Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 10, 2010
GCAR president to stay on course with two-year plan
David Laprad
Jennifer Grayson is the 2011 president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. She intends to carry out the two-year plan put in place by her predecessor, Randy Durham, which aims to make the GCAR more relevant to members and the local community.
- David Laprad
The battle cry of most newly installed presidents, whether it’s the president of the United States or a local PTA, is “Prepare for change!”
Jennifer Grayson, was sworn in last night as the 2011 president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors during a ceremony at the GCAR, has something different in mind: making the fewest possible changes as she carries out the two-year plan put in place by her predecessor, Randy Durham.
“We have so much going on we can’t change gears. And that’s good. We need consistency,” Grayson said during an interview prior to her installation last night.
Durham implemented the plan, to which Grayson referred, at the start of his term as president in 2010. Contained in a thick binder titled “The Realtor Enterprise is Chattanooga Tomorrow,” the proposal outlines several initiatives the GCAR board believes will make it more relevant to members and the local community.
One of the initiatives is centered on supporting GCAR members as they prepare to meet the challenges of the current market.
“Realtors are facing difficult challenges. But this market is normal. We had a lot of good years starting in 2002; business came easy and no one had to think about customer service. Now we’re back to where we need to think about our customers and have to work hard to make sales happen,” Grayson said.
GCAR is also taking action to develop a more cohesive Realtor community. Grayson said this is one of the most important tasks facing the association.
“Agents have a home with their broker, but we want to be a place where they can become part of a larger community. We need each other.”
She added that Realtors do a better job when they know and respect each other. “We work together, so it’s important to develop a sense of cohesion. If I’m representing the seller and another agent is representing the buyer, I’m still going to want the seller to be happy. It’s easier to make that happen when I know the other agent.”
The association is also focused on being more valuable to its members. For example, by providing Realtors with monthly statistics, the GCAR hopes to arm agents with the information they need when working with a client.
“In many cases, brokers are providing that information, but we want to make sure everyone has those numbers. Having the right information is part of being a professional,” Grayson said.
The GCAR is also looking to put together programs, products and services centered on member support and that ensure its stability and continuity. For instance, by eliminating most of the committees and creating task forces to handle individual assignments, the association can allow more members to provide input and take part in its activities.
“No one has wanted to commit for a year to a committee. So we broke everything down into tasks, which will allow members to help out for a shorter period of time. In each case, the task force focuses on one thing, and there’s a beginning and an end to the task,” Grayson said.
One task force on which Grayson served was “Raising the Bar,” a small think tank Durham challenged to come up with ways of improving the public’s perception of Realtors. The group decided agent evaluations, in which the Realtors on a transaction rate each other’s performance, would encourage agents to provide the best possible service to their clients.
Another task force called “Essence of Chattanooga” is training agents to speak on behalf of the association throughout the community.
Grayson said she’s pleased with the plan and believes the association has been making great strides toward accomplishing its goals.
“At the beginning of the year, you’re going to see us implement a lot of the things we’ve been working on,” she said.
While the leaders of any organization are usually eager to draw up their own agenda, Grayson is happy to take the torch from Durham and carry it forward.
“Every time our leadership changed, we’d go into strategic planning mode. But then life would go on and nothing would change. We got tired of doing that,” Grayson said.
When Durham took over as president, he contacted Recon Intelligence Services, which is headed by industry expert Jeremy Conaway. The association then worked hand-in-hand with Conaway to develop the two-year plan. Since then, Conaway has been making regular visits to the GCAR to check on its progress and hold it accountable.
Grayson said 2010 was the right time for a new plan.
“We didn’t have the demands of a large membership, so it was a good time to change things and implement new policies. When our membership starts growing again, we’ll be ready to meet its needs.”
Although Grayson has her sights set on continuing the work of her predecessor, she does have one item on her personal agenda: seeing more of the association’s members join the national organization’s Call to Action.
“There are a number of topics in which we all need to become involved, such as the mortgage deduction going away. We all need to be jumping up and down and saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no!’
“We also need to be talking up home ownership. The media is telling us home ownership isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, but we say it’s not just an investment, it’s also a way of life. Owning a home is still a part of the American Dream.
“We need to have a voice, but we currently don’t have one.”
Grayson has been a Realtor since 1998 and has a long history of service to the real estate community. In addition to serving as treasurer and president-elect of the GCAR, she’s served on the association’s board of directors three times and chaired the Professional Standards, Grievance and Member Services Committees. She’s also served as president of the local chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors twice.
Grayson, a licensed broker in Tennessee and a licensed agent in Tennessee and Georgia, is currently a broker and consultant at Fletcher Bright Company.
Her designations include the Council of Resident Specialist, Certified Relocation Professional, Performance Management Network, Graduate Realtor Institute and Accredited Buyers Representative. In 1999, she completed the GCAR’s leadership training program.
As Grayson looked ahead to 2011, she said she wouldn’t be able to accomplish everything on her own. “One person can’t do all of this. If we want to raise the bar, then we’re going to have to work together.”
|
|