REMINDER: ALL FLYERS ARE INCLUDED IN THE WEEKLY BROKER FAX

General Membership Meeting Rescheduled
The General Membership Meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday, January 17, 2008 from 10 a.m. to Noon at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City. An agenda will be announced in early January. Please encourage all CAR members in your office to attend and RSVP by clicking here.

Attention Board Members!
Board dues for 2008 have been mailed and are due by December 31. Please either submit your payment or notify us if you do not intend on renewing your membership. If you have not yet received a bill, please contact the Association Office at 410-641-4409.

Holiday Closings
The association office will be closed Monday, December 24, and Tuesday, December 25, for the Christmas holiday. The office will also be closed on Monday, December 31, and Tuesday, January 1, for the New Year’s holiday. CAR wishes everyone a happy and safe holiday season!

Start the Year Off Right
Advertise the the winter 2008 issue of Currents, CAR’s quarterly newsletter. Get your ad placed in the magazine and seen by more than 1,500 REALTORS® in the tri-county area. Great spots are selling quickly! DEADLINE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21. Advertising rates are available by clicking here. The winter issue will arrive in member mailboxes in late January.

Community Service Update

• The Community Service committee is still accepting canned goods/monetary donations for holiday meals for families in need.
• There are some slots in the schedule that need to be filled for the Winterfest of Lights hot cocoa stand. Call Pat Terrill @ 410-497-2332 or Terry Testani @ 443-523-2966 to sign up.
• Hats off to Pat Terrill—This is her 15th year of working the hot cocoa stand. Thanks for all your time and efforts!
• Christmas caroling at the local nursing/assisted living homes. Meet at The Steer Inn on Racetrack Road at 3 p.m. on December 13. Wear your red & green holiday attire. We’ll carpool from there, then we will return to join in some holiday cheer ourselves.
• The Toy Drive was a great success! It was well attended and the abundance of toys collected was overwhelming. The Community Service Committee is hoping to make this an annual event so please spread the word. A good time was had by all. A large thanks goes out to Danny Wancowicz (manager of Castaways) and the Gibb family (owners of Castaways) for helping make the Toy Drive such a success with their generous donation of food and music. And last but not least, all the committee service volunteers. Great job!
• The 10th Annual Beach Blanket Blood Drive is right around the corner. Mark your calendars for January 30 & 31. We’re looking for volunteers to donate blood/and or time to work the event. More details to follow.

MAR Poster Contest—Volunteer Needed
The Equal Opportunity Committee needs a person to coordinate with Wicomico and Worcester public schools for the MAR Fair Housing Poster Contest. This year, MAR is inviting churches, private schools, and other groups to participate. If anyone wants to learn more about the MAR Poster Contest, please contact Nancy McKinley for an information packet at 410-749-1818, ext. 3655, or 410-430-3687.

NAR Real Estate Agent Education, School & Online Classes Visit NAR’s Education Section to learn everything you wanted to know about continuing education for REALTORS®, including information about designations and hot specialty areas, as well as many useful links. Online Courses The Frederick Academy of Real Estate offers on-line CE for Maryland and Virginia. Go to www.frederickacademy.net and check out what is available. Locally, the Ed Smith Real Estate School also offers on-line CE. Go to www.edsmithschool.com and click on On-Line Maryland Approved CE Courses. Did You Know? Each CE course that you take has a Course Designation, supplied by the Maryland Real Estate Commission. (A) Legislative Updates (B) Antitrust Law (C) Fair Housing Law (D) Real Estate Ethics or Professional Standards (E) Disclosure (F) Professional Enhancement for Practicing Licensees (G) Technology Relating to Real Estate Brokerage Services (A), (C), and (D) are required subject areas by Maryland. The Ethics Class must include MD Code of Ethics, Flipping, and Predatory Lending. (7.5 credits are in required subjects; the remainder are elective.) Total CE requirements for MD license renewal are on the CAR Web site under Education and Events. Home Inspection Licensing Remember: All Maryland home inspectors will be required to be licensed as of January 1 and it will be illegal to operate in Maryland without a valid Maryland Home Inspector’s License. If an unlicensed inspector is referred to or selected by a home buyer, then it will not be considered a valid home inspection under the new regulations, and, as a result, a seller can refuse to accept a home inspection repair addendum. (Thanks to HouseMaster for this information.) Get WHC Certified in Two Days! Registration is now open for the Workforce Housing Certification Seminar. You must attend both days of training, January 10th and 11th. Training is from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. both days with CAR providing lunches. Full details and registration here >> Things in the Works The Education Committee is working on the 2008 CE offerings. We are looking for ideas about what you would like to attend. We have Short Sales, Inspection, Mold Remediation, The Listing Agreement, and the Contract of Sales in our sight. Any other ideas? Just let us know!

Message From the President
This update is in follow up to my message to you on November 12, 2007, regarding forming a partnership with the Sussex County Association of REALTORS® (SCAOR). We recently met with SCAOR’s Board of Directors to discuss partnering with them on various services, such as lockbox, MLS, education, and particularly sharing their Executive Vice President, Ruth Briggs King. The Board was very receptive to the partnership, but not to sharing their EVP.

As a result of that meeting, we have decided to continue our search for our own full time Executive Officer. We have contacted three of the candidates previously interviewed by the Search Committee and two are still interested in the position. The Board will meet with them at our next board meeting on December 12. However, this does not mean that we will discontinue our discussions with SCAOR. Both Boards believe that this partnership will be a good move for our associations

I would like to thank Cindy Canigiani for filling in as the temporary Executive Officer and her assistants Alicia Griffith and Beverly for their patience and understanding during this time of upheaval. Hopefully, by the first of the year, we will have hired our own EO.

We will be discussing this further at our General Membership meeting on January 17. I hope that all of you will be attending this important meeting. A complete agenda will be sent out via e-mail and posted on our Web site a few days before the meeting.

Respectfully,
Cassie Mead, President
Coastal Association of REALTORS®