Thank you for your article today in the St. Pete Times regarding the newly mandated NAR $40 fee.

Most local Realtors heard nothing about this fee until after it was passed. We had no warning from our local Board that the move was being considered nor was the General Membership asked for any input regarding the fee. Most Realtors join the Association of Realtors in order to gain access to MLS and don’t pay much attention to what goes on at their local Board. Apparently the GTAR Board directed the 3 local NAR Directors to vote against the motion, but there is no record of how anyone voted as it was a VOICE VOTE. Neither is there any record of how vociferously they objected to the fee, IF AT ALL!

The Public should know, however, that there was a huge National outcry against this move by individual Realtors throughout the country preceding the vote via various blogs and Facebook. Unfortunately this pushback was to no avail. Realtors act as “independent contractors” and individually are the very definition of the “small businessman / woman”. Unfortunately, their own professional organization now threatens them with a huge loss of independence.

As evidenced by the public comments to your article, I think we Realtors are all going to pay dearly for the lack of attention paid to the “top down” organization of NAR.

I first learned of the mandated fee as a result of an article in the local GTAR newsletter in August. I immediately contacted some of my colleagues that I personally knew and asked them to sign a Petition Against the move. You will be able to see the local Board’s reaction to my presentation in the ATTACHMENT to this email.

NAR’s leadership has argued that the move was necessary to combat the flood of soft money unleashed by corporations and in particular – big banks – as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision / Citizens United vs. FEC. In other words NAR is arguing that they need to protect Realtors from the dangers of “big money politics” by forcing them to become part of a “big money” PAC.

I think this fight is just beginning and I predict that the instinctive independence of individual Realtors will force the repeal of the mandated fee by NAR.

Thanks in advance for reading my email.

Jeanne F Zylstra
Temple Terrace Realty, Inc.

Late Monday afternoon and Tuesday, I started receiving E-mails and telephone calls from REALTOR friends that they did not receive a ballot and who should they contact.

Today, I received another E-mail from VoteNet stating that I had not voted. Interesting enough, it had the same User Name and Password as the first E-mail. However, when I clicked on the active link, it took me to the VoteNet site and gave me a message that I had already voted.

I wonder if my vote was actually recorded or did I just receive a standard message leading me to think that it had …

Lynn Mooney, a GTAR member

GTAR BOARD DISCOUNTS DELIVERY OF PETITIONS AGAINST NAR’S MANDATED FEE AND DENIES SPECIAL MEETING SO MEMBERS VOICES CAN BE HEARD!

On Monday, September 19, 2011 I delivered to the GTAR Board the list of Realtors who signed the PETITION AGAINST NAR’s recently mandated $40 fee which will be spent on political action beginning 2012.

Here are the results of my presentation to the Board:
1) I asked the Board to hold a special General Membership Meeting for the sole purpose of soliciting opinions from individual members regarding the fee and Jim Selvey, current President of GTAR told me this morning that “that’s not going to happen!”.

2) During my presentation of the petitions, I asked Mr. Selvey how he voted as a NAR Director and he told me that that information was “private”. Apparently he considered his vote “private” in spite of the fact that supposedly the local Board asked the 3 NAR Directors to vote AGAINST the fee. I recently learned that the NAR vote was A VOICE VOTE so therefore no one can really be held accountable for one of the most important votes in NAR’s history!

3) Finally, what was really shocking to me was that when I pointed out the basis of my objection to being forced to contribute to a fund which could total over $40 million annually over which I have little to no control and which could therefore DIMINISH MY OWN PERSONAL VOTE, both Carol Austin and a number of the current leadership team promised me that none of the RIPSI money would be used directly to support individual candidates, which is untrue according to the lead article in the August 2011 edition of REALTOR NEWS.

The misinformation or lack of knowledge that the current leadership, both staff and elected officials demonstrated regarding the RIPSI fund is shocking. Add to this fact that the NAR directors allowed the motion to pass on a VOICE VOTE and one begins to get a picture of just how irresponsible the NAR leadership has become.

I think this is our own fault and is directly attributable to the fact that none of us, present company included, have paid very much attention to the workings of our professional organization in the past. There apparently was an enormous NATIONAL OUTCRY preceding NAR’s recent action mandating the RIPSI fee and nevertheless, the NAR leadership voted to proceed with forcing each member to contribute.
This fight involves much more than making each of our pocketbooks’s $40 lighter. NAR is apparently one of the largest PACs in the country and has justified the mandated fee as a reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which overturned “soft money” prohibition laws in 23 states and will, according to the NAR argument, threaten the influence of NAR.

I don’t think being forced to contribute to one PAC is a good way to protect us against the influence of “big money” in politics. It is the opposite. I have always believed that good can come from bad so perhaps this outrageous act by NAR will act as a WAKE UP CALL to those of us who believe our local and national Boards can do much better, if only we get involved. Please stay tuned to this blog and KEEP THOSE PETITIONS COMING directly to my email / jzylstra@tampabay.rr.com. There’s safety in numbers and I think this fight is just beginning.
Jeanne Zylstra

It is clear from looking at this group of officers that the members have given up trying to overcome the established power. Now it appears that Good may finally overcome the “UnGood”. This electronic way of communicating non-propaganda information directly to the members may finally break the power back of management and her cronies and let the members make informed decisions.

Tom Schueller