At the beginning of the year our SAR leadership team outlined several priorities for 2022, and if you read my very first President’s Message of 2022 I alluded to several strategies and goals we hoped to accomplish this year. A few weeks ago during our annual Past President’s luncheon I provided a mid-year update as to how we are making progress toward these objectives, and I’d love to share this same update with you all as well. Click to watch the video now or you can view it below after the article.
To summarize what you will see in the video, here is the progress of our three main priority areas for this year:
- Highlight our current leaders so our members know who to reach out to with questions or concerns. I hope many of you have noticed an increased level of this — primarily by giving our involved members some additional ways to highlight their involvement in different SAR activities and committees.
- Form a Working Group to review the composition of our Board of Directors as well as the qualifying criteria to serve on the board. I am really excited that the Working Group (chaired by Past President Linda Wood, and vice chaired by board member Barbara Lebrecht) has done a fantastic job over several meetings, and there will be a proposal coming forward for the Board of Directors to review that makes several changes to our current qualifying criteria. So more to come on this.
- Host an informational forum for prospective candidates for the Board of Directors during the application period. We conducted this on March 1, 2022 at 1pm via Zoom and several of the attendees did indeed run for board seats this year!
- Regular communication to and from leadership. I hope you continue to read these President’s Messages in the Weekly Docket, which are a new addition to the Docket in 2022. To each message every week, I get member feedback — and we really appreciate this! You may have also noticed more regular podcasts published — thank you to hosts Cam Villa, our 2022 Affiliate Chair, and Tony Vicari, our staff Communications Director! We also recently published a video about the market shift, and coming soon I hope to roll out some member surveying. Our Marketing/Communications Committee, chaired by Maurice Thomas, and vice chaired by Danny Kwon, is also evaluating some new ways to reach our members and I am optimistic we will see some new great things from them.
- I have asked all of our 2022 chairs, vice chairs, and board members to take the Fair Housing Challenge. Embracing fair housing starts here. I am so proud of our extended leadership team — as of today well over 50% have completed the challenge and I am confident that we will reach 100% completed by the end of the year.
- Analyze member demographics. This is an ongoing effort. I am thankful that NAR has started providing local associations some aggregate data so we can determine how best to serve our members’ needs. Again as I mentioned above I also hope to roll out some member surveying so we can directly hear from our members what you all would like to see.
- Host an informational forum for prospective candidates for the Board of Directors during the application period. We conducted this on March 1, 2022 at 1pm via Zoom and several of the attendees did indeed run for board seats this year!
- Engage with other local real estate-related organizations. In May, SAR leadership met with leadership from the local chapters of Realtists, AREAA, Women’s Council, and NHORA to open the door to discussions as to how we can create better synergy between our organizations. I look forward to collaboration and camaraderie between our organizations. Our ‘Cultural Diversity/Fair Housing Committee’ under the leadership of chair Stephanie Ferris and vice chair Malyna Phan, changed its name to ‘Diversity Equity Inclusion and Fair Housing’ and they are also working on several new efforts this year.
- Shift the Volunteer Coordinating Committee to become the Community Relations Committee. Refocusing the ‘Community Outreach Committee’ (as it has now been renamed) has been fabulous thus far. Under the leadership of chair Chris Little and vice chair Gina La Placa, they seek to find volunteer opportunities within the Sacramento area that better align with our policy priorities. They are also pursuing programs to highlight SAR members who do amazing work within the community. More to come here.
- Expand our reach to engage more politically and community-minded members in outreach and mobilization efforts. We have so many amazing members doing amazing things in our community. Staff, the Government Relations Committee, and Local Candidate Recommendation Committee are working on a Liaison program that I am optimistic will roll-out this year.
- Local Election Action Funding: LEAF …or something like that. We formed another working group to examine creating a program modeled after NAR RPAC President’s Circle where our members commit to contribute directly to local SAR supported or endorsed candidates. That effort is underway, and I am excited to make this program a reality this year.
- REALTOR® Action Fund fundraising. There are ongoing discussions regarding a multi-pronged approach to increase participation in our Realtor Action Fund, and I hope to roll out a couple fundraising efforts by the end of 2022.
Our association vision statement is to be: “An indispensable partner and preeminent resource for real estate in the Sacramento region.” I hope that you have heard this message more clearly in 2022 as we strive everyday to be your indispensable partner. And if you have feedback for us, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or any member of our leadership team.
Cheers,
2022 SAR President
916.342.1372 Call or Text
erin@erinstumpf.com
