2021 Annual Meeting Recap

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On Wednesday, October 27th, the Annual Meeting of the Board of REALTORS and the MLS was held on line.  Voting opened up to the membership on October 20th and closed mid-meeting on the 27th.  Following is a recap of the highlights, and a link to the recorded meeting Passcode: R6ejC$7M.  We apologize for the technical issues that arose when we exceeded 100 live cameras on and space was limited.  We began recording as soon as we knew there was an issue and allowed the raffles to be given to those who weren’t present – but amazingly enough, all of our raffle winners were with us!!  Thank you to the members who turned off their connection and joined others in their office to make more space, and those that went on to phones to open up bandwidth. (now we know, big meetings must be WEBINARS with no participant video … we just were so anxious to see everyone.  And of course, thank you to the 179 members who voted on Board issues and the 48 participants who voted on MLS issues, and to the 141 members who registered to attend the meeting!

    • Special Reminder!  Code of Ethics NAR mandated training is due by December 31, 2021.  All REALTORS must take this training between Jan 1, 2019 and Dec 31, 2021.  If you have not completed your training, PLEASE DO SO NOW!  You can register through the membership HUB for our live, virtual Dec 9th training or through MAR or NAR.  When you have completed training please send your certificate to Sue so we can record attendance with the National Association.

 

    • The MLS Board of Directors has been hard at work this year and have three major taskforces in process:  Showing Services, Comparable Sales Reporting and IDX Website Review.  They are diligently reviewing the possibility of introducing a showing service in Berkshire County and reviewing potential vendors; will begin reviewing the websites of all members who offer IDX searches to ensure compliance and have planned a meeting in November to review how we report comparable only sales in the MLS.  Updates on each will follow in the coming months.  In addition to this, MLS has been on top of programmers working on tax data integration in Flexmls, Homesnap Pro integration and a new forms platform, Remine, which will roll out on November 1st.  Training has been scheduled – please watch for an email from the Mass Association with your sign on and password.

 

    • While we have been unable to see you in person, which we all miss, we have been connecting with you virtually in some powerful ways.  Our education attendance to date is at 539; we’ve met with 277 committee members; had 138 attend REALTOR Community Service Committee Members and have trained 77 new members – with more to come before 2021 is over!

 

    • The Contracts and Forms Committee, Eric Steuernagle, Chair; has been reviewing suggested changes to our forms all year long.  They’re proposing changes to the Purchase and Sale Agreement, Purchase and Sale Land Agreement and the Contact Worksheet.  They have also created a new forms, as well.  Please review, in the handouts, and provide any feedback you have to Sandy.

 

    • While safely social distancing, the REALTOR Community Service Committee, chaired by Molly Thomas, has been doing good works!  So far, we have raised in excess of $12,000 through Wine Tasting and a NAR Charitable Grant, both to benefit Construct and two events still in process:  Halloween Pumpkin contest, to benefit Strong Little Souls and REALTOR Raffle, to benefit Neighbor-to-Neighbor.  Please vote for our pumpkin contest winners and support the raffle by purchasing tickets, here.

 

    • Massachusetts has funded Fair Housing testers who will be out and about in the Commonwealth.  They’ll be testing the obvious, but also less obvious infractions of the Fair Housing laws.  Please be informed so you make the right choices when speaking with anyone inquiring of you for more information.  We have a Fair Housing CE class coming up on November 15th, which we be held live and virtually.  Register to attend.  Fairhaven is a NAR produced, interactive and immersive program that changes based on choices you make.  To go through the Fairhaven program, sign in here.

 

  • The REALTOR of the Year and the REALTOR Spirit awards were presented in a very unique way to worthy recipients.  Please read the posts about these two amazing individuals!

Votes Taken

    • 179 ballots were cast for the Slate of Officers and the Budget of the Berkshire County Board of REALTORS.  Slate:  173 in favor, 4 opposed and 2 abstain  Budget:  170 in favor, 1 opposed and 8 abstain.  The Slate and the Budget both passed.

 

  • 48 ballots were cast for the Slate of Officers and the Budget of the Multiple Listing Service.  Slate:  47 in favor, 1 abstain  Budget:  47 in favor, 1 abstain

We sent a huge shout-out to all of our Platinum Affiliates who support our board throughout the year and provided amazing raffle prizes.  (Note:  Due to technical issues all registrants were eligible for the raffle draws as opposed to only those in attendance!)  Please click on the affiliate to see the lucky winners!

We can’t do what we do with them!  Please be sure to send your thanks they’re way.
Leadership and Staff thank you for your membership this year and we look forward to working with you in 2022!