Howard County Association of REALTORS^®
December President's Report
by Blaine Milner
December 2000

Also available in Adobe Acrobat!

Well, folks, we only have one month left in this millennium year 2000. I suppose all of you but me have your business and personal life all wrapped up through the end of the year and are planning for 2001. I keep hoping that the slim, organized person within this pudgy body and muddled mind makes an appearance soon.

Thanks to Dave Leonard and his committee, the 2nd Annual Millennium Ball was delightful. All who attended ate very well, mixed with their colleagues and danced the night away. Special thanks to Lakeside Title Company and Edward Arthur Jewelers for their donations of the $1000 gift certificate which was won by Garth Davis of Re/Max Professionals. Everyone said they wanted another Ball next year. How long can we stretch this millennium thing out? A thousand years I guess. We may need to update our photos!

R.E.N.O. 2000, held on November 2nd at the Ten Oaks Ballroom and Conference Center, was another great success with a full house of over 125 REALTORS^® attending along with 25 vendors. Much appreciation to Norma Judd and her education committee and the vendors who supported the event. We have reserved the facility for next year on November 8. Education Committee Chairs Vivian Feen and Fran McColgan have held their first committee meeting and they would like to educate our members about technology. All HCAR educational classes will be held on the second Thursday of the month. A schedule of classes will be distributed soon.

Your Board of Directors voted to write a letter and asked the membership to contact the Howard County Executive and Council urging them not to pass CB48-2000 regarding adopting the Property Maintenance Code for all properties in the county without modifying the bill after additional study. We felt that county residents would suffer additional taxes that would be required to fund implementation and that homeowners cited with violations could incur extreme penalties. As most of you know, the bill was not passed. We all want homeowners to maintain their properties, but hopefully the County Council can come up with better regulation and enforcement. Thanks to all of you who responded to our Electronic Alert and expressed your concerns to the Council.

Several HCAR directors and members attended the NAR Annual Conference in San Francisco earlier this month. It's tough duty and a terrible place to visit, but someone has to do it! We attended committee meetings, seminars, open forums and round table discussions with leaders of NAR and other associations around the country. We always learn from each other. NAR is promoting local support for RPAC fundraising to deal with issues that affect all of us locally and nationally. Smart Growth initiatives are popping up everywhere across the USA and NAR has a special web page devoted to this topic. Anyone interested can find information at onerealtorplace at http://www.realtor.com.