Reclaiming the Realtor Movement, Part 3: Governance Reforms, Associations

Without governance reform, nothing else is possible

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In Part 2 of this series, I laid out some high level solutions for the single biggest problem that the Realtor Movement faces: far too many Realtors, most of whom are not members at all but hostages forced to join the Association simply to get access to the MLS. I wrote then that the precondition of reducing the number of Realtors is the divorce of the Association and the MLS, and said that just going through that divorce likely requires governance changes, which we would tackle in a future dispatch.

This is that future dispatch.

However, this one is going VIP only for two reasons:

1. Governance is one of those truly inside baseball topics that is of interest mostly to Association and MLS leadership; and

2. Much of what I have to discuss involves years of professional work as a consultant, rather than to general philosophies and principles.

Frankly, if you are not in leadership today but aspire to be one day, then well, you should be VIP anyhow.

Furthermore, because Association governance should be dramatically different from MLS governance, I will focus on Association governance in this part and tackle MLS governance in the next part.

I will provide high level principles for everyone before getting into the nitty-gritty. I have spent years and years thinking about, then trying to implement, these principles. I may be wrong, and you might disagree with me, in which case I invite debate and further conversation. As of this writing, however, I am convinced that the future of governance for Associations should follow these principles.

It may be helpful to go back and reread Part 1 and Part 2 as a refresher.

Principles for Associations

At a high level, because the Association should be an aspirational enterprise that inspires individuals to civic responsibility, patriotic duty, and going beyond ordinary commerce, governance must be as democratic as possible.

Furthermore, because the Association should be inherently political given the reasons why the Realtor Movement exists in the first place, governance should be built with an eye towards leadership development.

The Association has to be a nonprofit dedicated to the ideals of the Founders first and foremost. Which means its governance must be built to include the public and the client, rather than focusing entirely on the member.

Finally, the way that local Associations interact with the State Associations and the National Association needs to be completely redone to drive representation and accountability, both of which are completely lacking today.

Let’s get into the details.