ShareHaving more than 100 members in a class is nothing unusual for HomeTown Association of REALTORS® in Sycamore, Ill. Its association executive, Heather Wiedrich, RCE, C2EX, takes a practical approach to getting members to understand the value of the professional development offered by associations.
When it comes to member education, what’s your biggest challenge, and how do you solve it?
The biggest challenge is when members choose to use a continuing education school outside the REALTOR® association family. Sometimes the third-party schools do not properly report to the state for credit, and then the members call us for help wondering how to address that. We can only refer them back to that school for help.
Which classes are most popular, and why?
Members are always looking for the greatest tips and tricks to better their services to their clients; that’s why our technology classes—Virtual Real Estate Business, Digital Agent Toolkit and Real Estate Searching, for example—are the most popular. These courses are created by and provided to our members by our MLS, Midwest Real Estate Data.
What budget amount is devoted to member education?
Education is one of our top priorities. As a result of our technology and efficiencies, we offer virtual classroom sessions, resulting in annual expenses of less than 1% of our total budget being allocated for education. As amazing as it might sound, we are able to offer our virtual CE sessions free to our members as a benefit within our framework.
What’s worth spending money on, and where can you trim expenses?
Professional development such as designations and certifications are key when offering education. We also offer training throughout the year to keep members aware of current events and trends in real estate. By collaborating with business partners and our MLS, we can offset expenses.
How do you decide what to hold in person and what to hold virtually—and how do you keep members engaged?
We’ve offered our CE and education sessions virtually for the past five years. Our attendance increased by 80%, and members now prefer the virtual option because they can complete education from anywhere, and it saves them time and money. For member engagement, we focus on in-person networking opportunities and events.
Do you have any easy tricks for member education?
Free education! We partner with MRED for classes approved by Illinois REALTORS® that our instructors can teach. As a member benefit, MRED covers all costs of these classes for our members.
If you could get members to understand just one thing about the value of the education offered by associations, what would that be?
The real estate industry is growing to be very complex. That makes professional development highly necessary so that members are fully equipped to provide the very best services to their clients and customers.