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MLTA Summer Convention Wrap Up

By Tom Lico, Capital Title

2020 continues to challenge all of us, personally and professionally, each and every day. It has forced us to be more creative, forced us to try new things, and has forced us to live and work differently.

Needless to say, the MLTA Summer convention could not help but get caught up in the chaos that this year has presented.  Our annual event was scheduled to take place at the lovely resort of Crystal Mountain.  Great speakers filled the line-up and fun activities filled the social need.  By June 1, we were forced to cancel all in-person MTLA events for 2020.

In regards to the convention, once we were able to minimize the venue cancellation expenses, we were left with 2 options: 1) Completely cancel, or 2) Try creating an on-line version of our event.  Cancelling would also mean forfeiting the monetary deposits we made with our speakers, as well.  Option 2 made the most sense.

We kept the date the same as the regularly scheduled convention – Monday, July 13 – because our speakers already had that date assigned to our convention.  Our summer convention is also the annual business meeting where an assigned employee of each member votes on any bylaw changes, new board members, and changes to the Executive board.  This business session occurred on Thursday, July 8 via GoToMeeting.  At this meeting, Maura Snabes of CSS and Iain Bryant of A.S.K. Title became our new board members.  Jacquie Brink moved up to the Secretary-Treasurer role and Eileen LaPlante moved into the President-Elect position.  As per the bylaws, Darlene Wilsey automatically moved into the President role and Tom Lico became the Immediate Past President.

With the business session completed a few days earlier, it made it easier for us to set up one link so that our members could hop-on or hop-off anytime during the day.  Tom Lico opened the day with comments on his term as President and listed the accomplishments of the Board during the chaos of the initial 100 days of the Pandemic hitting Michigan.  Past President Phil Savich then administered the Oath of Office for the induction of the 2020-2021 MLTA Board.

With all business aspects complete, it was time for our speakers to present.  Best selling author and motivational speaker Josh Linkner opened things up with a presentation on Innovation and Creativity.  Following Josh, was the conflict expert Gabe Karp.  Gabe outlined how to identify and overcome the 5 Danger Traps of Conflict.

Back by popular demand from last year’s convention, Dan Elsea was our lunch-time speaker.  As President of Brokerage Services for Michigan’s largest real estate company, Dan gave us incredible insight on the housing market for all of Michigan.  Bottom line – the fundamentals are good for a strong recovery with a shortage of housing inventory continuing as the biggest challenge to the marketplace.

Following Dan Elsea, Tom Lico officially closed out his term as President and did a virtual “passing of the gavel” to Darlene Wilsey, who took over for the rest of the convention.  Our next speaker was the “First Lady of Sales”, Dr. Cindy McGovern.  Dr. Cindy enlightened us with her presentation of – Mastering the Digital Handshake: Doing Business in a Post-Pandemic World.  She was also kind enough to give away a copy of her book – “Every Job is A Sales Job” to our members.

Our final presenters were the Directors of Emerging Technology at the National Association of Realtors, Dave Conroy and Dan Weisman.  Dave and Dan provided insights into the emerging tech trends for the Realtor world and how it can affect our industry.

During the convention, we still held a silent auction fundraiser for the MTLA-PAC, only it was an on-line auction and was open to our entire membership.  Thanks to so many generous donations, we raised over $4000 to our PAC.

While the on-line convention was a success, it is certainly not preferred.  One of the special parts of our convention is the social aspect – the networking, camaraderie, along with fun & games.  The Pandemic has short-changed all of us in regards to our social needs.  The 2021 Summer Convention is set for Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island.  Let’s hope we’ve overcome this Pandemic by then and we’re able to return to The Island, and “Return to Normalcy”.