I
got involved with the Louisiana CCIM Chapter very shortly after entering the
brokerage business in 2010. I
participated on the board level for several years before joining the executive
committee as Secretary-Treasurer in 2015.
It’s been an extremely gratifying experience to serve as President this
year, and I wanted to take a look back at the year that has been.
We
started the year with a bang at our annual Ruth’s Chris dinner in January. I was sworn in as President, along with our
other executive committee members, David Gleason, CCIM as President-Elect and
Ben Walker, CCIM as Secretary-Treasurer. This coming January, we’ll follow largely the
same program, except that David will be sworn in as President, Ben as
President-Elect, and Flo Meadows, CCIM as our next Secretary-Treasurer. It should be a great event as always. Shameless plug: please join us on January 18
at Ruth’s Chris if you can – the registration link is at our website, www.ccimlouisiana.com.
We
held CI 103, User Decision Analysis for Commercial Investment Real Estate, in
New Orleans in March. It was taught by Richard
Juge, CCIM and Joe Larkin, CCIM and was attended by twenty-nine aspiring
designees. Also in March was a happy hour we co-hosted
with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) at Urban South Brewery.
April
and May brought conference season, with our CCIM Mid-Year Meetings in Chicago,
our 5th annual Energy Conference in Lake Charles held in conjunction
with the Houston Gulf Coast CCIM Chapter and a Beach Meeting in Orange Beach,
AL held in conjunction with the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida CCIM
Chapters. In Chicago, we pinned two new
designees: Michael Cashio, CCIM and Hartley Crockett, CCIM, both with NAI
Latter & Blum in Baton Rouge. In
Lake Charles, we heard from Dave Wilson, CCIM, 2018 CCIM Institute President
and Barbara Crane, CCIM, 2018 CCIM Institute President-Elect and networked with
more than sixty CCIMs from Louisiana and Texas.
And in Orange Beach, we enjoyed visiting with seventy CCIMs from across
the Gulf Coast and heard from Robin Webb, CCIM, 2017 CCIM Institute President
and others.
Our
early summer was relatively quiet, but then came our Foundations Course in
Alexandria in July, our Election Luncheon in Lafayette in August and our Past
President’s Luncheon in New Orleans in September. The Foundations course was taught by Karl
Lanreneau, CCIM and Richard Juge, CCIM, and was attended by twenty-one. It included a lively post-class happy hour at
the Mirror Room Lounge and dinner at the Diamond Grill on Thursday night. The speaker for the Election Luncheon was Mark
Zappi, Director of University of Louisiana Lafayette’s Energy Institute, who
gave us an update on the oil and gas industry in light of diminished oil
prices. Finally, our Past President’s
Luncheon was attended by thirteen CCIM past presidents and was filled with
valuable insight from our past chapter leadership.
In
September, we also co-hosted the second of two happy hours with the New Orleans
Metropolitan Association of Realtors’ (NOMAR) Commercial Investment Division
(CID), the Women’s Council of Realtors and ULI at Oak and Ale on Oak
Street. Special thanks to Matt Eaton, CCIM,
Liz Tardo and Kendra Home for helping organize a great couple of social
events.
Our
Chapter sponsored, and many chapter members attended, the 7th annual
NOMAR/CID Economic & Real Estate forecast in October. Speakers included Dr. Lawrence Yun with the
National Association of Realtors, Rick Haase with Latter & Blum, Chris
Bonura with the Port of New Orleans and Guy Williams with Gulf Coast Bank &
Trust.
October
also brought our CCIM Mid-Year Meetings & Conference in Toronto. It was a great trip and we pinned three new
designees from across our state – Joel Davidson, CCIM with NAI Latter &
Blum in Lake Charles, John Monteleone, CCIM with Dwight Andrus Real Estate in
Lafayette and Jon Smith from our RE/MAX Commercial office in New Orleans. The conference included a fascinating
conversation with Steve Forbes, as well as plenty of other insightful
speakers.
The
month of November was also a busy one – it included CI 101, Financial Analysis
for Commercial Investment Real Estate and our annual Golf Tournament. CI 101 was taught by Karl Landreneau, CCIM
and Alec Pacella, CCIM and attended by nineteen candidates and others from
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
Our Golf Tournament, held at University Club in Baton Rouge and attended
by approximately 50 friends of the Chapter, was not won by the RE/MAX
Commercial team.
Whew! It’s amazing to me A) how much we
accomplished this year and B) how quickly it flew by. I want to thank all our 2017 Chapter
leadership for their service. So David Gleason,
CCIM, Ben Walker, CCIM, Flo Meadows, CCIM, Will Adams, CCIM, Richard Juge,
CCIM, Scott Graf, CCIM, Andrew Vanchiere, CCIM, Gregg Thompson, CCIM, Jim
Purgerson, CCIM, Matt Ritchie, CCIM, Jack Hodges, CCIM, Justin Gallionardo,
CCIM and Steve Legendre, CCIM, thank you!
There’s no way our Chapter would operate without you. And of course thank you to the Nicole Davis
and all the folks at Strategic Management Services, LLC. Their work behind the scenes helped us all
look good (or as good as it’s possible for us to look anyway).
I
quoted from President Kennedy in my inauguration address. He did not have any opportunity to give a
farewell address, so I thought I would reiterate the quote from his
inauguration here: “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can
do for your country.” Our Chapter is in
great hands. But we are always looking
to widen our tent and cultivate new leadership.
If you are a Chapter member (or not) and have ideas about how to grow
and improve our chapter, please join us and get involved. My involvement has been incredibly rewarding
over the years, and I know it will continue to be for many years to come.
For
more information on the CCIM designation or the Louisiana CCIM Chapter, please
contact Jonathan D. Shaver, CCIM at (504) 838-0001 jshaver@nolacommercial.com.
