TCAR Announces New Board Members

On September 24th TCAR held their Showcase at Access Office Center in Raleigh with NC States, Dr. Mike Walden. We also held the first part of our Board of Directors Elections. Members were also given the option to vote online over a two day period.

The Board of Directors is comprised of twelve members and the Past President. You must be a REALTOR in order to serve on the board, however, there are two positions that can be filled by Associate members, people that while not REALTORS have a connection to the commercial real estate industry. There are also rules in which there are only permitted two board members from any one firm and while a board member serves at the very least a 3 year term, they must wait two years before returning to the Board of Directors.

At the end of 2009 we have two board members, Larry Rogers of CresaPartners and Baxter Walker of Anthony & Company, ONCOR International rolling off. First, let me say that both have been active on the TCAR Board. Larry has been in charge of the Government Affairs, RPAC and the Technology Committee. Larry I will always remember because he would sit in my office after board meetings and we would talk about my son and New York City. I always appreciated his interest in my family and have enjoyed getting to know him.

Baxter has headed up the Networking Committee and has been in charge of our Community Service for TCAR. All of the Habitat for Humanity Workdays have been organized by Baxter. I'll always remember him fondly because whenever I was on site looking for him, I knew to look up. Baxter was always on the roof or some tall scaffolding, something that for the most part terrified me! Of course, Habitat has taught me that driving a nail is something that can be a challenge for me. Forget the whole heights thing.

So with Baxter and Larry rolling off, the board nominates TCAR members they feel have the qualifications to serve on the board. From there, we contact those nominated to see if they are interested and have the time to serve on the board. Those that accept, are placed on the ballot. At the Showcase, we use stamped ballots and bios are available to read over. Online voters had access to the bios on their electronic ballot. We then check membership on all the paper ballots and match them to the online voters to make sure folks didn't vote twice. From there, the board members are chosen based on the nominees that get the most votes. Short word of caution, we will be eventually going to an online ballot only in the future, so be prepared.

And now it's my pleasure to announce this year's new Board Members, Christina Coffey of Hunters and Associates and Kathy Gigac of Anthony & Company, ONCOR International. They will start their terms January 1st but will be invited to sit in on the November Board meeting and attend the President's Dinner in December. The TCAR Board is excited to have both as new additions to the group and look forward to their participation.

4th Annual Joint Event: Another Great Event

I had not realized it has been so long since I last wrote but we have been so busy here at TCAR with us finishing up with the Joint Event that was on the 27th of August. And it was another really successful event!

The Joint Event is put on by several commercial associations including TCAR, NC-CCIM, TCREW, TRAOBA, IREM BOMA, NAIOP and our newest addition, AAREPNC. Every year the group does a fund raiser with a theme and this year we are pleased to announce we were able to raise $10,000 and an undetermined amount of canned goods for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

This year we celebrated our school spirit by wearing the colors of our choice at Highwoods Properties, Inc and John Hogan's, 3600 Glenwood Ave in Raleigh. Our appreciation to them and the other Gold Sponsors, Shelco and HagerSmith Design.

Over 400 local commercial real estate professionals celebrated their school spirit to the tunes of DJ Joe Bunn and enjoyed a tailgating pig picking done by Lip Service Contemporary Catering. We raffled off over 19 prizes that included a Panthers weekend in Charlotte, U2 Concert tickets, football game tickets, tailgating tents and all kinds of great gift certificates.

"We were pleased and surprised to have raised the amount of money we did this year for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle" said TCREW and Joint Event Coordinator, Kerry Saunders. If you don't know about the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, they are an organization that believes that hunger is unacceptable and has developed systems that recover, prepare and distribute wholesome, perishable food for the area's poor, hungry, undernourished and homeless. Founded twenty years ago, it is a highly efficient multi-layered approach to combat hunger. For more information on the Interfaith Food Shuttle and how you can be more involved, go to http://www.foodshuttle.org/aboutus.html .

I would also like to list the Silver Sponsors that also made the donation and the Joint Event possible. They are as follows: Allied Barton Security Services, Ambius, Bland Landscaping, Carolina Place, Cary Reconstruction Co,Inc, Code Electric, Inc, Edge Office, Environmental Holdings Group, LLC, Exterior Diagnostic Services, Fifth Third Bank, Graebel, Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, Greenscape, Inc, HighRise Repair, Inc, Heery, Lincoln Harris, MG Capital, NAI Carolantic Realty, Inc, North State Bank, Office Suites PLUS, Phillips Architecture, PPM-Global, Scotties Building Services, Sears Contract Inc, SkySite Aerial Photography, Smith Moore Leatherwood, LLC, Sparkkles Restoration, The Law Offices of Tony Tingen, PLLC, Tri-Properties, Wake County Economic Development and York Properties.

Thank you again to everyone that made it all possible! Special thanks to the other volunteers that were the underdogs of the evening. We look forward to next year!