2008 CI Education Committee Report

Education key to commercial agent's success

By John Chess, Chair
C/I Education Committee

Of all of the Columbus Board of REALTOR®'s Commercial/Industrial (C/I) Committees, the C/I Continuing Education Committee (C/I CE Com) has the greatest impact on our members' ability to grow and prosper in their chosen fields of real estate.

Beside the obvious benefit of offering CE credits to meet the state licensing requirements, it is our responsibility to offer classes that expand and further members' education in their chosen segments of expertise. The goal of the CI CE Committee is to offer the most current and forward looking topics in our industry and keep our members in the forefront of the ever-changing real estate landscape.

It all starts with education. From the very first decisions to enter the real estate industry to which area of expertise to specialize in, education must always follow. There is the saying "When a person stops learning, he might as well be dead." We must continue to learn, and in some cases, share our wealth of knowledge.

The most successful REALTORS® owe it to the industry to give back and mentor and teach the next generation of their peers in the industry. Giving financially is one way to help, but to give back knowledge and time is often much more rewarding. One class we would like to make an annual tradition is the Top Producers Luncheon. In this class, one or more of the Top Producers from the previous year will share his or her experience and pass along bits of information as to why he or she is so successful. Giving back in this format will be easy and tremendously helpful and inspirational to new and sometimes struggling members. We are dedicated to offer classes in each of the five disciplines of commercial real estate: industrial, multi-tenant residential, office, retail and land. It is our responsibility to offer classes in each field to fully add value to all of our members.

This year we are giving much consideration to what we could do to add greater value, increase interest, bring better classes, and build a foundation for years to come for this committee. One shortcoming that we uncovered was a lack of performance review for the committee.

One of the changes this year is that we are setting benchmarks in several key areas to track how we are performing in our duties to the members. We are tracking more closely the number of classes, CE credits offered and revenues generated by these classes. This will help in future years by allowing us to set goals that can be broken by future committee chairs. Competition is a good thing and trying to be the best will benefit all of us.

Upcoming classes & luncheons with sponsoring committee member:

• Land Development: Wetlands, Surveys & Development: Bernie Caplin
• Investment Properties, Case Studies: Donald Roberts
• Arena District Update: Carlton Dargusch
• Warehouse & Industrial Properties: Gary Szerszen
• Streetcar Initiative: Kristy Daniel Leasing & Tenant/Landlord
• Relationships: Brian Lehner