Rob Reuter
By Rob Reuter, YPN Manager
Since taking off in 2009, YPN posted a third consecutive year of increased membership numbers in 2012 adding 45 new networks and an estimated 10,000 new members for a total of 272 networks and 30,000+ members.
Here are more highlights from the past year:
YPN recognized three Networks of the Year in 2012: Seattle-King County for small/medium association, MetroTex for large association, and Illinois for state association. Seattle put on several very successful networking events including their “Death of Networking” event which drew major industry leaders to attend and serve on a panel. MetroTex has shown its ability to grow and sustain starting with 15 founding members in December 2009 to 42 YPN committee members and nearly 250 at large members. Aside from their monthly meetings, MetroTex hosts an annual phone-a-thon during which they raised over $6,000 in less than two hours for TREPAC in 2012. Illinois took home the state award for their “Border-to-Border” program during which the 2012 chair and vice chair literally travelled border-to-border across Illinois encouraging all local associations to create a network. The annual deadline to apply for the awards is August 31st.
Photo by Brian Copeland
For the third straight year, YPN chairs were invited to Chicago for NAR’s annual Leadership Summit in August, an event that’s generally attended by incoming association presidents and association executives. This year, about 150 YPN chairs made the trip and were asked to facilitate one of NAR’s Strategic Planning Committee’s REThink workshops for more than 1,600 attendees. They delivered in a big way and were praised by several members of NAR’s Leadership Team. We hope to be invited back to the Summit in August ‘13.
Moving into 2013, we’re pleased to announce that nearly 100 NAR committee positions have been given to YPN members this year, the highest it has ever been since NAR CEO Dale Stinton created the initiative in 2010 to appoint two YPN members to each NAR committee. The recommendation process for 2014 NAR Committees opens March 12th and closes May 23rd.
Also new in 2013 will be a third YPN session at the Midyear and Annual Meetings, in addition to the YPN Advisory Board meeting and YPN reception. We will be adding a 90-minute YPN roundtable session for the YPN attendees to get together in a business-type atmosphere and discuss various YPN and business-building topics. This session will be offered shortly after the YPN Advisory Board meets at each meeting.
During the 2012 NAR Conference & Expo, NAR’s Board of Directors approved several changes to NAR’s Committee Structure including the addition of a Data Strategies Committee, Consumer Communications Committee, and a Social Media Advisory Board. We hope to get YPN members involved with these groups moving forward. Also approved at this meeting was a Student Membership for the association in an attempt to reach a younger demographic. Many members of YPN have shown an interest in reaching out to this group, so YPN should play a major role in this initiative.
Finally, there are several other initiatives YPN hopes to be a part of in 2013, including growing the network globally, working with Second Century Ventures and their Tech Incubator Program REach, the REALTORS Property Resource® (RPR), and many others.
As you plan your network’s goals for the year, feel free to express interest in participating in any of the initiatives listed above. Have a great and successful 2013 and let’s keep riding the YPN wave into the New Year!
Subhi J. Gharbieh
By Subhi Gharbieh
On Thursday, Nov. 8, my fellow Dallas REALTOR® Joe Atkins and I booked the 6 a.m. flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Orlando so that we could make it to the YPN Advisory Subcommittee meeting that started at noon. Being the responsible adult that I am (not), I tried to pull an all nighter so that I wouldn’t miss my flight early Thursday morning. That worked out well! I ended up falling asleep around 3:30 a.m., and the five alarms that I set to wake me up, well, didn’t.
So I missed the YPN meeting (bummer), but Joe, our MetroTex YPN chair, made it to the meeting and represented us well. After I got to our hotel later that day, Joe and I immediately left for the convention center to get registered and pick up our convention packet. The NAR staff do such a great job organizing the registration and welcome process. They are so efficient.
Thursday evening was pretty relaxing. We met up with some fellow YPN members from around the country at the Peabody Hotel. We caught up with some old faces and met some new ones. One thing that I have learned from attending the REALTORS® Conference & Expo for the last three years, is that we may only meet a couple times a year, but when we do, it feels like it was yesterday that we were just together at the last convention.
YPN Advisory Subcommittee & Network of the Year Award Winners (from left to right): Rob Mehta, Mark Epstein, Spring Bengtzen, Bobbi Howe, Rob Reuter, Michael Oppler, Tamara Suminski, Matt Case, Georgia Wall, Deena Zimmerman, Joe Atkins, James Martin, Subhi Gharbieh, Matt Phipps, Kerri Hartnett, and Christopher Mitchell.
I was very proud of our Dallas YPN network for making such a strong showing this year in Orlando. For the last couple of years, the norm for us was about two or three members travel to attend the convention. This year, we had right around 20 of our YPN members attend — that made me really proud.
Being the chair of our YPN network last year, I was really hoping that we would win Network of the Year during my term. That didn’t happen. We worked really hard and felt like we had done a lot of great things to win the title for Large Association Network of the Year, but we were topped by Chicago YPN.
Nevertheless, we started off 2012 focused on the same goal. We did a lot of great things in 2012, but when it came time to fill out our application for Network of the Year, we really felt like we could have done more. We completed our application thinking that we really came up short of our goals as a committee. The competition is so fierce among YPN Networks all over the country, and seeing some of the great things that some other networks had accomplished throughout the year, we didn’t think we had a shot at winning. Continue reading »
Nobu Hata
By Nobu Hata
The 2011 REALTORS® Conference & Expo YPN reception was the culmination of an incredible year for both YPN and NAR. From local associations, to state and national, the work these 15,000 young professional REALTORS® put in was celebrated at the convention.
This year’s winners certainly made their mark:
Small/Medium Network of the Year: Athens (GA) Association of REALTORS® YPN quickly became stalwarts of their already progressive association.
Large Network of the Year: Chicago (IL) YPN, set up a mentorship system within their organization, highlighting – via video on all association communiqués – how “old school” business practices of successful, lifelong REALTORS®, can co-exist and integrate with the “new school” way of the YPN. Props to Chicago REALTORS® President Bob Floss for facilitating that idea!
State Network of the Year: California Association of REALTORS® YPN, took that idea a step further and had their own business summit bringing together their formerly segmented groups and CAR leadership together in a one-day REALTOR® summit.
These networks, these REALTORS®, all are fantastic ambassadors of the REALTOR® brand, re-emphasizing our mission: Continue reading »
By Kelly Quigley, REALTOR® Magazine – Video By Erica Christoffer, REALTOR® Magazine
With a guest list of 500 career-driven REALTORS® and their friends, the networking scene was hot and the dance floor even hotter Friday night at the exclusive Young Professionals Network party.
“It’s incredible to see the energy of these folks,” said attendee Eric Berman, communications director for the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®.
The National Association of REALTORS®’ dynamic YPN community has grown to more than 200 local and state networks across the country, with an estimated 15,000 REALTORS® participating. Three of those YPN groups were honored Friday night as Networks of the Year: California Association of REALTORS® YPN, Chicago Association of REALTORS® YPN; and the Athens, Ga., YPN.
“Keep it up, we’re doing great things,” Nobu Hata, 2012 chair of NAR’s YPN Subcommittee told the crowd.
The event, held at the at the Heat Ultra Lounge in Anaheim, was sponsored by Century 21 and Kodak. To learn more about YPN and access resources to help start a network in your area, visit REALTOR.org/YPN.
Watch as members explain how their involvement in YPN has helped boost their real estate careers:
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