OK the quote from a comment is "Not one dollar of member dues went to pay for this fabulous celebration of our first 100 years." It needed to be shortened to be a headline. That quote is Dick Gaylord the immediate past president of NAR.
Did you see the parade? Did you see the float? I was watching it and Twittering with others on my phone. The NAR float won an award. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked on the float. Video compliments of Jay Thompson the Phoenix RE Guy.
The comment is on an NAR blog, Jim Duncan asked:
Dick -
Thanks for the update on the float. As you are probably aware, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the cost of the float and the prudence of having such an expenditure this year.
How much does the float cost the members?
Thank you in advance,
Jim
Dick Gaylord answered:
"All decisions at NAR are made by the Leadership Team, Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors. Our expenditure for this event was a small part of our marketing and advertising budget, and was enthusiastically supported by our governing boards. The cost is $350,000.
NAR nets $18 million each year from a total of $50 million in non-dues dollar activities. That money pays for every penny of governance meetings, officer expenses, committee expenses, and activities like the float. Not one dollar of member dues went to pay for this fabulous celebration of our first 100 years."
Again thanks to Jay Thomspon for the Tournament of Roses Parade video.
Well he answered that's good. I missed it but just heard on Twitter it went by. There were some hillarious comments on Jay's blog and comments in Carnac's.
Marjorie I did not see the comment from Dick Gaylord until today, found that via Twitter Search too.
Are you going out to help remove the flowers Missy for the credits? I saw the conversation on Linda's post. "3 CE credits for those participating. Contact Jim Lee for further information."
I think we are all glad our money didn't go to this but it makes me wonder where the money does come from for NAR...."NAR nets $18 million each year from a total of $50 million in non-dues dollar activities" What does this mean? Who does NAR get this money from? Hummm, raises more questions for me.
Thanks for this answer, I was wondering and didn't see the answer until now.
Carol thanks for the comment. Award was for "color"?
Karen I wondered too... I remember from our CBR (Columbus Board of Realtors) where some of the non-dues dollars come from. The answer for NAR is somewhere...
The amount of money each member if it came from dues would be so small, I don't really understand why it is so impotant. It is not like we ALL get to help decide where each penny goes. We do get to second guess it, though I guess.
Maureen--Thank you for posting and clarifying this! I missed the parade but when I received the email from NAR, I have to admit, the cost of the float and who paid for it did cross my mind. It is a beautiful float and I love the Swiss Family Robinson concept!
I am not questioning the float as pect as much as the Nero fiddles while Rome burns aspect. NARS reaction to this whole mess has been decidedly milk toast. I find them very ineffective. If Detroit can get a handout from unlce sugar why has the largest member lobby in the US failed MISERABLY on getting us health insurance and permanently keeping banks out of real estate. I am questyioning why I am paying dues.09 will be my last year if NAR does not become less white bread and morevocal and down and dirty
Maureen - I think my biggest question on an expenditure like this is what is NAR's return on investment. Do people really see the float and say "hey, I guess I ought to use a Realtor®." Of course, I think that of any company in a parade like this. I'd love to know where that money does come from, but I can only guess that with the money they do bring in via dues, they're investing it and making more money - there's probably a lot of money in licensing the various logos as well. I thought the fact that NAR sent out an email the afternoon of the parade telling us to be sure and catch the float "tomorrow" was a huge failure on their part and although I'm sure there's a reason it happened, I'd like to think that they've got a better handle on things than that.
Hi Maureen - thanks for putting this video up. I watched parts of the parade but missed this.
It's very hard to measure a ROI on some marketing and advertising efforts. Some is done for good PR and/or goodwill, and I would venture to guess this float falls under that grouping. This parade was viewed by millions, and I don't have any issues with NAR doing this beautiful float in that parade on our behalf. I hope they continue to do it - I think it's great goodwill exposure.
I'm with Charlie... NAR has been failing MISERABLY and seems only concerned with filling its own coffers with more and more members. It's quantity over quality. But how does that serve US - the people they are supposed to be advocating for? Answer: not well. They haven't even been able to leverage health care for God's sake. If the Freelancers union can manage it for their members - why can't NAR??? As for the float - its a matter of priorities. The monies NAR collects should be spent wisely. This wasn't a wise expense - it was frivilous and looks terrible in light of all the problems many homeowners are facing. I was disgusted by the whole thing....just in case you couldn't tell by the tone of my post!
Thanks everyone for the comments, Gaylord said "All decisions at NAR are made by the Leadership Team, Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors" and second guessed by the rest of us. Or roughly 1/2 of us. The itty bitty poll I did , good idea / bad idea is split right about 50/50.
Non dues revenue to NAR, state, and local associations comes from sources other than dues.
Some examples of non-dues revenue would be income from Realtor.com, REALTOR branded products, NAR Visa card, affinity marketing program stuff like Dell computers, Xerox, Pitney-Bowes, and lots of other source; 18 million bucks worth.
As an NAR Director (recently retired) I voted on NAR's budget for the past 3 years as all the directors present did. We listened to presentations, read lots of material, traveled to meetings (often in locations distant from our homes) and voted what we thought was in the best interest of all the membership.
For those of you that thought the float was a good deal; so did I.
For those that didn't; NAR offices are open to all; don't like something that happened, step up and do something about it by becoming involved.
None of this stuff goes on in a vacuum folks; Director's meetings are open to everyone that wants to be there and take part. Easy to write words on this forum; actually becoming involved and doing something that makes a difference to change things you don't like or agree with means putting yourself out there.
Thanks Maureen. I'm not retired from real estate yet; I still have a few sales left in me.
I do still get annoyed with people like some of the commenters on this post and others that are so quick to damn NAR for doing something they don't agree with, not doing it the way they think it should be done, or spending money to do good for the entire membership.
And yet these constant complainers never get involved doing anything at any level, never make contributions to RPAC, and typically never do much of anything except complain.
But enough of that; they're not going away unfortuanately and they're probably not going to start doing anything positive either so that's going to have to be their problem.
I meant retired from being an NAR director, you goon (and I mean "goon" in the nicest way) not real estate.
I don't know HOW the people like you put up with most of us. Last year I quit the local board committee I volunteered on for the past few years, I think I went to the first meeting and just could not make myself go back.
Everyone's entitled to an opinion... blogging has made most everyone's opinions real noticable.
I am glad that NAR decided to do the float. Frankly, I cannot imagine trying to micromanage every dollar spent by every organization I am a member of, so even if some of my dues dollars had gone toward paying for this float and the great publicity it generated for all REALTORS, I, personally, would not have minded. In an organization the size of the NAR, you will never please everyone, but I think generally, over time it usually balances out.
Yay Jim Lee!!! I couldn't agree more with what you said about stepping up to the plate if people want to change what's being done. I was involved at the NAR level for a number of years, serving as a Director as well. I'm less recently retired than Jim, and it is rather irksome to see all the naysayers, most of whom don't get involved to help bring about change.
If you disagree with decisions made at the NAR level - talk to those from your local boards and state associations who represent you and get/give input to them if you can't attend the meetings yourself. Most of those meetings are open to all members, and they usually allow time for questions and input from members.
thanks Ann. I really think it is good that people question important issues and there are always important issues.
Some of it gets petty though. Maybe my poll about whether the float was a good idea or a bad idea was petty. In mid December when I heard about the float, I thought it was a bad idea. I am not convinced that was a good idea, but my opinion really, really does not matter, All decisions at NAR are made by the Leadership Team, Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors. I can't imagine if we all had to agree...
Actually your opinion matters a great deal, as do the opinions of the rest of our 1.whatever million members.
I always wanted to get input from our membership before voting as a Director on issues.
Unfortunately most of the input I got came after the fact and it was almost always negative.
I can look back and honestly say every vote I cast was for what I believed to be the best interests of us all.
I recall reading somewhere that in Poland long ago legislative concept called "liberum veto" which means 1 vote against could prevent anything from passing.
"in Polish history, the legal right of each member of the Sejm (legislature) to defeat by his vote alone any measure under consideration or to dissolve the Sejm and nullify all acts passed during its session. Based on the assumption that all members of the Polish nobility were absolutely equal politically, the veto meant, in practice, that every bill introduced into the Sejm had to be passed unanimously."
Thankfully NAR can operate with a simple majority vote.
Yep right up their with the $300.00 hammers,what a waist of money ,pretty yes ,pretty effective I think not.with all the crises looming this is what they are concerned with,how about getting banks out of real estate,how about the insurance problem esp. in fl.how about some health care,mortgage reform, well you get the picture,well maybe again you don't!!!
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Dick -
Thanks for the update on the float. As you are probably aware, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the cost of the float and the prudence of having such an expenditure this year.
How much does the float cost the members?
Thank you in advance,
Jim