2008 Equal Opportunity Committee Report

Equl Opportunity Committee programming educates and supports new agents

By Gretchen McKay, Chair
Equal Opportunity Committee

The Equal Opportunity Committee is truly the real estate agent's committee. Our programming focuses on educating and supporting brand new agent through the Multi-Cultural Grant Program, where grants are awarded biannually, and through monthly education and networking opportunities via the Mentoring Sessions.

This year the Mentoring Schedule have and will feature the following sessions:

January 17        Lead Generation, Prospecting and Networking
February 21      Working the Investment Property Market
March 20          Introduction to Commercial Real Estate
April 17            Successful Listing Presentations
May 15            Successful Open Houses/Safety Issues
June 19            Working with Buyers
July 17             Working the Investment Property Market
August 21        The Art of Negotiating, Conflict Avoidance & Resolutions
September 18  Legal Issues/Fulfilling Your Fiduciary Objectives
October 16      Successful Listing Presentations
November 20    Writing a Successful Business Plan

Mentoring sessions are held at the Columbus Board of REALTORS® Membership Headquarters, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Please note that the schedule is subject to change without notice.

Fair Housing Focus Group
In February, the committee participated in a focus group study on Fair Housing and the Columbus Real Estate Market. The focus group was led by representatives with the Columbus Urban League who attended our February meeting to survey committee members about our experiences with Fair Housing issues both now and in the past. A report will be generated based upon their work and discussions with our members and we look forward to reviewing the results and extracting practical details.

NAR Diversity Grant Initiative
The Equal Opportunity Committee will continue the work toward fulfilling the initiatives of the NAR Diversity Initiatives Grant (awarded in 2007) to provide  African cultures training. The goals of this initiative are two-fold:

1. To educate members about various local and emerging populations.
2. To go off into these communities armed with this understanding of the various emerging markets and to share the virtues of home ownership.

The committee is in the process of putting together the next African cultures training workshop for REALTORS®. Watch the In Contract for date and time.

Multi-Cultural Grant Program
Fundraising efforts for our Multi-Cultural Grant Program kicked off this year through ticket sales for the CBR's Got Talent Show held March 13th at Villa Milano and where we raised $3,397.

Were you in the audience enjoying the talents of your peers? If so, thank you for your support! We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the talented CBR members who participated in the show, Chicago Title, Real Living/HER Title and Real Living HER Mortgage for contributing our grand prize Flat Screen Television, Photographer Scott Brookey, sb@photogallery.com, and to William Shaw, Market Mortgage Co., for videotaping the show.

Other opportunities to support the committee and its grant program will emerge again at Sales Associates Day on October 23rd.

Thanks, again, to everyone who has been and continues to be supportive of our committee projects.