ShareAssociation Executives Committee
M1 Work Group
September 11, 2018
Chicago, IL
Meeting Summary
Work Group Purpose
Consider proposals that recommend greater access and utilization of M1 records by MLSs and brokers; greater identification of commercial members; and cleaner M1 records.
Presentations
Chris DeRosa, RCE, CAE, Director, Financial Information Systems, presented an update and background on the current M1 process and data access by Points of Entry (POE) associations and POE MLSs. Two proposals were presented virtually via live conference to the work group. A proposal presented by Tim Dain, President, MidAmerica Regional Information Systems, Missouri, included seven considerations as to why and how MLS POEs and non POEs should gain simpler and greater access to M1 member records. A proposal presented by Bob Turner, 2019 Commercial and Business Specialties Committee Liaison, included seven considerations as to how POEs can better identify commercial members. Liz Sturrock, Vice President, ITS, presented a proposal that will allow NAR to clean up approximately 8,300 junk email addresses with email addresses acquired from Target Smart.
Recommendations
The M1 Work Group approved the following recommendations that came out of the three proposals. These recommendations will be submitted to the AEC for consideration at the REALTORS® Conference & Expo on November 2, in Boston.
1) “That the Primary Field of Business field in the M1 member record be a required field for REALTOR® and REALTOR® ASSOCIATE member types; that among the current choices for this field, a choice of “undeclared” be added; that If the field is not filled in by the POE, the system will default in “undeclared”; and that this shall be a requirement by January 1, 2019.”
Rationale: Currently, only 166,000 out of 1.3 million members have declared a field of business, which results in the inability to differentiate between residential and commercial member types as well as subspecialties. In order to begin the process of identifying a field of business for all members in M1, NAR needs to require members to declare a field of business. When new members are added by POEs, the Primary Field of Business will be mandatory. When this requirement is implemented, NAR will run a one-time program to auto-fill Primary Field of Business on all active REALTOR® and REALTOR® ASSOCIATE members with “undeclared,” if their Primary Field of Business field is blank.
2) “That NAR be allowed to update approximately 8,300 junk email addresses out of 1.3 million email addresses and replace them with valid email addresses acquired from Target Smart.”
Rationale: NAR members are required to have a good email address in M1, but many members and/or POEs enter member records with junk email such as yahoo@yahoo.com. NAR has the opportunity to use vendor Target Smart to auto-populate known junk email addresses with good email addresses, which will assist POEs and member queries to connect to members via an accurate email. All state and local POEs will be notified ahead of time as to which member records and emails will be updated. Currently, NAR distributes a quarterly file from Target Smart of member home address recommendations to state associations, so they can update M1 records with better data. Going forward, NAR will add email address recommendations so that POEs have the opportunity to enter better contact information.
3) “That a M1 best practices tool kit be developed, marketed, promoted and shared with all local, state and MLSs POEs and chief staff executives and association staff.
Rationale: Many issues that cause low quality member data in M1 stems from lack of training and education at the local association level. Simple fixes can be mitigated with a basic training tool-kit as a companion to the current M1 News, M1 Quicktakes (library of recorded training lessons), and online M1 User manual. With the turnover of AEs and staff, ongoing education and training is needed nationwide through print, webinars, and face-to-face training at local associations and state conferences.
Discussion
The work group identified barriers to “reliable/clean data” in M1 and provided suggestions how to make enhanced changes to M1 including the following:
- Increase education and marketing
- NAR to add M1 function that allows any POE to flag any REALTOR® or REALTOR® Associate who is not their member as a member of their single board MLS.
- NAR to amend API Web Services Agreement to read “allow for 180 days’ notice before making a change to M1 availability” (currently reads NAR reserves the right to terminate the services at any time).
- NAR to add real estate license to “member query” via CDB when POEs query non-members – enables more efficient way to check if a member has a real estate license under the new “MLS of Choice” rules
Next Steps
Work group chair Ruth Hackney, RCE, Missoula Organization of REALTORS®, MT, will present the recommendations to the AEC on November 2, in Boston. If approved, the recommendation will be submitted to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors for implementation, beginning January 1, 2019.
Work Group Members
Ruth Hackney, RCE (MT) (Chair)
Michael Barr, RCE, CAE (NC)
Art Carter (CA)
Glenn Christoph (ID)
Richard E. Eimicke, RCE (CT)
Eric Forsman (FL)
Cade Fowler, RCE (TX)
Helen Hossley (VT)
Kimberly Pontius, RCE, CAE (MI)
Rebecca Grossman, RCE (AZ) (AEC Committee Chair)
Liaison
Larry Keating, ABR, ABRM, CRB
Staff Executives
Laurie Oken
Chris DeRosa, RCE, CAE