This week, incoming Board President Eric Steuernagle and CEO Sandy Carroll joined their counterparts from all over the US in Chicago to engage in discussions about our industry, our association and how we can best serve our members – you!  The photo shown has leaders from Massachusetts enjoying a pre-conference dinner Sunday night to meet, connect, and share local goals for the coming year, hosted by MAR incoming President Kurt Thompson and CEO Theresa Hatton.  Taking a page from NAR CEO Bob Goldberg, we are open, accessible and committed to serving you in the year ahead. Let’s start now with sharing some incredible content we learned.  Some highlights that matter to you today:

2020 NAR President Vince Malta announced that REALTORS’ Commitment to Excellence (C2EX) program was just named as a Learning 100! award winner for fostering professional growth, innovation, and organizational performance.   We are very excited about the C2EX mission in the coming year and will be sharing more about how you can get involved.  Hint, hint – sign in to the free C2EX program today to gauge skills you excel at and areas you could improve.  The program takes you to the next level by assessing your expertise in 10 (11 for brokers) elements of professionalism ranging from customer service to use of technology.

There were too many speakers and topics to mention, but three updates below might be interesting for your business:

• Our favorite numbers guy, NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun presented the NAR Economic Update (video) and (pdf) presentation.
• For those that are fascinated by Government Affairs, NAR’s Senior Vice President Shannon McGahn presents an update from Capital Hill (video) and (pdf) presentation.
• And new Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Victoria Gillespie presented her Communications Overview on telling our story, the power of “That’s Who We R” and encouraged us all to reexamine effective marketing to increase both personal value to clients and industry value as an integral part of our economy and our community in a (video) and (pdf) presentation

And finally, we committed to join NAR in efforts to help fight hunger through stewardship of our excess food.  NAR announced their partnership with the Food Recovery Network, who developed a simple solution to combat food waste (we are not legally allowed to donate leftover food from our large gatherings due to health / food safety regulations).  Led by college students, organizations can donate excess meals from its conferences and meetings to local food banks by proper management of resources.  It was exciting to see State and Local Association Executives and incoming Presidents step up to fight hunger across the US (yes, we put the Berkshire pin was on the map!). Why?  Because, It’s Who We R.

It is with a heavy heart we share the sad news that retired Realtor Mel Greenberg passed away last night.  He and his wife Ellen were members here for many years.  For those that knew Mel, you are invited to a memorial service in his honor on Tuesday, July 2nd at 2:30pm at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire.  Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.

In fact, Mel was one of our first Good Neighbor Award recipients in Berkshire County and Massachusetts, for all of the work he did starting Berkshire’s Bounty, that supplied Breaking Bread and the People’s Pantry.  Here was an article we wrote about Mel’s good work for that project many years ago. Mel is a Shining Example of Community Caring   A quote from 20005 that summed up his work…

“Several years ago, Mel Greenberg told me about his goal of establishing Berkshire’s Bounty and the People’s Pantry. He asked if I would be interested in working with him to collect the food from local markets. Mel got together a group of volunteers to make the rounds of the markets every Thursday morning collecting many boxes of fruits and vegetables as well as milk and bread.  He has organized the project, gotten replacements when necessary and driven his truck to Big Y, the Co-op market, Guido’s Great Barrington Bagel and the Corn Crib.  Energetic, cheerful and determined, he has been the heart and soul of this project since it’s inception. Mel and his crew have moved literally tons of food, providing for the needs of many, many people… Mel is a real mensch.” – Marion Adler.