2008 Tech Users Committee Report

Everyone is welcome at the Tech Users Meeting

by Troy Marsh
2008 Tech Users Committee

This is an exciting year for us on the Tech Users Committee (TUC) with a lot of new things happening. Our main focus this year is to be a benefit to all members, those on the tech users committee as well as the membership as a whole.

As we continue the push towards the paperless age, technology is going to continue to become more and more important, with regards to the technology we currently use and the technology that is on the way.

We plan on focusing as a group on not only educating our committee to the new and existing technologies, but also educating the membership as a whole so that we as a board can effectively communicate with the growing number of tech-savvy consumers.

Many new technologies are being discussed this year, some we may not even be aware of at this time.

The most obvious example of new technology for all of us is the release of our new Tempo 5 system which was the topic at our February 26 Tech Users Committee meeting. This system will allow us to leverage ourselves by providing better reports, more flexibility and better integration of mapping than we have ever seen before.

We have also seen our board add many other technology related benefits to the membership including PinPoint Mapping and message boards for committees to better communication. This year we plan to talk about other new technology issues effecting our industry such as I-Phones, Supra Compatibility, Blogging, Website Vendor Comparison, Internet Lead Generation, Podcasts, Franklin County Auditors site presented by Joe Testa and much more.

We also hope to put together a survey of the membership on technology related issues in order to find out how we are doing on technology upgrades and what we can do to help the membership as a whole become better informed as to what technology is provided to you through the board and how to use it.

I'm looking forward to a great year as Chair of the Tech Users Committee. I want to thank David Dikeman (2007 Chairman) and Bryan Dean (CBR staff liaison) for making the transition a smooth one as well as Elaine Reese our 2008 vice-chairperson and 2009 Chairman for her time commitment and dedication to the committee.

I would also like to thank all the members of the Tech Users Committee who take their time to educate one another on the different types of technologies that affect our industry.

Communication is the word of the year for us on the Tech Users Committee and trying to get the information that we talk about in our meetings out to help the membership as a whole. We have challenged our committee members to take the information back to their offices and we also encourage the membership as a whole to ask committee members about upcoming meeting topics to see if they are of interest.

Our meetings are open to the entire membership, below is a list of our meeting topics and dates for the upcoming year, take a minute to see if any of those topics are relevant or of interest to you and please take time to join us.

All Meetings are from 1:30 to 3:30 unless otherwise stated.

• March 25 -- I-Phones, Voyager phones, Supra compatibility, management of incoming email (leads & spam).
• April 22 -- Benefits of Blogging; where/how to blog; avoiding copyright issues with internet posted photos.
• May 20 -- Contact management - how to use it to manage leads
• June 24 -- Best internet sites to market our listings (Craigslist, Trulia, Realtor.com, Cyberhomes, etc.); explain the pros/cons of each
• July 22 -- Tech Day, 10:00-3:00
• August 26 -- Web site vendor comparisons/ selections; building SEO.
• September 23 -- Technology based marketing; Podcasts; Branding; Generating leads.
• October 28 -- Joe Testa, Franklin County Auditor, presentation