her as Pat 'V' Combs. It was nice having the national president in the house.
I then worked my way to a breakout session about dealing with properties in foreclosure. It was a good refresher. The attorney that presented the session gave plenty of great information.
Next I attended a session on RAPAC, which is our state political action committee. I am serving as RAPAC chair for our local Association this year and this session was information about the various bills that are of keen interest to private property rights and other real estate related issues in the state. I'll bore you if I go into too much on this for now, but I'll share some things later on as the days go by.
My favorite session of the day was next and it was certainly eye opening for the many that were in attendance I believe. The subject was technology trends. Earlier in the day at the open session the NAR president (remember Pat 'V') asked the attendees if they read blogs and about 15% of the hands went up. She then asked how many had their own blog of course I raised my hand... but I didn't see anyone else raise theirs (apparently there were only a few that did but I was sitting up near the front and did not look around).
The presenter for the technology trends session was former NAR president (2001) Richard Mendenhall. He hit the nail on the head so many times, much of what he had to say is very similar to the things I have been saying right here for the past year. Especially as it pertains to the future of MLS.
Richard also was the key speaker at the general session. He is a great speaker and it is easy to admire him. I was able to meet him after he spoke at the general session, shake his hand, and let him know how much I was glad to hear him speak that day.
It was then time for the annual Arizona industry update where the VP's from AAR spoke to some issues on such things as the changes to the Code of Ethics, a report on the lobbying activity, and legal issues.
Whew, what a day... but it wasn't over. I had to head to an impromptu WARDEX meeting. The great news here is that the Board of Directors got to meet our new Executive Officer that was just hired, Jack Best. WARDEX has had many issues in recent months but having a person of Jack's stature in place is going to make things improve in the coming weeks. I told others that Jack just rode into town on his white horse to save the day... and that is truly how I feel. I'll keep you updated, for the first time in a long time I'm looking forward to the next WARDEX Board of Directors meeting.
Lastly for Thursday I attended the dinner theater event. This year it was a murder mystery show with a 60's class reunion theme. It was all right, but with all the dining options in Prescott I wish I could have skipped this particular show and next year I will.
Friday was the easy day in comparison. A couple of other fellow Directors and I headed out for breakfast at a place I cannot remember the name of (sorry). It was located next to a tiny stream or brook. We sat outside because it was already a beautiful day. There was a tree that extended over our heads and a woodpecker type of bird decided to do some construction while we ate and he managed to drop some of his handy work on our table, which made for a few laughs.
Back to the conference for a short regional caucus meeting. I was asked to co-host the meeting because we assumed I would be the regional vice president in 2008 and 2009. The meeting went by fast as we had numerous guests pop in to give various updates.
It was then on to the AAR Board of Directors meeting where yours truly officially was elected as Region 1 Vice President for 2008 and 2009 (I ran unopposed, but I told voting directors that the other candidate didn't like puppies and kittens just in case they weren't sure who to vote for). I look forward to the new duties, but am pleased that they don't officially begin until next year.
All that was left was a two hour plus drive back home, where finally after a couple of hectic weeks, I was able to catch up with my wife who was traveling all over the place either visiting family or on a business trip. We've been two ships passing in the night it seemed. Things should be settling down again though.
The good news is that I have plenty of good stuff to share in the coming days, the bad news is that I'm tired out and I've got to move some stuff that was left in one of our rentals out of the garage so that we can get a new tenant placed. So I'll see you all in a couple of days. Enjoy the weekend.
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