This year, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) hosted its first ever hybrid event with members from across the country connecting virtually as well as in-person over two days of programming.
On day one, CREA hosted its Broker Summit, which brought together brokers from across the country for a morning of engaging topics, centered around ways to help brokerages succeed and gain a competitive advantage. Later that day, brokers were joined by industry leaders for CREA’s Leadership Summit, where they heard from industry specialists about adapting our work alongside technology, trends impacting our industry, and strategic creativity.
On day two, Outgoing Chair, Cliff Stevenson facilitated the AGM and Open Forum before passing the gavel to new Chair, Jill Oudil.
After two years, we were grateful to see so many familiar faces, as well as quite a few new ones. Our team received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees and speakers alike, happy to be taking part in our events.
In March, the REALTORS Care® Committee launched a campaign to aid humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. By April 4, we raised more than $220,000 online, plus several donations from boards and associations, including an additional $100,000 from the Ontario REALTORS Care® Foundation. To date, the campaign has raised more than $469,000, with some donations not yet reflected in this total.
We also named Lorna Hamm, the Canadian REALTORS Care® Award 2022 winner. A $5,000 donation was made to Hamm’s charity of choice, the Children’s Hospital Aid Society. We were truly inspired by all the submissions received, and nominations made – every year REALTORS® across Canada continue to amaze us.
We then turned the spotlight on the AEN Award of Excellence, recognizing an outstanding Association Executive, who demonstrates leadership, cooperation, and community involvement. This year, John DiMichele, CEO at Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, received the award after more than 29 devoted, enthusiastic years in the REALTOR® association community.
We also welcomed back many trusted individuals to our Board of Directors and were happy to add a few new ones. We’d like to say a sincere “thank you” to all those who applied; we appreciate your dedication, willingness to contribute, and respective involvement in the REALTOR® community.
Meet our new Board of Directors:
At this year’s AGM we focused on reviewing a few of our By-Laws that were ultimately amended to best fit the regulations we hold ourselves accountable to.
First was Article 2.2, which deals with when By-Law and Rule amendments come into force. This was amended to align with current practice: that By-Law and Rule amendments come into force as specified by the Board of Directors, without impacting their ability to pass immediate By-Law and Rules changes, if necessary.
Next, Article 6.4.1, which deals with the number of votes needed to pass a motion and permits resolutions to be introduced at CREA member meetings on the floor on an urgent basis, was removed from CREA’s By-Laws. It predates CREA’s transition to its current corporate legislation, the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and thus is superseded by their rule requiring prior notice to members of all special business.
The third change was regarding the wording of Article 8.7.3, regarding ties for first place in CREA elections. Since the phrasing used terminology like “majority of ballots”, it suggested only two people could be part of a tied vote. This was amended to allow for other percentage splits, such as a three-way-ties where each candidate receives 33%, etc.
The last change was made to CREA’s name in French. The new name, L’Association canadienne de l’immobilier, more accurately aligns with the English and is more consistent with our brand’s operational function. We’re working on updating our logo and replacing the name across all communications and platforms.
If you have any questions and would like to contact us about any of the above changes, please reach out to our Member Experience Team at support@crea.ca.
