by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Pud English has never been one to sit back and watch things happen.
Now as the new chairwoman of Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council, she has several interesting plans to keep SMC going strong and maybe even take it up a notch.
“I’ve always been one to participate,” said English, who is a site agent at Palencia. “When I was nominated to be the chair, I said certainly, I’ll go on the ballot. If I win, I’ll do the best job I can do. I was nominated and elected, so here I am.”
Her theme this year is “Best of Times.”
“Every year, we have gone just a notch above what we did the previous year,” said English. “We’ve gotten a little high-tech now with the display of the award-winners and sponsors on the screen over the stage. We are not some little rinky-dink little thing. We are finally there and we need to keep it there. We are just going to take it up a notch.”
English isn’t planning on changing very much during her year.
“I’m not one of these people who want to go in and change things,” she said. “(Staff director) Portland Stuart does such an incredible job, doing her job, that she makes all of us look very good and makes it easy for us.”
She said she will add some things like a cruise, music and new speakers.
“We have a lot of talent in SMC, so we are going to have one of our SMC members sing the ‘National Anthem,’ ‘God Bless America, ‘ ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ or something like that.”
Another thing she would like to see is for the award winners to actually attend the meeting and be recognized for their achievement.
“We are really going to work on getting that done,” she said. “We want people to come to the breakfast so when they get recognized they are there to accept their award.”
Her membership goal is 1,000, which would make this the largest SMC in the nation. Currently the membership is about 750.
English is looking for new blood to help her with SMC.
“We want to bring in some new committee chairmen because I think that is always a good thing,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of the good older people who have been doing the job for years. We want to get people that are new to the business more involved, so it’s not the same group doing the same thing every single time.”
English also would like people to work on one or two different committees.
“We’ve got a lot of feedback this year from new people who want to get involved,” she said. “I’ve gotten at least 10 phone calls in the last two months from people who said they are new to the area and to SMC and they want to know what I need them to do.”
Speakers are what make a meeting and English said they already have six of the 11 speakers lined up for next year.
“We have some really good speakers coming in, some of whom we’ve had in the past,” she said. “We also have some people coming in that many haven’t heard of. One is Hope Mihalap. She is the Erma Bombeck of motivational speakers. I heard her eight years ago and I still remember her. She was probably the funniest woman I have ever met in my life. She has a really good message in her program.”
SMC also may hold another meeting in the evening as they did to feature radio talk host Neal Boortz a few months ago.
English said she is planning several fun things for this year. She is working with Jerry Linder, NEFBA president, to set up a NEFBA/SMC cruise out of Port Canaveral.
“We want to try and get a couple educational programs on board,” she said. “It will probably be in May. I think NEFBA and SMC will be probably do a few more things together this year.”
English said she has talked to several top Realtors who are members of SMC to get more Realtor involvement.
“What better way with all these new developments coming online for Realtors to find out where they are,” she said. “They say that seventy percent of homes sold are new homes and SMC is probably the quickest place to learn where the new homes are being built.”
Even though everyone is very busy in the “Best of Times,” English feels that in order to be the chairwoman of such a dynamic group she needs to be very dedicated to SMC.
“You have to believe in SMC and what it stands for,” she said. “I am a firm believer in SMC and have been a member forever. I think it is the greatest group of people I have ever met and it is great for networking.”
English has been a member of SMC since 1988. When she was elected to be the chairwoman of SMC four years ago for 2006, she joined the executive board.
“It’s a five-year commitment,” said English. “I’ve been on the board all these years, so you learn as you go.”
Board members head different committees and learn the different aspects of SMC while on the board, so they are ready when the time comes to take the helm.
English has been at Palencia since 2001 when the community opened. Prior to that, she worked for Arvida as a new home site agent.
She has been in real estate for 30 years, with her career in new home sales starting in 1982.
Before real estate, English was a first grade teacher. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Georgia Southwestern College.
People kept telling her she would be great in real estate, so she got her license. She went to work for one summer.
“I did really well that summer, so I decided to take a year’s leave of absence and I never went back,” she said. “My experience as a teacher helped me to learn organization real well, because you have to. When you have to watch 35 first graders, you learn pretty fast how to get organized. That is probably my strongest suit because I am extremely organized. I also learned communication skills from dealing with parents and the public.”
English started her real estate career with Watson Realty. She then went into new home sales with Lake Mandarin Construction.
“I was then hired by Gate Petroleum to run their land division,” she said. “I then got my contractor’s license and had my own construction company for five years.”
She and her husband then moved to Colorado for three years. When they returned to Florida, she went to work for Arvida for six years.
English was raised in Americus, Ga. She has been married to Ben for 18 years and has two step-children, Ashley and Christopher. When she is not working, she enjoys a spending time with friends.