by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Women’s Council of Realtors has a new president - Bob Sawyer, the team leader/broker of Keller Williams Realty in Mandarin.
Yes, you read it right:
Bob.
A man.
Some may think it strange that a man is president of a women’s organization, but not Sawyer.
He’s done it before.
Sawyer was the 1997 and 1998 president of the now-defunct Clay County Women’s Council of Realtors and a past district vice president for the state WCR.
“It’s not a women’s organization,” said Sawyer, a broker with the Keller Williams office in Mandarin. “The Women’s Council of Realtors was set up in 1938. It was actually started before that.
“There were four ladies coming back from National Association of Realtors convention on a train going back to California. They were grousing about not being able to join the board; females weren’t eligible. The board was a primary source of education that the men got and they didn’t get. They also did not get the networking opportunities.”
Sawyer said the women went back to their office and discussed it with their broker and he said for them to start their own organization, which they did.
“He told them if they started it and got it recognized by the NAR, then you can become your own educational arm of the NAR,” said Sawyer. “When the national Women’s Council of Realtors was started, it was never segregated. It was open for everyone to join, men and women. A lot of men don’t like to join the organization because it says ‘Women’s Council’.”
Sawyer said the organization has talked about changing the name, but he said they should never ever do that.
“If you change the name, all the history from 1938 on is gone,” he said. “No one would know who you are and everything would have to change. It’s just not worth it. If men don’t see the value of the organization, then that’s their problem.”
WCR is a teaching and networking group. They sponsor speaking and business courses including an advanced leadership training course.
“Many years ago, young executives were sent to the leadership course because it was the only one that would teach them public speaking and how to work with a group,” he said.
Sawyer said most of other organizations don’t offer that same kind of training.
Networking is important in real estate and the WCR is one of the largest professional networking organizations in the country today with 15,000 members.
“If I had to refer someone to somewhere and I can’t find a Keller Williams office, I look in the WCR directory,” said Sawyer. “Nine times out of 10 there is a member there somewhere.”
Some WCR’s have struggled to stay afloat because they hadn’t had the proper training, so the national WCR started a school to train presidents-elect before they take office.
“Every president-elect in the country goes to this school so that they understand what everyone’s duties are and what you are expected to do when you take over as president,” said Sawyer. “That school runs for three days in August and the national organization pays for it. It offers terrific training.”
Sawyer said he decided to be president because he was asked and he thinks the organization is wonderful.
“Jacksonville is a larger chapter than the Clay County was and we rolled a lot of the Clay County members into the Jacksonville chapter,” he said. “I think it is a great organization.”
Fundraising is a big part of WCR. They have several throughout the year to support local charities as well as to sponsor the WCR officers’ travel.
Sawyer’s goals are to increase the membership by 20 percent, have better speakers and better use of technology to communicate with members and the general real estate community.
“We always seem to have a problem keeping in touch with everybody and getting out there and telling 5,000 real estate agents what the WCR is all about,” he said. “Most Realtors don’t know. With today’s technology, we should be able to reach out to all those people.”
Most of Sawyer’s real estate career has been in managing offices.
“I’ve been in a management position for a long time,” said Sawyer. “I was engineering manager with Michigan Bell for 18 years. I had three heart attacks and decided that probably wasn’t the place to be anymore.”
He moved to Jacksonville in 1988 and joined Watson Realty, where he worked for five years. He left real estate for a year and was the publisher for a Clay County newspaper.
He then managed a Century 21 office and a couple of Realty Executive offices before joining Keller Williams, where he has been for a little over two years.
“At Keller Williams, the team leader is responsible for recruiting, training and retaining agents,” he said. “We train five days a week to give people the tools to operate with.”
Coming from a corporate business-minded background, Sawyer found that real estate wasn’t as structured as he would have liked it to be. He put together a business plan and taught it at WCR and still teaches it today at his company.
“I got it together when I was Watson and used to teach it to anyone who would sit with me and listen to me talk about it,” he said.