Howard County Association of REALTORS^®
May President's Report
by Blaine Milner
May 2001

Also available in Adobe Acrobat!

I have been advised that I should leave the date off of my reports to enable you to enjoy the same report several times without realizing that I haven't written a new report for a while. I was taught by my third grade teacher back in rural Kansas that it always helps to read important articles several times in order to retain and appreciate all of the vital points contained therein. All of you who have read this report more than once please raise your hand. You may now be excused for early recess; and you won't be tested on the next report.

We on the School Board, also known as the HCAR Board of Directors, have been having some disagreements about the necessity of mailing hard copies of this and other announcements to the membership as well as making them available on the HCAR web site. The majority finally voted to give all of you the virtual benefit of the doubt, and put it only on the web site. This helps to keep our costs and membership fees down. Our records indicate that over 65% of the members have e-mail. We suspect it's higher, since it is getting harder by the hour to keep up with the constant changes in our industry, even with every tool available to us. How can agents expect to make a living without what has become basic technology? E-Mail.

We are proud to report that HCAR has the highest reported number of e-mail users of any real estate association in Maryland. Congratulations! To those who have it. Those who don't, please join another association. You are lowering our statistics! On second thought, why not take MRIS up on their offer of free e-mail service and stay with HCAR? We love you and want your e-mails!

We invite all of you who feel that we should continue to mail hard copies of announcements and reports to you, to call, write or e-mail HCAR. We are interested in your opinion. This is your association. Talk to us.

Telephone: 410-715-1437

Address:

HCAR 8757 Georgia Avenue, Suite 600 Silver Spring, MD 20910-3737

E-mail: staff@HCAR.org

Congratulations! To Linda Odum for being elected to the Columbia Council for Long Reach Village.

Linda was one of five new members elected to the Columbia Council on April 21^st. We know that Linda will work as diligently serving the Columbia Community as she has serving her real estate clients over the years. It is commendable when one of our members takes the time and interest to serve our community.

Politicians and Realtors both attended the legislative breakfast in large numbers, held in April in appreciation of our local Maryland legislative representatives' efforts in behalf of Howard County. It has been a great year for our real estate industry legislatively and we thanked our delegation chair, Liz Bobo, for her leadership this past session.

There are a number of events, classes, and seminars coming up this year. Several in May:

NAR Mid-Year Meeting in Washington DC, May 14-19
Ninja Selling Seminar in Columbia on May 22