By Marty Douglas

I attended the annual general meeting of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board on the last day of February. It was held in Nanaimo, the hub city of Vancouver Island. About 100 folks showed up, and at least a quarter of those were guests, invited from the usual cross section of the real estate industry.  CREA, BCREA, the Real Estate Council of B.C., the Real Estate Foundation of B.C., the Real Estate Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of B.C. and real estate boards from Vancouver and Victoria honoured us by their presence.

And filled the chairs.

At the business meeting a budget of $2.6 million was approved, offset by income of $2.5 million, $100,000 short of a fully balanced budget.  Not a peep was heard from those in attendance. The excess expense over income was covered by past reserves, to spare the membership from an increase in dues. Some concern was expressed about the dates of reporting of sales and the solicitation of expired listings and privacy but nary a histrionic over any issue.

Also revealed at the meeting was an “oopsie”, an unfortunate loss of $150,000 due to a failed investment in a back office management software program with half a dozen other real estate boards.  The $150,000 was our board’s per capita share, meaning the other participating “big” boards – Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Calgary – lost considerably more. Ouch!

I can’t tell you any more of the details because the draining of the swamp involved a confidentiality agreement to protect the reputation of the contractor. But we were assured the participants had learned a great deal from the experience.

Hmmm.

No protection for the industry leaders who led our money down the path to the money pit, AKA software development.

So it appears the spending of other people’s money with abandon is not restricted to the Canadian Senate. Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain, also known as the Iron Lady, once offered this opinion: “The unfortunate thing about socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.”

I know our Boards of Directors are volunteers with the best of intentions.  I know from my industry time they are frequently making decisions on matters with which they have little or no experience. They rely on guidance and expertise from the professional staff of our boards and associations. But as good as they are, every now and then even professionals bowl a gutter ball. We should count ourselves lucky that it doesn’t happen very often.

But still.

We – a board of 950 or so members – lost $150,000. That’s about $158 each. Dinner for four with cheap wine. Cost of a lock box. One month’s dues.

Not a peep from the audience. And not much of an audience.

Take away the guests and staff and less than 10 per cent of the membership of our board were in attendance, giving ultra-lite scrutiny to the $2.6 million budget.  There was a time concerned executive and staff ran around to the local real estate offices scaring up participation like press gangs of old, in fear of an AGM stillborn without a quorum. To prevent a re-occurrence, we did what any organization would do in the face of declining participation of the membership – we lowered our standards.

The current quorum requirement wouldn’t support an evening of duplicate bridge. If our quorum were spotted on a street corner in Kiev, Vlad the Impaler wouldn’t call out the troops. Not even the gay pride police.

But to my point.

Most of the heads in the room supported grey hair. Or dyed hair. Or the absence of hair. They are the old guard, accused once of being the old boys and girls club. But they were in the room, armed with voting sticks if only to stir their Metamucil. Those who pay the most, with the most to lose, greater than 90 per cent of our membership, were no shows.

At the back of the room sat an old friend, a salesperson I first hired more than 30 years ago.  Phil Edgett has been licensed for 33 years and has attended 32 Annual General Meetings of his real estate board.  Phil is very protective of his privacy and his lifetime achievements but suffice it to say, his is a life story, half lived. His challenges from birth are incomprehensible to you or me but just routine to Phil. His spirit, bravery and sense of humour are indomitable. And yet there he was, showing up.  “What’s the point of being in the club if you don’t go to the meetings?” he asked.

Thanks Phil.

Contact Marty Douglas by email at [email protected] . Follow or connect with Marty on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. He is a managing broker for Re/Max Ocean Pacific Realty in Comox and Courtenay, B.C. He is a past chair of the Real Estate Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of B.C., the Real Estate Council of B.C., the B.C. Real Estate Association and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board.