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March Board Report

March 18, 2011 BAREIS MLS® Annual Meeting Report

 
BAREIS MLS® held the Annual Meeting of Members and the Annual meeting of the Directors on Friday March 18. 
During the Annual meeting, the following Directors were elected to the Board with terms ending March of 2013:
 
Sonoma County Class A Director:                             
Spence Hiatt
RE/MAX Pros – Rohnert Park
 
Richard Paille
Hart and Company – Santa Rosa
 
Gene Berman
For Buyers Only Realty – Santa Rosa
 
 
Marin County Class A Directors:                                
Frank Soda
Sunshine Realty –Sausalito
 
John Hassler                                      
John Hassler and Associates - Novato
 
Mendocino Class A/C Director:                                 
John Bogner
Realty World Selzer Realty - Ukiah
 
Napa County Class B Director:                                   
Dave Johnson
Napa Residential Realty – Napa
 
They will join the following directors that have terms expiring March of 2012:
 
Sonoma County Class B Director:                             
Delphine Adams                                                                                                               
Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty
 
Sonoma County Class A Director:                             
Steve Gavriloff                                                                                                                                                                  
Westgate Realty - Petaluma
 
Solano County Class A Director:                                
Richard Bortolazzo                                                                                                                                                           
Coldwell Banker - Benicia
 
Solano County Class B Director:                                
David Galligan                                                                                                                    
Prudential California Realty-Benicia
 
Marin County Class B Director:                                  
Ron Parks                                                                                                                            
McGuire Real Estate – Corte Madera
 
Northern Solano Class B Director:                            
Rick Ungerecht
Kappel & Kappel - Vacaville
 
Northern Solano Class A Director:                            
Darla Stever
Jim Stever Realty - Vacaville
 
 
Jon Dal Poggetto presented the audit of the corporation for the year ending December 31, 2010. The corporation remains in good shape in spite of the declining membership levels. Once again we ended the year in a positive position. The report is available for membership review at the BAREIS MLS® office in Santa Rosa.
 
Chair of the Board Rick Ungerecht reported to the membership this has been a turbulent year for the economies of our nation and the world and one that has been especially challenging for the real estate industry in California. The whole nature of our business is rapidly and dramatically changing.
 
So far BAREIS has weathered these storms well. We anticipated our membership declining to 7,500 members but we have been holding at around 8000 members and 450 assistants. In spite of the loss of 500 members and 120 assistants, we have kept our head above water, and are showing a modest net gain for the year. This is a tribute to a very sound set of financial policies and a sound plan.
 
We have accomplished this without sacrificing service or product features. The only product discontinued is the Professional Publishing forms. In fact, we have continued to expand and offer increased features, at lower negotiated prices, including:
 
1.        Expanded features in our public records product
2.       The addition of our Clarus Market Metrics statistical product
3.       The up and coming enhanced CMA product from Rapattoni
4.       The up and coming map overlays and enhanced map search from Rapattoni
5.       The addition of the TrendGraphix statistical product.
 
Our data sharing efforts continue to grow to 7 MLSs and over 50,000 real estate professionals, and we are negotiating with two additional MLSs to join the effort. 
 
We hope soon to have a reciprocal agreement in place between the many lock box issuing entities in Northern California, and the new IDX data feed for aggregated data from the seven MLSs for members internet sites.
We are pleased to be able to tell you that we were able to accomplish all these changes for the same price as you have been paying since BAREIS started in 1997-1998. We remain among the lowest-cost MLSs in the state. But the time is coming where we may not be able to hold the line anymore.
 
Recently we launched a new communications committee to help carry the message about our products and how you can use them to keep you and your customers informed in this fast-moving industry. We collected quite a bit of information from members through Focus Group sessions, and many changes and enhancements have been made resulting from the valuable input from our members.
 
Rick stated it has been a real pleasure to serve as the Chair for this last year. Rick thanked each of the directors and staff for their contributions to the discussions and decision making process. Rick also thanked the volunteers on the various committees for their time and effort to better our operation.
The Annual Meeting of the Members was adjourned to the Annual Meeting of the Board.
 
Membership as of the end of February is 7,836 (A small increase of 53 since January) and 468 Assistants (18 more than January).  The corporation is within budget and income for the first two months of 2011. While membership is declining overall, we are still maintaining a positive financial position.
 
The Board of Directors elected the following officers for the 2011/2012 year:
 
Richard Paille                    
Chair of the Board                          
Will also serve as Chair of the Executive Committee
 
Jim Branscombe              
President and CEO
 
Frank Soda                         
Vice President                                  
Will also serve as Chair of the Research and Technology Committee
 
Steve Gavriloff                
Vice President                                  
Will also serve as Chair of the Rules Committee
 
Richard Bortolazzo          
Secretary/Treasurer                      
Will also serve as Chair of the Finance Committee
 
Rick Ungerecht               
Past Chair of the Board                
Will serve as member of the Executive Committee and Chair of The Strategic Planning Committee
 
In addition, the board approved the following committee chair appointments:
 
Walt Jorgenson                                
Chair of the MLS Committee
 
Gene Berman                   
Chair of the Communications Committee
 
The Board of Directors approved a series of housekeeping items, including signatories for the corporation, trustees for the retirement accounts, and engagement of the auditor for the 2011 audit. 
 
The Board of Directors approved revisions to the Rapattoni agreement in line with their proposal to extend the agreement by two years, add the Parcel Mapping and TrendGraphix features to our system, and a cost saving measure. The addition of the features will be at an overall cost savings. We have received numerous requests for these features.
 
The Rules Task Force is comparing our rules and regulations to the California Association of REALTORS® Model Rules. We have completed the initial review, and will have a full report for the April meeting. The meetings have been very productive.
 
Directors discussed a number of issues we are having with Auction properties. The staff and Rules Committee have prepared an analysis of proposed rules changes, and will be reviewing the legal and systems implications prior to the next meeting. A proposal will be presented during the April meeting.
 
 
 

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