Christmas Installation Luncheon

Jeanette Baumann

Members - The passing of the DAOR presidential gavel took place December 15th for the 75th time!! Greater DAOR will be celebrating 75 years in 2022... I would like to thank President Michael Berdelis who served as president for the second time, the timing of this was perfect for the first post year of the shutdown... he knew what to do, expect and already had the experiences of leading. In 2022 Michael will be our NAR Director, and our Regional Representative for the California Association of Realtors®. 2022 President Jennifer Avellan is off to a great start with updating the strategic plan and appointing the committee Chairpersons - She set the Realtor® Action Fund contribution at 50%. She’s asking 50% of our membership to contribute towards the Realtor® Action Fund…. This should be considered since there are so many legislative battles we must win over the next year and years to come…. If there is one thing you can do to protect the Realtor® profession and homeownership is to contribute at least $20 towards the RAF annually. As 2022 will be the second post year of the covid shut down, we are finally scheduling events as if it was pre covid shut down… Bowling tournaments are back, luncheons, and a full calendar of Realtor promoting activities. Staff has many new goals for the new year and we are excited to start implementing them…like an “Annual Class” of Fairhaven Graduates, and C2EX Graduates, Role Playing Workshops, Top Producer Socials, and more. The Greater Downey Association of REALTORS staff wanted to thank you, our members, for being understanding and patient with us during the pandemic. In May of 2020 when the state implemented stay at home orders, our staff went through many challenges. The most difficult challenge was servicing essential customers (you), when we were not labeled as essential, we had to follow the stay at home orders…we lost four staff members, and the remaining staff were working together in five different locations…which was very difficult. In August of 2020 we were able to have two staff return to the office, but everyone else still needed to work remote…not until June 15, 2021 were we all allowed to return to the office. Getting things back to “normal” is coming together nicely, but we are still short staffed. We still have, and can rely on myself, Julie, Erica, and Kayla…we are training Laura a new products specialist, and Giovana, a new communications specialist, then eventually hire someone in customer service. We are ending 2021 with an alltime high membership count of 3,608 / 3,429 being Realtors®, and hope to reach a membership count of 3,500 Realtors by the end of 2022. Please reach out to me if you have any question or problem to discuss. evp@DAOR.com.

John Sebree has been CEO of the Missouri REALTORS® since September 2014. Prior to his move to Missouri, Sebree served as Senior Vice President of Public Policy for Florida REALTORS® for 11 years. Prior to that, he worked in the Government Affairs division of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (NAR) in Washington, DC for 13 years. Sebree was a Senior Legislative Representative working with the congressional delegations of eight states. Prior to NAR, Sebree worked for two years for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs.