Last night, the Orlando Regional Realtor Association had a full membership meeting.  There were six bylaw changes that were voted on.  Two failed and four passed.  I love this process so I made sure to attend.

Here is the brief synopsis of the bylaw changes and votes:

Amendment 1
Currently, the membership elects the officers and the board members.  The proposal was to allow the membership to elect the board members and the board members would elect the officers.  The leadership does not trust the membership to elect the officers themselves.  This one failed 27-26.  If you ever wondered if your vote counts, it does.

Amendment 2
Currently, the board has a President-Elect, who automatically becomes President the following year.  The proposal was to have the Vice President succeed to President-Elect who succeeds to President.  This one failed 45-12.  The overwhelming majority believe that one year of entitled succession is enough to ensure continuity from year to year.

Amendment 3
This was to add a provision in the bylaws for emergency rescheduling of the annual meeting in the event of a natural disaster, emergency, or act of God.  There was minimal discussion on this amendment.  It passed 50-8.

Amendment 4
Currently, the jurisdictional boundaries for ORRA are Orange and Seminole County.  This is determined by the National Association of Realtors.  During the discussion, many board members made comments referencing ORRA taking over local associations in Tampa and even the Panhandle.  I got the feeling that they want to control the entire state.  If ORRA controlled the entire state, what is the point of the state association?

This one passed 46-13.  So now instead of saying our territory is “Orange and Seminole County,” it says “as approved and assigned by the National Association of Realtors.”

I don’t understand the jurisdictional boundaries completely, but I don’t think this change actually changes anything.

Amendment 5
Previously, in order to become an officer of Orlando Realtors, you had to serve two consecutive years on the board of directors.  Now, the two consecutive years have to be within the last five years.  They don’t want someone to serve two consecutive years, take a 10-year break, then run for Secretary.  I’m always skeptical when an organization wants to put up barriers to serving.  I like for the voters to decide who they want.

This one passed 43-15.

Amendment 6
Previously, if a member dropped their membership, they had to rejoin within one year in order to be treated like a renewing membership.  This amendment changed that to three years.  It’s not unusual for people to take a year or two off of real estate, then come back.  This makes that easier.  I would have preferred two years.  That is how long the state lets your license be involuntary inactive before you have to repeat the prelicensing class and retake the state exam.  I don’t know how they came up with three years.

This one passed 49-5.

There are a few things that were interesting to me about this system:

1. There were less than 60 people voting. There are 19,500 members of Orlando Realtors (according to most recent 990).  That is 0.3% of the members who make these decisions on behalf of everyone else.  You had to be present on a Friday evening with about two-weeks notice in order to vote. Compare that to elections for board members, where 1,253 people voted – 20 times more people!  That was electronic voting done over about a week.   It seems a better system would be much the one we use for government: include the bylaw changes on the same ballot as the election for officers.  You are given the ballot in advance and you can vote over several weeks.

2. There were very few people who spoke against the amendments. I voiced my opinion on four of the amendments and asked a question about another amendment.  It was a little scary.  In most cases, I was not the first person to speak up, but I definitely felt like one of the only people in the room who opposed some of the amendments.  Afterward, several people came up to me and thanked me for saying something.  I appreciated them saying something.  Clearly, there are people who don’t like what is going on.  They spoke through their vote on the first two amendments, but they were unwilling to speak out loud.  We had to sign in to our membership account to vote.  I wonder if the votes were anonymous or not.

I would encourage all Realtors to attend the membership meetings of their local association.  I believe this is the second time I participated in the bylaw amendment elections.  Anyone who wants to speak on the issue is given the opportunity.  If you can’t attend the meeting, you can play an active role in your local association by participating on a committee.  But get involved somehow – you will meet great people.  You will contribute to your profession.  You will learn more than you ever expected.

Please note that Karen Climer has no affiliation with Climer School of Real Estate.  Her father, Ron Climer, sold Climer School of Real Estate in 2014.  It has since been involved in several mergers and acquisitions and is owned by a large investment company.  Karen owns Demetree School of Real Estate in Orlando, Florida.