by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Other than the annual golf tournament and Christmas party, the Realtors and affiliates in the Northeast Florida Association of Realtor’s Southwest Council really do not get a chance to network during work hours.
Ryan O’Brien, manager of the Watson Realty on 103rd Street and new chair of the Southwest Council, wants to change that.
“My goal this year is to increase the membership,” he said. “It’s been up and down over the years with people attending the events, but we want to get more people involved. The three events that we usually do are a golf event, Christmas party and something in between. We are going to revise some of the things that we usually do.”
In addition to those events, they typically have a few affiliate mixers during the year in the evening.
“We will be switching from night to morning and have breakfast networking meetings, instead,” said O’Brien. “We are going to try and get some good speakers in who will talk about what is going on in Jacksonville and West Jacksonville. We really want to get more Realtors involved. It’s a great networking opportunity and without participation from the members, it really isn’t a council.”
One speaker they are hoping to get is someone from Cecil Field.
“Things like that help us understand what is going on outside of our industry,” he said.
They may still have the evening costume party in October. No firm decisions have been made.
O’Brian is working with co-chair Jeff Cosmato of First American Title, Southwest caravan organizer Kim Knapp of Vanguard Realty/GMAC Real Estate and Joy Gibbs, Southwest Council area manager. to rally the Realtors to send two delegates from every company or office to attend their meetings to have a say in what is planned for this year.
“We are planning on keeping everyone more informed this year, too,” said O’Brien. “We are going to have a yearly schedule out and update it every month. That way everyone will know what is going on and we won’t be taking everyone by surprise.”
He said he wanted to be the chair so he could help the group turn around, increase membership and then get more involved in the community.
“I would like the council to get more involved in the community but, in order to do that, we have to get more people involved,” said O’Brien. “We’ll see how it goes the first two quarters and then go back in and see if we can do something for the community.”
O’Brien has been the manager of Watson Realty’s 103rd office since May of 2005. He started with Watson in March of 2000 as an agent and became the assistant manager in 2002.
Why go into management?
“It’s a challenge,” he said. “I like the challenge of helping other people succeed and meet their goals. That’s why I became a manager.”
Before real estate, he worked for Lockheed Martin as a structural mechanic.
Prior to that, he was in the Navy for six years as a structural mechanic focusing on hydraulics.
“I managed a shop of 35 people when I was in the military,” said O’Brien. “It was a diverse group of people. You can’t railroad people and make them do things. You need to make the job fun and have fun with them.”
He and his wife moved to Orange Park and he decided he wanted to get out of aviation.
“We both had a passion for real estate,” he said. “I’ve watched my parents and family do all sorts of things in real estate. They were not real estate agents, but they bought and sold a lot of land. My wife’s grandparents are real estate agents here in town so we both go our real estate license.”