Daniel, I think you’re correct about leadership, we have a new president, he may just turn out to be that leader.

Ben, communication is key, and we certainly appreciate you doing that with us.

On the national level, I don’t know that there is ever going to be much hope of change, not any time soon, anyway. NAR is far too big, and there are far too many people with input to get much accomplished in a short period of time. The only way that is going to happen is to have a President who is willing to lead the association in that direction. It will take a VERY strong leader.

On our individual local levels, change is a bit easier because of the increased ease and opportunity for engagement. It is a heck of lot easier to get the ear of someone from your local or state association than someone at NAR.

Association/member relations can be a complex issue for any association, even more so for an association with 1 million members. Effective communication provides the foundation for un-complicating issues.

Jonathan said there was a lack of face – meaning you have a pr problem.

I’m saying they hauled off and did one all while ignoring where the fire is burning.

I laid out for you what is missing, it isn’t hard to grasp. They’re shouting into the wind at folks (X) that are indifferent to the nar – gen y is here online, and so is z- THAT is where NAR needs to focus.

X is on TV. (confused)
Y is on TV and ONLINE. (buyers that we’re facing daily in droves)
Z watches TV ONLINE. (tomorrows buyers)

It’s not just Realtors though who have lost faith in NAR – its the public. Lereah and Yun have destroyed the public trust in NAR and furthered the notion that Realtors are self-serving.

The Code of Ethics IS a joke, because there is no enforcement at any level. A few years back the president of a local association was the one who blatantly used the url “SanDiegoRealtor.com”, and it was a director who had the plural version. Six months of calls and compliants were ignored until Mary at NAR stepped in with a C&D. This against to people who routinely hit offices to explain why the membership needed to step up and pay the PAC money.

The associations are still far more influenced by the brokers than the agents, so going back to being agent-centric is probably more just a game of semantics.

The consumer protectionists and much of the public see NAR as the MLS Cartel and paid shill, not their friend. I don’t blame them, as I feel the same, and I have been in this business for 18 years.

I would opt out of NAR in a second if not for the mls. IF I thought I could win a class action against NAR over their MLS monopoly, I would do that as well. The clock is ticking for NAR. If they don’t get it soon, it will be too late.

@Benn & Jonathan – Jonathan says that the new PR campaign is bunk. Benn says that the NAR doesn’t listen to its members. NAR says that its members approve of PR campaigns like (and including) the current one. I’m having trouble processing all of these concepts to make sense of them.

@Ines – You hit on an important idea, and I’ll blog about that in the near future.

@Matthew – Nice point about the successes REALTOR associations have brought to bear. REALTORS stand on the shoulders of giants and owe a great deal to those who have gone before them. They shouldn’t get a pass because of those victories, but the history is helpful to create some context for our “what have you done for me lately?” questions.

I can spin associations either way, there is good and there is bad on all levels. The bigger problem I see is that NAR ignores its constituency, it outright ignores it- there is no excuse for that.

This past summer had I been the president of NAR, I’d have hired me a David G (sorry David). I’d have put together a massive online strategy to combat the negative spin taking place that has now become truth against NAR’s constituency. I’d not mock the re.net, I’d have engaged them with a team of folks from NAR that are in the know on the statements YUN was making on the economy, and even the redfin twist on their side of the story, not talking points to people who are not loyal to the NAR (Redfin are Realtors) and those who don’t know the first thing about politics! Geeze!

Instead – we’re a bunch of kids with keyboards? I bite my tounge every day at the fact that the image campaign is on television rather than where the fire is… “ONLINE” with us kids, oh yeah, they did make a webpage.

The RE.NET are out here on the front lines alone, with no support or friendship from the NAR or associations. I’ve never spoken out against my local board, my beef is more with the national association. I see what they do well, but I also see them ignoring the grass roots efforts to destroy the association. Sure, we fall into the trap of agreeing with some of it, but the truth is, the NAR sits silent on the sidelines while the perspective is being set by technology groups looking for their next VC cap injection.

If I believed associations were bad, you’d not be on agentgenius.com – you are the light in the darkness of silence that has become NAR. The problem is, you don’t speak for the NAR- too bad for all of us.

Now, having said all of that- any ideas on where we get us one of those David Gs? OR any better ideas?

I welcomed the NAR President to the discussion, he’s yet to acknowlege the polite hello with so much as a trackback. NAR is misguided if they believe the re.net is going away or this subject is going to die down- it isn’t.

I’m happy to speak with NAR off the record, all they have to do is ask, otherwise, we’re left to raise ourselves above the level of the defined Realtor by redefining our business around something other than an R.

Ben, lets get productive, you’re not under fire here, so let’s talk solutions…