My last dance at WARDEX

** Warning, this post is more or less about a boring Realtor subject**

My time is up as a serving board director for the Western Arizona Realtor Data Exchange (WARDEX). We are having our annual shareholders meeting today and it marks my last official duty as a member of the Board of Directors.

As some may know, I have been serving as a volunteer for local and state Realtor Associations/Organizations since 2002 (where has THAT time gone??). During this time a new Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Organization was formed that combined three local Realtor Association's MLS's into one regional organization. This sort of collaboration of services is not new and our group didn't invent the wheel on the process. In fact, at some point in the future, there will likely be more collaborative efforts made with other organizations/services. Such is life in the Internet age.

Locally, I remember the first informal conversation about forming a regional MLS in 2004. I spoke with an Association leader from the Lake Havasu City Realtors Association and she made a remark about perhaps working towards that kind of goal. Again, it was an informal conversation and I didn't think it would necessarily lead anywhere (or maybe it was that I didn't want to make an effort at that time, whatever).

Later on, in the summer of 2005 as vice president of the Kingman/Golden Valley Association of Realtors, I attended a local 'Brokers Council' meeting. The subject was brought up by some of the brokers in attendance. I made a note and proceded to make a call or two to the other local Assoiations (the aformentioned Lake Havasu group and the Bullhead City/Mohave Valley Association).

Depending on how history views those moments, what came after was plenty of heavy lifting done by many volunteers that continues to this very day. Hopefully history will be kind.

Here is further reading on the subject as I had written about them before on this blog (here and here).

Somehow or another, a new organization was formed and a new service was unveiled. To say the road was well paved and easy to manuever on... would be lying. The founding members faced many obstacles then and there are still plenty of growing pains today.

I stayed on as a director from day one, was officially appointed to the board for a two year term thereafter... a term that expires basically today.

The overall effort is something that I am very proud to have been a part of. It was a fairly large undertaking made by many volunteers working towards the benefit of the whole of three different local Realtor Associations.

Most importantly for me were the friendships that were made through the entire experience. In some cases it was friendship through fire. Many times I wanted to bang the table with my shoe to get a point across. I lost more arguments than I could count (probably a good thing), but always in the end mutual respect found its way. I doubt that I'll know how much impact the experience has had on my life, career, or otherwise until some time passes and the dust clears (and my schedule opens up a little more).

For any WARDEX members that may stumble across this post, yeah -- I know -- things aren't perfect with the service or even the organization, but my time is up so the time -- now -- is yours. Hopefully you will be inclined to help make the organization better as time goes along. A little goes a long way. And if you can't help, that is okay -- just remember that the folks that are serving are doing so on a volunteer basis and do their best for for the whole.

I was going to post the names of the many that have helped over the years, but I worry that I will leave someone important out. So I'll simply say that I've enjoyed the spirit and the commraderie through it all.

For those that continue to serve, and those that are now coming on to fill the vacant seats, I wish you all good fortune and my gratitude for the time and service to all the members. May you continue with beneficial progress on a long and winding sojurn.