Winter 2012: Energize Your Association

Energize your association by melting away costs, and boost your revenue with tips on payroll, dues, and surviving the recession.
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In This Issue

Winning passage of a state constitutional amendment would be a feather in the cap of any organization. But for Louisiana REALTORS® fighting to ban transfer taxes, last November’s victory was especially important. Louisiana now joins Arizona, Montana, and Missouri, as the only states having constitutional amendments prohibiting transfer taxes from being imposed on the sale of a property.

I’ve received numerous calls lately regarding compensating employees for overtime and under what would be considered “extenuating circumstances,” such as power outages or natural disasters.

Because the housing market has ebbed more than it has flowed in the past few years—causing reservoirs of new members, reserves, and assets to evaporate—the most American of things has occurred within REALTOR® associations: We’ve been forced to innovate.

Every day, in each of our associations, we are living with the impact of the economy on our business—from membership levels dropping to the need to provide great services with fewer resources. Our communities, and the businesses of our members, have never relied on our expertise more than they do today. We must be relevant by providing services and benefits that will help practitioners...

In the past year, when America officially ended the war in Iraq, REALTOR® associations across the country launched dozens of programs designed to help members meet the unique housing needs of returning veterans and military families. Association programs have also focused on providing information, such as special veteran home grants, loans, and financing directly to veterans.

Members of the Plymouth and South Shore Association of REALTORS® (PASS), Mass., came together for a social and charity event, the REALTORS® Got Talent variety show, to raise money for the Homes for Our Troops organization, which builds specially adapted homes for injured servicemen and servicewomen returning from combat at no cost to the recipient.

To demonstrate the value of membership, NAR launched an online calculator that enables members to add up all the savings they receive from their many membership benefits, such as: free education, car rental discounts, free listings on REALTOR.com, dental insurance discounts, and much more.

The focus of this year’s AE Institute, March 16–20, Louisville, Ky., represents a shift from the association-building and management issues of the past to the issue of how associations can enhance their members’ business success.

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