CEO'S MESSAGE
Here For You
O ne of President Lou Nimkoff’s
priorities for 2018 is REALTOR®
safety, and the ORRA staff has
totally bought into it. I’m so
proud to let you know that the vast majority
of our employees are now CPR certified.
Over the summer, nearly all staff members
volunteered to complete an accredited
CPR class. They learned (and practiced)
lifesaving measures, first-aid procedures,
and even crowd-control techniques as
there is often as many as 200 individuals
in the ORRA building at any time. Staffers
who work on both floors received the
training and are qualified to administer
the automated external defibrillator (AED)
that ORRA maintains on site.
We easily have more than 1,200 REALTORS
® pass through the ORRA building
every month, and our member demographics
increase the probability of an
emergency. Here at ORRA we don’t want to
just save real-estate businesses, we want
to save lives.
Breaking News: An ORRA staffer has
already put the training to good use,
assisting a distressed retail shopper who
collapsed until emergency services arrived.
She reports with surprise that crowd control
is actually a very useful skill!
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A REALTOR®
Don’t you think that ORRA staffers
would benefit from walking in the shoes of
the REALTORS® they serve? I certainly do,
so we launched ORRA’s Day in the Life of
a REALTOR® program, which pairs a staffer
with a REALTOR® in action for a day of
observation and discussion.
ORRA’s Day in the Life of a REALTOR®
program is built upon a NAR template.
REALTORS® who participate can bring their
shadows to listing presentations, showings,
sales meetings, etc., whatever makes
up a REALTORS’® typical — or untypical
— day.
One of ORRA’s first employees to follow
a REALTOR® attended a final walkthrough
(while the sellers were scrambling to finish
moving); listened as last-minute issues
were hashed out with the buyers’ agent;
and sat in (with proper permission) during
the closing. Another employee tagged
along as the REALTOR® attended a workshop
for LGBTQ fair housing rights then
helped serve dinner to guests of Hubbard
House.
By spending quality time with our
members, ORRA employees come away
with empathy for what REALTORS® do
each day and translate that into better
understanding and service from the association.
Both those staffers who already
work closely with REALTOR® leadership
and those who work on the front lines of
service benefit from one-on-one sustained
engagement with a REALTOR® to learn
about your day-to-day work and the challenges
you face.
As always, please feel free to contact
me at cliffl@orlandorealtors.org at any
time with your concerns.
Cliff Long
Staffers Desmond Dyce
(administration) and Ashley
Wheeler (professional
development) practiced switching
out during prolonged CPR.
(l-r) Staffer Lisa McDuffie
(communications) spent a day
shadowing REALTOR® Maggie
DeGennaro, Keller Williams
Heritage Realty, and celebrated a
successful closing with ice cream.
6 Orlando REALTOR® July / August 2018
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