I had an email this week from a friend of mine, an association management peer, which contained a call of distress. “Help,” she said. “It’s budget time, and the Directors are demanding to know the individual salaries of all of my association staff. What would YOU do?”
“Ho,” thought I. “All these years she’s been in the business and she wants MY advice.” And then I commenced to wonder why a Board of Directors of an association with a several million dollar budget would want to nit pick the salaries of 4 very junior staff members. I mean, there is so much really great stuff for Realtors to worry about—the Michigan economy being one of the biggest. The housing market in the area that this association is in is absolutely rock bottom…so let’s worry about that.
Or about the fact that technology is bringing about some drastic industry changes and empowering consumers as they never have been empowered before.
Or that the government is hovering on the brink of some legislative moves which may cause some seismic shifts in home ownership and property rights.
But big issues require big thinking. And big solutions must often be implemented in little steps. I remember the first car I ever bought for myself. I was newly declared a single parent, and my little yellow and rust car was pretty much done for. I stopped in to visit a car dealer whom I knew, just ‘exploring possibilities’. I came away with a beautiful gold Datsun 280ZX, a hot little number for sure. And do you know why I bought it? Because
the dealer asked me if I wanted the little strip of chrome on the door which would keep my paint job from being chipped by other car doors!
I didn’t buy the car, I bought the little chrome strip. THAT was the part of the question I could answer.
I think something like that is going on in some associations. The environment is scary for everyone involved in real estate. And it’s not just the Michigan economy. For many of our members it’s the war on real estate—the FTC, personal health and economic security, technology, interest rates, public opinion about real estate practitioners… Many of these things aren’t new, but they do seem to be piling up and making our real estate world a really uncomfortable place to be, spinning out of control.
And when the world gets that way, many people—some of them long-time members—are opting out of real estate. Others are trying to control what they can, and sometimes that’s decisions on staff salaries or the ply of the toilet paper in the association’s bathroom. Some of them, like my friend’s Board of Directors, say things like, “Our association staff is making more money than our members. We should ALL be miserable together!”
What I think we all need is a success…or maybe a series of victories. It probably isn’t going to be an economic success for a while, and it probably isn’t going to be a legal one, either. But one area of success that I don’t think we’ve heard enough about is that this huge association is lumbering toward New Orleans…taking with it thousands of dollars in tourist money and direct contributions to the city, and bringing with it a level of confidence that no matter how demolished and destroyed the city has been, it is still a place of gathering and of hope. It’s a huge contribution made by one of the largest associations in the world, and we need to celebrate ourselves for having made that commitment!
It occurs to me that I didn’t answer my friend’s question, which was, “What would YOU do?” What would I do? Well, I’d grumble, and I’d mumble that it was none their damned business how the budget for salaries was allocated once it was approved. But if the Directors still thought they had to have that information, I’d probably (grudgingly) give it to them. Because you know what? When I bought the chrome strip on the doors of that car, I purchased a wonderful gift to myself which brought me pride and pleasure for the next 18 years. | 
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