by Michele Gillis
Staff writer
A good leader possesses the ability to overcome hurdles by making appropriate changes and concessions to lead his people to victory.
Though Wendell Davis’ year as Florida Realtor president started with a list of major goals, he was hit with a major bump in the road. But, he prevailed.
“It was humbling, exciting, busy and chaotic,” said Wendell. “The past presidents will tell you that something will happen in your year that is not on the calendar and mine was the BP oil spill. In June, July and August 2010, it was hard to do much else.”
Davis collaborated with other gulf coast states to negotiate with Kenneth Feinberg, the BP claims administrator, to set aside $60 million to pay claims to real estate professionals for the loss of income or loss of sales due to the Gulf oil spill.
That was a major accomplishment during his 2010 reign as president.
“Real estate is the only industry to get special funds out of BP funds,” said Davis. “There are still some claims underway, but the time frame to file claims has ended.”
Two other major accomplishments during Davis’ term were the Defeat Amendment 4 and implemention of a new Professional Development department at Florida Realtors.
“Defeating Amendment 4 was huge,” said Davis. “It was probably one of the major accomplishments for years, not only for Realtors but for all the citizens of Florida because we believe it would have devastated the economy.”
The implementation of the Florida Realtors Professional Development was an internal change Davis made to better educate the members. Davis said they restructured the infrastructure to keep up with technology.
“One of the greatest benefits of the association is the education of the members,” he said. “It’s good for our members and makes better educated Realtors, which is better for public, citizens and our profession.”
Davis feels he had a very successful year, mostly due to the talented people around him.
“When a leader has a lot of success there are usually quality people surrounding him making sure things get done,” he said.
Davis spent 2010 juggling the state leadership job with his Clay County Commissioner position - he has two years left on this term - and his real job as Regional Vice President of Watson Realty.
“I usually tell people I added a week to my day,” said Davis. “There were times, especially in the summer when I was spending so much time on the oil spill, that I’d have three conference calls a day. We’d go on for two or three days because you’d make a decision, go do work and come back make a decision. It just ate up a lot of time. I’m a pretty good multi-tasker, but it was challenging. It was highly important to be surrounded by good people.”
Davis said he is now looking forward to slowing down a bit and just focusing on his two jobs and family.
“There is always the emotional tie of turning the presidency over, but it’s time,” said Davis. “We had a really busy, challenging year. We have a tradition of calling the incoming president at two minutes to midnight on Dec. 31 to pass the baton, if you will, because we are all over the state. So, I did that.”
The recipient: his president-elect, Pat Fitzgerald of Hobe Sound.
Davis said he will continue to support the Florida Realtor organization, but has no plans to be North Florida’s second president of the National Association of Realtor. Cathy Whatley of Buck & Buck is the only one so far.
“I need to spend more time with the local community making sure we get things done there that need to be done and get back to doing things at Watson,” said Davis. “I’ve enjoyed the first couple of weeks back and am in the process of growing business again, which is my job. We’ve done a lot of holding on, now it’s time to start growing again.”
One main thing Davis learned over the last year was that people are good.
“Every day in the news you hear about someone shooting someone, stealing from someone or killing someone,” he said. “We are confronted with the bad on a regular basis but that is not the basic ingredient of most of our citizens. It’s not the bulk of the people doing this.”