The Traverse Area Association of REALTORS is dedicated to promoting advocacy, education, ethics and professional standards for REALTORS

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1 The Traverse Area Association of REALTORS Minutes for Board of Directors Meeting August 25 th, 2017 The Traverse Area Association of REALTORS is dedicated to promoting advocacy, education, ethics and professional standards for REALTORS Meeting was called to order by President Jamie Grace at 8:37 am in the TAAR Conference Center Roll Call: Jamie Grace, Kellie Sergent, Mary Janik, Michelle Maidens, Dave Wilsey, Chad Brown, Barb Hood, Stephen Karas, Catherine Barris, Joni Holly, Carolyn Collins, Amy Thoreson Staff in Attendance: Connor Miller and Kim Pontius Not in Attendance: Trevor Tkach and Beccy Janis Pledge of Allegiance Motion to Ratify the Agenda: Motion to approve the agenda. Seconded. Add Execution of Instruments to the agenda and the addition of Beccy Janis providing a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Michigan update during Jamie Grace s President s report. Motion carried. Motion to Ratify the Consent Calendar: Motion to approve the Consent Calendar. Seconded. Motion carried. There was a conversation, led by Kim Pontius, regarding who takes minutes at TAAR committee meetings. Mary Janik suggested that we (the TAAR Board of Directors) potentially take a look at the whole committee structure. Chad Brown expressed that the roles of the committee chair members should be well defined and have some accountability to the TAAR Board of Directors. Jamie Grace stated that there will be some work on systems for TAAR Committees. MEMBER COMMENT PHASE Guest Presentation- Cecilia Chesney CANCELLED due to illness Audit Review- Chris Kindlinger- End of Year Review Chris Kindlinger presented on the finances for TAAR. It was shared that TAAR is in good financial shape with the mortgage on the building paid off and increases in the association revenue. It was mentioned TAAR is a bit short of a 6 month reserve fund and making a contribution to the 6 month reserve fund is not currently budgeted for. Chris recommended establishing a set target for the 6 month reserve fund amount so it can be worked towards and met.

2 Stephen Karas brought up the Fern Street property and how TAAR s purchase of this property was not necessarily intended to be a long-term investment. Stephen suggested that TAAR consider selling the property now when the market is still good. Jamie Grace noted this was a good conversation, but it will be postponed for a little bit. Kim made a point that the MLS Income percent of TAAR s total income has decreased from 68% to 56% and is getting closer to the industry-wide goal of 38%. President s Report: Jamie Grace Jamie stated that there is not much to report. He shared that Ann Porter has been awarded the TAAR REALTOR of the Year award for 2017 and that Ellie Krieg will be participating in Leadership Grand Traverse this fall as TAAR s representative. President-Elect Report- NAR Leadership Summit Kellie Sergent shared a quick report on her trip with Kim to Chicago for the NAR Leadership Summit. Kellie mentioned that the Summit focused quite a bit on incoming NAR President s Elizabeth Mendenhall s theme of Own It. The Own It Music video that NAR put together was shared. Kellie stated that she would like the TAAR Board of Directors to consider adopting the NAR Strategic Priorities for 2018 as well. They are broad enough but also well defined enough that they should fit with what we are doing here locally. Kim mentioned that this was one of the best leadership summit he has been to in a longtime. Kim agreed with Kellie it would be great to be in alignment with the National Association of REALTOR Strategic Priorities. These 4 Strategic Priorities are: 1. Define measurable increase in professionalism 2. Increase REALTOR influence 3. Take management of real estate data to the next level 4. Reinforce the importance of REALTOR and insure REALTORS are at the center of real estate transactions. Barb Hood shared that Women s Council of REALTORS is on the same path, working on aligning their priorities with national priorities this year. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Affiliate Golf Event Amy Thoreson gave a recap of the Affiliate Golf Outing sharing that despite the rain for a short period of time everyone had a great time. She congratulated RE/MAX Bayshore Properties for winning the Broker Cup. The next TAAR Affiliate Event will be the Affiliate Appreciation Event on Thursday, October 26th. Amy also mentioned that the Affiliate Ambassador is looking for some new REALTOR Members on their committee. The

3 TAAR Affiliate for the month of July was Amy Thoreson with SendOut Cards and Kevin Kelling with Mercantile Bank of Michigan who helped to sponsor the 9 and 10 News Affiliate Social. Amy also mentioned that the Affiliate committee is going to try to bring expenses to the next TAAR Board meeting for approval. Brokers Day of Discovery Kim shared that the flyer for the Broker Day of Discovery went out to all TAAR Brokers in digital format on Thursday, August 24th and a copy of the Broker Day of Discovery flyer is in front of all TAAR Board of Directors Members. Kim mentioned that we are trying to get Principal and Associate Brokers to this Day of Discovery Event because they need to be there to hear what the event speakers have to say about how the MLS will be changing as we move into the future. Kim mentioned that all TAAR Board Members are welcome to be in attendance as well. It was requested that the Board of Directors Members would like a clean copy, shared digitally, of the Broker Day of Discovery that they can share with their brokerages. IT Update Kim shared that TAAR is out of the swamp as far as IT operations goes. Kim mentioned that TAAR has gotten a lot of great support from Inaccomp who are working on condensing the TAAR servers. Kim also mentioned that TAAR is working with Brickhouse Interactive who has been working with cloud-based services. Kim shared that we/taar was very vulnerable and thanks to Brickhouse we were able to verify and regain access to our cloud-based services. Brickhouse will be working with us to build a new website, we are hoping for a January launch of a new NGLRMLS website. Kim also mentioned that we/taar didn t get access to Lars computer but we shut off his access so we will be protected going forward. Building Update Kim mentioned that the work on the building has started and gave a heads up that the costs of materials for the project have already gone up 20%. NEW BUSINESS NGLR new rules Kim stated that he finally got the NGLRMLS new potential rules together. Stephen Karas shared that the MLS Committees intentions in this process was to look at rules and regulations to make sure they made sense. It was mentioned there are a lot of rules and regulations that people don t care to follow because the cost is only $25. It was mentioned that these rules and regulations are not about making money it is about

4 deterrence and professionalism. Kim shared that these new rules and regulations are a tiered system with smaller or bigger issues with bigger fines for bigger issues. Kim stated that he needs a motion to bring this to the NGLRMLS board. The TAAR Board of Directors asked for time to review this policy and then approve it have it taken to the NGLRMLS Board. There was some discuss about where the fine dollars would go and Kim shared that the fines will go to NGLRMLS to be divided as partners in the dividends. Kim mentioned that the fine is not getting the listing on the MLS 3 days after the listing agreement is signed then it is $25 a day. The motion to bring the new rules and regulations to the NGLRMLS with TAAR s support was withdrawn and Kim is going to share the NGLRMLS rules and regulations with the NGLRMLS Executive Committee because it was written by Kim as the NGLRMLS CEO. Conversation on the new NGLRMLS rules and regulations will be tabled until the next TAAR Board meeting after this document has been shared with the NGLRMLS Board of Directors. Datasharing/RPR Kim shared that he had recommended at MSAE (Michigan Society of Association Executives) retreat to have all data sharing on RPR (REALTOR Property Resource). Under the current procedures MLSs have agree to receive other MLS s information but don t share their own. If we moved to RPR only people with a NRDS number will have access and we would not have to login to individual systems for reciprocal access. RPR is also a better and more secure system. If all MLSs moved to RPR, all data would be shared among all boards partnering through RPR. Kellie - Michigan REALTORS did an RPR webinar yesterday (Thursday, August 24th). They do them all the time they are about an hour long and RPR has a great app as well. Kellie mentioned that the information/data in RPR helps make you look brilliant. Watershed Center Request Kim mentioned that the Watershed Center is looking for a sponsor for the Swingshift to the Stars. The TAAR Board of Directors said no because of our Primary Nonprofit Partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Michigan. MEMBER COMMENT PHASE For The Good Of The Order Stephen requested that the TAAR Board of Directors talk about the Fern Street Property at the next Board of Directors Meeting. Chad Brown would like us to discuss more on Datasharing/RPR at the next TAAR Board of Directors meeting after everyone has had a chance to check it out more. Adjourn Meeting

5 Meeting was adjourned at 10:07 am Respectfully submitted, Connor Miller, Communications & Marketing Director

2016 TAAR Annual Report

2016 TAAR Annual Report President s State of the Association Report Beccy Janis Fellow REALTORS, Affiliates and TAAR Staff, As your association leader I have been given an extraordinary opportunity to