Lori, what a GREAT idea and thanks for being a catalyst for change and opening up our doors to all.  Having been a /staging Realtor for many years I am so used to the real estate industry getting more education on various topics throughout a real estate career.  We seldom take one class and think that we know it all, education is for everyone and ongoing as things change and sometimes the education we have or need changes too.  We have always held many designations and take different speakers on the same topic.  It puzzles me why stagers don't look at it that way too.  Education fills the gaps in our learning and benefits the client.  And, after all, the desigination or no designation training we get is bottom line to improve our service to the client.  We serve the client and we have a viable business.

Your meeting of "all" is a great start and needed in the industry.  We have serious challenges ahead as an industry and a true trade association and alliances with each other as ONE will truly help us all.  The bar will be raised through being together in this rather than drawing lines and separatist behaviors.  The outside world is watching us, and don't care what our designations are unless it affects their staging job.  We stand to gain so much as an industry as we will become a force in numbers, and a member driven organization can raise the standards for all of us in a public way so that we are legitimized in the court system as well as insurance, and most of all the Real Estate industry and the public.

 How does all this relate to your Roundtable?  It starts with you and one more and one more and I thank you for your courage and forward thinking.  YOU are the future of the staging industry.  And, I await the outcome.