February Chapter Spotlight: Orlando Chapter

As I sat at a table with my colleagues at this year’s NARPM National Convention in Orlando, Florida, the teasing and jokes spread across the table about who would win Large Chapter of the Year award.

The Orlando Chapter just couldn’t seem to grab that notoriety for many, many years. As they announced the Orlando Chapter as the winner, we all just stopped for a moment, shocked that they actually called our name! To say it was an honor and a thrill was an understatement of the biggest proportion. The hard work had finally paid off. To finally be recognized for the dedication put into achieving the award was awesome.

In the Orlando Chapter’s Strategic Planning meeting at the end of 2015, the decision was made to change things up. We decided to go all out to get the Large Chapter of the Year award. The meeting of the minds brought forth some truly innovative ideas to achieve that goal.

Our Chapter put together an Affiliate Program that we refer to as our Preferred Partner Program. This was professionally and financially beneficial, not only for our partners, but our membership as a whole. That brought in a large influx of vendors to the Orlando Chapter. Membership put together New Member Orientations that proved to be very fruitful in helping our new members gain an understanding of what membership entailed and what it could do to help them in the future.

The Education Committee put together a Chapter Meeting schedule of speakers that were unique in their topics and provided engaging information. It was decided that to bring in the numbers needed to win, using education was the key. We went outside of the box and made the choice to spend more money on speakers who would appeal to current and future members that were coming from local REALTOR^®, mortgage lender, and investor organizations. This, by far, was our best idea to date! Our meeting registration numbers really increased.

Now for the big tip; in doing our surveys, results always came down to location and food! That’s right — the fact that the stomach rules the mind and what they say about location, location, location is true. The key is to find a venue that visually appeals to the majority, is ideally located for your chapter members, and serves up some good grub!

There is one last tidbit of information that I think made all the difference in change. The Leadership Team took great strides to ensure it was made up of volunteers from all ages and backgrounds, so we could get down to the nitty-gritty of our chapter’s needs and wants. During our Holiday Banquet this month, I informed the membership that this year, I take with me the knowledge that WE ARE NARPM^®.

Every member and partner makes up the wheels and cogs that make our chapter so amazing. Together we make it work, we make it better, and we make it the best that it can be. When we work together, we truly can achieve all our goals.

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Residential Resources: February 2018 Issue | Volume 29 | Number 2