On Feb 28th at OREA’s Annual General Meeting in Toronto, the Association thanked 2018 OREA President David Reid (Muskoka) for all his accomplishments and welcomed in Karen Cox (Grey Highlands) as OREA’s 2019 President, along with 2019 President-Elect and Provincial Director for Southern Ontario, Sean Morrison (St. Catharines). As Directors-at-Large, Tehreem Kamal (Mississauga) and Mike Douglas … Continued
This guest blog contribution is from Kate Hodgson When I first entered the workforce I took a position that ended up being outsourced to a new company within the year of being hired. This decision affected a department of about 100 people and understandably made everyone nervous. During the months of transition this sentiment … Continued
Recently our CEO, Edward Barisa, was asked by the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) to share some advice for the next generation of leaders. Here is what Ed had to say about the lessons he has learned: Association management is all about people. It took me a while to learn that. I thought it … Continued
If you work for an association that covers a large geographical area – like a region of Ontario or all of Ontario– you’re going to have directors and chairpersons from far and wide. As a staff liaison to committees, I always made it a point to travel to the hometown of my chairpersons. I would … Continued
Since I was young I have heard people say, “there is no such thing as a dumb question”. And although I agree with that in principle, I’ve often held off asking questions because I didn’t want to appear like I was the only one who didn’t understand something. When I’ve mustered my courage and asked … Continued
For 32 years I have been amazed at the contributions that REALTORS® make as volunteer leaders at their local, provincial and national associations. I don’t know of any other profession that earns its income by commission and gives up as much time as Realtors do, not only to their own trade association but to many … Continued
I was speaking to an experienced REALTOR® who had been a volunteer on his board for many years. We were talking about the difficulty of recruiting new volunteers, so I asked for his opinion and this was his advice: Don’t lie. When you’re asking someone who is a commissioned sales person to give … Continued
Executive Officers (EOs) of associations have one of the toughest, challenging yet rewarding jobs there is. They get to run an organization like an entrepreneur, interact with all sorts of people and get exposed to issues of local, provincial and national scope. If you don’t like boredom, being an EO is a dream job. But … Continued
Those of us over 40 may be familiar with the children’s fable of a race between a tortoise and a hare. In it, the hare raced ahead, well in the lead, then rested and chatted with other animals, while the tortoise just kept going on. In the end, the tortoise won. What does this have … Continued
So, do you want to be a vanilla volunteer leader/president and just keep things on an even keel and not rock the boat? Hey, the market is good and if it ain’t broke why fix it? We’ve lost 2 great music icons within a week – country legend Merle Haggard and rock/pop/funk/blues artist Prince. If … Continued