by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Fun will the be the first thing on the The St. Augustine/St. John County Board of REALTORS® agenda this year.
“We are going to have fun activities because you can’t work all the time,” said Marion Blanchard, executive director of the 700-member St. Augustine/St. Johns County of Board of REALTORS®. “We try to get a feel for what the incoming president’s agenda will be for the year and then try to come up with some creative thinking and ideas to implement their agenda. In (2003 president) John Chapman’s case, he would like to have some fun activities. So we are going to be very creative this year and do some interesting things.”
An example of some of those things are a Super Bowl party at the board office. “Basically, we will invite everyone to watch the Super Bowl, pop popcorn and cook hamburgers out in the parking lot,” said Blanchard. “We will have a good evening. We may do an old fashioned sock hop, maybe even a Karaoke night.”
Forming a larger choral group from the members of the organization is another goal.
“We want to make them ambassadors for the association and have them go out and do different programs for people,” said Blanchard. “We have a core group now and we want to expand on that. What we have discovered is that our association has a lot of multi-talented people.”
Blanchard said they will be doing a whole variety of things this year that they didn’t do last year.
“What happens is that if you only meet once or twice a year, surprise, you don’t know three-quarters of the people there,” said Blanchard. “So what we are going to try and do is to come up with some activities where you will get to know people in more of a social setting while discussing business. The nice thing is that if you are doing business together it makes it much easier because you have some sort of a relationship with that person and they are not a complete stranger.”
Chapman’s focus is going to be on affordable housing, so Blanchard said the board will be working closely with the St. Johns County Builders Council, the County and the St. John’s Vision group on that topic.
She said last year they invited several different groups to get together for a brainstorming session on affordable housing.
“The idea was to brainstorm and to find out what areas that perhaps we as a group could help out to accomplish this goal,” said Blanchard. “This year it is not only the National Association of REALTORS® focus, but the Florida association’s and most local associations as well. This a problem nationwide, not just here. We would like to have and bring in as much affordable housing as we can.
“I think there is a misconception with affordable housing. What you have to think about is the service people, including the police officers and county employees. These people are having a very difficult time living in St. Johns County. They can’t afford it. That is a problem.
“Take it a step further. Many of us have adult children who are just starting out. They qualify for affordable housing. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to keep your children in your community, rather than have them go off someplace else because they can’t afford a home here?”
She said if you look at affordable housing from that standpoint, it changes the perception of what the REALTORS® are trying to do.
“It then becomes a community effort,” said Blanchard. “It should be the goal of all of us to figure out a way to make housing available to our children and to people that we need to make up part of our community. That is the goal this year, to find some solutions. That is why we are going to reach out and work with a whole variety of groups and try to come up with some creative thinking.”
The association is also getting ready to double the size of its parking lot.
“I like to think we have a very progressive association here and we have a lot of people who come from other areas including Jacksonville, Palm Coast, Ponte Vedra Beach and Putnam County. I think they enjoy our association. They do business in St. Johns County and there is a benefit to joining our association. We do a great deal of education. Our focus has always been to educate the REALTOR® as much as we can.”