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Partnership Helps Realtor Chapters Fulfill “Core Standards” Requirements

A year after unveiling new mandatory core standards for its local chapters, the National Association of Realtors announced it has teamed up with Boys and Girls Clubs of America to help members comply with consumer outreach requirements.

A new partnership between Realtors and a national youth support group promises to be mutually beneficial.

At its annual leadership summit in Chicago last week, the National Association of Realtors announced it will join forces with Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The partnership will give BGCA access to NAR’s 1 million members to fill volunteer roles, and it will help the association’s local chapters meet “consumer outreach” requirements under the national organization’s new core standards for chapters introduced last year.

“The BGCA has been a special cause of NAR 2016 President Tom Salomone’s for many years, and as he prepares to take office, he wanted our members to join him in the cause to help transform children’s lives,” NAR spokeswoman Sara Wiskerchen said via Inman [paywall] last week. “Tom believes that Realtors and BGCA are integral to their communities and part of the fabric of America, and that working together next year the two groups can have a real impact on children in neighborhoods across the country.”

Wiskerchen also pointed to BGCA’s structure of local clubs and governance that mirrors NAR’s, which she said will make it easier for the two organizations to work together on the national and local levels.

NAR is encouraging its local chapters to reach out to nearby BGCA groups to determine how they can get involved and has created a toolkit to help connect clubs and Realtor  volunteers. Examples of volunteer activities include cleanup days, backpack drives, career days, tutoring, and coaching sports teams.

Core Standards Compliance

What will likely interest local chapters most about the partnership is the help it will provide in complying with new core standards approved by the NAR board last year to improve member service provided by state and local Realtor associations.

As Associations Now’s Joe Rominiecki noted recently near the core standards’ one-year anniversary, the standards put a strain on relations between the national organization and its component groups. For smaller chapters, compliance was difficult, and some chose to dissolve or merge with other local associations. According to Inman, 157 associations—more than a tenth of all chapters—have been involved in 70 mergers since May 2014. That represents about 88,450 Realtors. Only five groups representing about 500 members opted to shut down.

“We knew the process wouldn’t be without its challenges,” NAR said in a statement at the time. “[B]ut we believe there are many benefits to raising the bar for Realtor associations and ensuring high-quality service for members.”

The first deadline for compliance was June 30. NAR’s Wiskerchen told Inman that 95 percent of local, state, and territorial associations have been certified as compliant with the standards.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Rob Stott

By Rob Stott

Rob Stott is a contributing editor for Associations Now. MORE

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