Howard County Association of REALTORS^®
April President's Report
by Ilene S. Kessler
March 10, 1999

Welcome to the beginning of the spring. It seems as though the spring real estate market once again is off to an early start! Barb Seely and I just returned from the Midwinter Meetings for the National Association of REALTORS^®. We were among the first Realtors in the country to take the new NAR-HUD Cultural Diversity Training under the umbrella of President Clinton's "One America" campaign. This training will provide a designation in Cultural Diversity and we are hoping to bring this program to you by the end of the year. This is an area where none of us can have too much information and training. I have also put into this newsletter some exciting promotional information from RPAC. Thank you, RPAC and NAR, for your Call to Action that resulted in Senator Shelby of Alabama deleting language from the Senate Regulatory Relief Bill that would have cost Realtors a great deal of commission dollars. Please give to RPAC. We are doing so much on the Federal and State levels. But we can't do this without your dollars. Please contact me by March 31 if you wish to be considered to serve on a committee for the National Association of REALTORS^®. All committees and a description of them are on NAR's Web Site: realtor.com. They are part of the member's only site: One Realtor Place. If you haven't seen this site, I would suggest that you take a good look. Much valuable information, including legislative updates are there.

On March 1, I met with new County Executive Jim Robey. We discussed several topics. One had to do with landlord-tenant issues, and one had to do with MAR's proposed reduction of closing costs bill. Jim has proposed some very exciting joint partnerships with HCAR and the County Government.

The Social Committee has been very busy. They have planned three exciting events. Please mark your Calendars for the following: Spring Fling -- April 12 at 5:00 at Alex's (See enclosed flier) Bus trip to Atlantic City -- June 8 Dinner Dance -- November 6 at Cattail Country Club. 7-12 with a live band. Thank you for all of your compliments on the Regional Education Calendar. I know that the Education Committee has worked hard on this, and I am getting a lot of positive calls on this. All of the credit goes to them.

Thank you all for your patience with the recent conversion from the LENI to the KIM keypad and lockbox system. The new system is up and running at our Columbia office. Please call Tonita Douglas at 410-290-5928 for assistance.

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS: Congratulations to NELLIE ARRINGTON from Long and Foster who is chairing (and doing a wonderful job) the Howard County Economic Forum. Nellie recently received her CRS designation. Keep selling those houses!