? by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
John Chapman has been interested in becoming the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors® president for quite some time now.
“Last year, I ran and Bobbie [Ray] beat me,” said Chapman. “Actually, I’ve probably wanted to do it for the past five or six years. My wife is a past president and I saw what she went through and actually got to attend everything as the First Husband. I figured it looked like fun and I enjoy getting out and networking. Also, I have ideas that I want to do.”
He is finally getting his day.
Chapman was installed as president of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors® last month at the installation banquet held at the Ponce De Leon Resort in St. Augustine.
Chapman has two major goals he would like to accomplish in his year as president.
“It’s just by chance, but Cathy Whatley, the 2003 National Association of REALTORS® president and I have the same goals. She is pushing affordable housing on a national level and I’ve been working very hard on affordable housing in St. Johns County.”
Chapman has been on the St. Johns County task force for affordable housing for the past six years.
He said affordable housing will be his main goal, because although he loves Duval and Flagler counties, he hates to see the firemen, policemen and teachers leaving St. Johns County because they just can’t afford houses there anymore.
“Part of what we do as REALTORS® is provide the American dream, which is for everyone to own a home,” said Chapman. “So, why shouldn’t that be our focus, to make sure that homes are affordable for the average citizens? I mean, we all love to sell the $2 million homes, but our bread and butter is the average guy in the street who needs to make a living and needs to have some place to live.”
Chapman’s other goal is to get the membership of the association more involved.
“We have a wonderful board with great people, but I just don’t see the participation that I would like to see,” said Chapman. “I think that is true of other boards as well. Everybody is so busy, and I think that is a good thing, but I don’t think they understand the worth of networking and being involved with their brother and sister REALTORS®.”
Chapman also belongs to the Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS®, Flagler County Board of REALTORS® and Volusia County Board of REALTORS®.
In his upcoming year, he is planning to bring some new committees, including technology and international, on board as well as some new committee chairs.
“I have some great committee chairs already in place,” said Chapman. “With some good committee chairs, I’m hoping to get the membership more involved in the committees and they will see the values they can learn there. The networking alone will help them in their production.”
As president-elect, Chapman trained to be president by overseeing the committees and was Ray’s stand in when she couldn’t make a function.
“The big thing was training,” said Chapman. “They sent me to everything. I’ve been to Florida Association of REALTORS® spokesperson training, leadership seminars and learned a lot. I had a lot of preconceived ideas before this year and I think the president-elect idea is a wonderful idea because what you learn in that year prepares you for your presidency. I now know that I can’t go in there with a big stick and say you are going to do it my way. I’m going in there to listen to what the membership wants and try to accomplish their goals while at the same time meet some of my own agendas.”
Chapman said Ray really helped him prepare for his new role in the association.
“Bobbie was great,” he said. “Bobbie is quietly dynamic. She was really good at listening to the membership and doing what they wanted and at the same time keeping me tempered. I’m a very exuberant person and Bobbie is the opposite kind of personality. She kind of held me in check and kept me under control for this year so I realized what I have to do for this upcoming year.”
Chapman said he thought Ray was an excellent president who accomplished a lot for the association.
“I don’t think people realize just how hard she worked because she is a very quiet person,” said Chapman. “She was a good role model for me. I’m glad now that she was elected last year and I was her president-elect because I got to see a lot and learn a lot.”
Chapman is a relocation referral director with Century 21 A1A Realty where his wife is the broker. He was licensed in the early 1980’s when he went to work with his wife at Anastasia Realty.
“We partnered up with Century 21 At the Beach for a short while,” said Chapman. “Eventually we bought our own Century 21 franchise and started as a management company. The whole idea what that we would do property management and association management. But, our customers kept coming to us for sales, so we kept doing them.”
Before real estate, Chapman was a medical imaging specialist with the 3M company.