Today's Community Outreach Meeting

My realtor pal, Sally, warned me when I joined the Community Outreach Committee it would be cliquish. It is. The Chair is the perky type with no imagination. This committee has many roles in the community--working with Veterans, the elderly, homeless and more. However, I joined because I am a strong advocate for the Critical Needs mission that our association has. In fact, next month I am speaking in front of a group of agents about the Critical Needs fund.

Critical Needs is just that. When an agent or a family member of an agent have a serious and pressing financial issue, our association (if the money is available) can donate a sum to help out. In the first two months of 2019 Critical Needs has given $19,000 to 9 real estate families. Three of those were because of realtor deaths. Five were because of medical emergencies with the agent or a family member. One was because the spouse left and emptied the bank account, leaving the agent and minor children to fend for themselves.

But back to the meeting. One of the items we are doing is working with the First Responders in the various cities to provide mechanical lock boxes to them so they can put them on homes for the elderly. This program is wildly successful and there is a huge waiting list for lock boxes. So the Committee Chair asked for ideas on how to find agents to donate lock boxes.

What she didn't say was 1) she didn't want my ideas and 2) when I suggested something (like asking our association--the ones who sponsor us--for a blurb in their online FREE newsletter that goes out to 30,000 agents weekly or asking for donations at the upcoming agent blood drive) it was received with a "that won't work." This was always followed by her saying, "next suggestion." Then someone would say something along the lines of,  "why don't we put a request for these lock boxes in a bottle and float it down the Salt River so it reaches the Pacific Ocean. Then, someone will find it and we will get 5,000 lock boxes instantly!" ("Oh Suzie! What a great idea! We are still on for happy hour tonight, right?")

We then discussed the way we can get the word out about Critical Needs. This is an ongoing challenge and now that the two associations are merging into one, there might be a larger need coming sooner than later. So, I suggested we talk to the brokerages and see if we could ask if any agents getting a commission might wish to voluntarily have $10 taken from their commission and designated for the Critical Needs fund. Brokerages do this for various charities all the time.

I got, "That won't work. It is too hard to get the word out." This time I pushed back.

"If it is just the logistics of talking with the brokers, that's a happy problem," I replied.

And wouldn't you know! Others found this to be a reasonable course of action too! In fact, it was such a reasonable course of action that the Committee Chair put Suzie in charge of making it happen.

That's fine, I don't see me staying much longer on this committee. I agreed to a year, but that might be shortened.