2006 CI Membership Committee Report

Serving the C/I Member

By Shad Phipps, Chair
C/I Membership Committee

In August 1994, the Columbus Board of REALTORS® created the Commercial/Investment Section to better address the needs of the C/I member. Since then, members have been given the option to become affiliated with the Commercial/Investment Section or the Residential Section. Currently the CBR has 7,350 REALTOR® members, of which 751 or 10.22% consists of C/I practitioners. So far, we have added 51 new members in 2006.

I have served on the C/I Membership Committee since 2002, and have enjoyed meeting and becoming familiar with the new C/I Broker applicants and their companies. Ultimately the C/I Membership committee wants to encourage more commercial REALTOR® participation in the CBR.

The committee's primary functions are to interview and approve new C/I broker applicants for membership to the Board, review and approve all new C/I salesperson applications, explore discounts available to board members for products and improved services which may be of value to the C/I members, promote C/I Education to new applicants, and update the C/I Quick Reference Manual.

Every two years the C/I Membership committee has produced and published a revised Commercial/Investment Quick Reference Manual that is beneficial to both novice and experienced C/I practitioners. The latest edition is 2005 and our committee is continuously updating the manual preparing for the next edition, scheduled to be produced in 2007.

The manual is free to all C/I members and offers a variety of useful information such as: an alphabetized phone and address directory of all C/I members, CBR Membership services, REALTOR® Associations, CBR discount programs, valuable commercial Websites, MLS participation information, C/I Award categories, quick reference numbers for various private and governmental entities, a list of C/I organizations and their contact information, C/I MLS Definitions and Terminology, and the latest Board approved C/I sample forms. As a C/I practitioner, if you did not receive a 2005 C/I Quick Reference Manual, please contact the CBR to request a copy.

The C/I Membership Committee meets as often as necessary, approximately five or six times annually, to quickly expedite new member application approval. The C/I Membership Committee is a diverse group, presently comprised of Phil Crawford, Jeff Lyons, Matt Murtha, Elaine Parisi, Gary Parsons, Tom Ramage Jr., Mark Trewartha, Dave Worthington, and Jay Zollars, all of whom are assisted by CBR staff liaison Lenora Moore.

We welcome member comments and encourage your participation in this or any of the C/I Committees serving the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. To get involved feel free to contact any one of the committee members, or myself at sphipps@rweiler.com.