Celebrating 100 years . . .

By Myna Kobre
CBR President, 1979

1979 - that was my year and what a year it was! I became the 71st President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. . . and their first woman!

Hard to believe that 29 years have past and we are now celebrating 100 years of service and education to our members.

The issue of women entering the Board as REALTOR® members was very controversial. The Columbus Board of REALTORS® was the last large metropolitan board in the country to allow women to join. An article from the November 17, 1960 issue of The REALTOR® newsletter said:

"Without question, the most interesting and perhaps most controversial changes was the so-called Women's Issue and after the ballots were counted several times, the committee certified that the election was over that the Board can now accept applications for members from the fairer sex. This change in our constitution WILL NOT and we repeat WILL NOT alter our Summer Stag Picnic."

We did change that. . . eventually.

Back to 1979. . . To go up in the chairs of CBR back then, it was a time commitment of five years. Our installation was held at the Neil House Hotel and the officers installed were: Asst. Secretary-Treasurer, Raymond Dailey; Secretary-Treasurer, Joseph MacKinnon; Vice President, Gary Seckel; and President-Elect was Michael Griffith. At this event we also honored our Award Recipients. Our membership for CBR was approximately 5,500 people. The high award at that time was called "Diamond" and five people were honored. The next category was "Gold" and there were 13 honored. Last was "Silver" with 30 honorees.

There are many stories I could tell about being your "first lady" and how it changed many old time traditions.

First of all, for many years the past presidents had an annual dinner meeting where they ate, drank, played cards and swapped jokes.

"What are we going to do about her?" were the remarks carried back to me. So, on the evening of my first dinner, I thought long and hard about how I could make them comfortable and become one of "the boys." As we all sat down to dinner, I ordered a scotch, lit up a cigar, and told a really dirty joke. There was utter silence from all. Never mind the looks that went around the table. I had really laid an egg! From that moment on I resolved to handle this position as myself, not one of the boys.

In 1979 (and for many years following) the Columbus Board had monthly dinner meetings. Many were held at the Neil House Hotel and we always had a special program with guest speakers. In February, we had Earle Bruce as our speaker and needless to say it was a sellout. There was a cash bar and the cost of dinner was $5.00!

The Board accomplished a number of projects in 1979 that would benefit our community and involved many of our members.

• We donated a new home for the Great Ape Exhibit to our Columbus Zoo.
• Our paint program in the Linden Area under the guidance of the Columbus Neighborhood Housing Services is a thriving, successful model for other cities throughout the country.
• Our Home Construction Project with the Southeast Career Center has sold its third model home built by our young people, and is now working on its fourth.
• We invested in our Children's future by our financial support of two very special reports designed to better our Columbus School System. One was done by Citizen Research and one by a special committee of the Columbus Board of Education.
• We established the first Buckeye Federal-Columbus Board of REALTORS® Scholarship Program for collegiate students majoring in Real Estate.
• A new official CBR "Agreement to Lease" form was designed through the hard work of a devoted committee.
• We told the public that "Now is the Time to Buy a Home" through a special radio campaign on WCOL.
• We celebrated a strong Private Property Week.
• We contributed to our Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
• We adopted the Affirmative Marketing Agreement with HUD.
• Our commitment to the REALTORS® Political Action Campaign was most successful.
• We offered another "first" to our members -- for continuing education -- our new Video Theatre.
• Our commitment for more education for our members was evidenced by many seminars throughout the year.

All in all it was a great year!