REIC/IREM Edmonton

President’s Message

This was a year where we were looking to grow the membership, provide a networking forum and educational opportunities. Our membership has grown through the addition to various designations but most significantly with Accredited Residential Managers and Certified Property Managers. A new designation was added, the ACM or Accredited Commercial Manager. Over the last year Lucien and I have done numerous interviews to welcome candidates into both of these programs. For those of you that have been at the luncheons regularly we have seen many candidates achieve those designations over the last year. I know we have quite a few more in the works. We interviewed 4 ARM candidates just in the last month.

On the Education side, Rose Evans has done a fantastic job. She has been very busy organizing courses at the local level. We have managed to offer both the Ethics and the Successful Site Management Courses several times, both fall and spring. Lucien tells us he’ll be giving us 2 for 1 specials on the ethics course. We’ve had quite a few candidates survive the MPSA exam including Babita Khurana.

Our luncheons have been a forum for many issues and interests that have come up over the year. We have had discussion about these and guest speakers. In December, instead of a gift exchange a collection was taken up for the Youth Emergency Shelter. This was as at the very good suggestion of Bill Patton. Cec Butt was able to get Brad Halliwell as a speaker to bring some humour over lunch. In January Chrystal Skead arranged for Kirk Bacon of RECA to speak about upcoming legislation regarding specialty licensing. This is an issue of particular interest to CPMs. Especially in regard to definitions and education requirements.

Into the new year, rising real estate values, lower vacancies and increasing rents caused affordable housing to become an issue. To speak to this issue, Mike Nickel was a guest speaker as a representative of the City in a joint project with all 3 levels of government along with private business.
Our next guest speaker was a very interesting presentation by the Commander of the Western Canadian Land Forces Base in Edmonton. Our REIC chapter president Bill Patton was good enough to arrange this event. As the housing crunch continued to get tighter, affordable housing was becoming even more of an issue. With the housing shortage and higher rents the dark clouds of rent controls were rumoured. To speak from a Provincial opposition point of view we had the MLA Dave Taylor.

Over the year I have been fortunate to attend conferences along with other members.

Tampa IREM Conference

In the fall of 2006, Chrystal Skead and I had the privilege of attending the IREM conference in Tampa Bay. Here, Canada became Region 14 for IREM.
To add to this milestone, Chrystal Skead was elected Regional Vice President for this first Canadian Region of IREM.

Ottawa REIC/ IREM 2007 Conference

Just weeks ago Lucien Roy, Chrystal Skead, Bill Patton, Babita Khurana, Rose Evans, Sharon Radford, Bill Paton, Don Myre, and I attended a very successful trip to our nations capitol. Edmonton’s own Lucien Roy became president of REIC. Edmonton dominated awards with a Bronze sponsor Certificate being awarded for IREM Chapter #54.

Sharon Radford did very well putting the yearbook together and won the Award for best REIC Chapter year book. We even have an Einstein among us. Rose Evans won the award for the highest mark on the MPSA exam. We were also involved in several trade shows.

I’d like to thank Bob Palamarek for organizing and running the EREB Trade Show & Buildex Trade Show. A big thanks to all those who helped Bob man the booths.

Sharon Radford also did a good job of getting a great looking newsletter out.

Over the year we have grown in members. Many of our members have had some great successes. Even though our membership has grown I believe we can do better at attracting participation in luncheons or events. Over the next year, I would be pleased if we can continue with the successes we’ve had but also create greater participation in luncheons or events.

I’d like to say, it’s been a pleasure working with the IREM/ REIC board: Lucien, Bill, Chystal, Babita, Viola, Jenny, Bob, Cec, Sharon, Don, Jim, Peter and Bernie.

I look forward to working with those of you that are coming back and new members. We are circulating a survey. The purpose is to determine what your interests are and how we can be of service to you. Please let us know the burning issues you would like to know more about and what format is most convenient for you. At this point in time I would like to organize a forum with all levels of government represented along with private industry to discuss the housing shortage here in Alberta. Let me know if this or any other topics are of your interest.

Barry P. Williams
President IREM Chapter #54