In a few short days, my year as 2021 President will end as I transition to VPAR Past President and VPAR’s 2022 President, Kaera Mims, will be installed! I know 2022 will be another growth year for us under her leadership! We will have a few new changes on the Board of Director, but notably, we will say good bye to Madame Past President Lindsay Pennington as she leaves the VPAR leadership and moves on to State Leadership as President of Virginia Women’s Council of REALTORS.
I have enjoyed my year as your leader and hope I have made a lasting impact that will benefit the association and its members. Past President Pennington and I will have the dubious honor of being “Pandemic Presidents”. Neither one of us had the year we might have envisioned; but we moved forward as leaders, guiding the association under a different set of circumstances with the superb guidance and support of our AE, Jim Wetzel and his staff, Cindy Anderson and Jo McNamara.
My theme for 2021 was “Find Your Value”, which seemed appropriate at the time when everyone was slowly climbing out of the COVID shutdown. And, it was a good time to take stock of the many benefits, values and strengths of our association. I created three advisory committees to examine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Communication Strategies, and Leadership Identification and Development. Results of the work group reports are now incorporated into the VPAR Strategic Plan and new Objectives will be implemented in 2022.
We worked safely towards opening the association back up for meetings and educational classes, including a 4-part Leadership Series, while examining hybrid virtual/in-person strategies moving forward. VPAR was recently approved by DPOR to add a real estate pre-license course to our repertoire of educational offerings which will be coming soon to assist our brokers train new agents,. We are adding new instructors to further support our Education goals.
Although we were not able to hold in-person banquets we celebrated with a small in-person installation and held a wonderful virtual awards celebration in 2021. With safety in mind, we cautiously re-started our social events and all have been well attended. Our leadership was able to attend in-person leadership training travelling to Chicago in August and most the NAR Conference in San Diego.This Friday we will celebrate the installation of our new leadership team at our first major function since the begining of the pandemic. We are all looking forward to more in-person events in 2022!
In summary, I think we have all learned much from this last year: resiliency, adaptability, innovativeness, flexibility, and so much more. We have also determined that some things do not work so well but that just means we need to and can successfully try a different direction.
In addition to supporting incoming President Mims as Past President in 2022, I also look forward to serving as Chair of a new Leadership Identification and Development committee, President-Elect of the VPAR Charitable Foundation board, and a member of the Virginia REALTORS Public Policy Committee. Thank you all for your support and investment in VPAR over the last year. There are many who went on this ride with me and I appreciate each and every one of you.
Sandra Hood
#FindYourValue2021
2021 VPAR President
