THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011 – 7 pm
Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen St. E.
Free, with suggested donation of $20.

Hosted by CBC’s Tom Allen with Rev. Dr. John Joseph Mastandrea.

THIS YEAR’S PERFORMERS: Dr. Draw, Prita Chhabra, Singing Out!, David Warrack, Douglas Rice with the Velvet Curtain, Christian Jeffries , The Metropolitan United Church Choir, The Jarvis Collegiate Senior Choir, and more!

Followed by a candlelight ceremony with hot apple cider and cookies in the courtyard.

Click here for photo highlights of the 2010 concert

October 4, 2011

This year’s event, held at the Allstream Centre September 22nd welcomed 701 REALTORS® who joined previous 25 year members in our association, and more importantly serving their consumers. 

The event’s theme, Connecting, gave attendees the opportunity to reconnect and have portraits taken with former colleagues and competitors. Real Estate is one of the only careers that I know of where you sit down with your competition on an ongoing basis and negotiate solutions.

To illustrate how many years have passed since this year’s inductees began their careers, consider that when they did so the average price of a home in our city was $138,925 and 52,919 of them changed hands. Today, the average price of a GTA home is $451, 663 and sales are expected to reach 90,000 this year.
One Member, Gordon Eckersley, was welcomed into his 50th year of membership at this year’s celebration, joining 31 others who have been working in the profession for more than half a century. When Gordon began his career, in 1961, the average Toronto home cost $16,334 and the year saw a total of 9,264 transactions and there was no “rush hour”

When you consider that it is estimated the average person changes their career five times throughout their employment years, remaining in the same profession for two and a half decades or more is really quite an achievement especially with a 24/7 work schedule. The extensive number of Greater Toronto REALTORS® who achieve this distinction exemplifies our profession’s commitment to helping you make the move to a home that’s right for you.

REALTORS’® dedication to helping others often extends beyond real estate transactions as well, to a range of individual volunteer pursuits. We also work together, to cast a wider net in our efforts to help others. Throughout the past four years for example, every Member of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) has participated in the REALTORS Care Foundation’s Every REALTOR® program, contributing more than $300,000 a year to the Foundation, which offers grants to shelter-based organizations throughout the province. Last year alone Greater Toronto REALTORS® presented Foundation grants to 35 different GTA housing-related charities.

The Toronto Real Estate Board hosts an annual fundraising event as well, the Charity Golf Classic, which raises approximately $20,000 each year for causes that have included Habitat for Humanity Toronto, the Salvation Army and Free the Children.

We also roll up our sleeves daily to feed local children through the Children’s Breakfast Program, a partnership of the Toronto Real Estate Board and the Toronto District School Board. As part of the program Greater Toronto REALTORS® sponsor and serve 9600 nutritious meals to children in 17 different schools each month.

As you get together for fall’s many celebrations this year, I hope that you will take the opportunity to connect with others in your community as well.  As a Greater Toronto REALTOR® I can say with certainty that the strength of our city lies in the many diverse neighbourhoods and relationships that we have formed together.

 Follow TREB on www.twitter.com/TREB_Official, www.Facebook.com/TorontoRealEstateBoard and www.youtube.com/TREBChannel

A very wise person once told me that “successful people get results and unsuccessful people get excuses”. Since then I have tried to live life with no excuses. It is a constant challenge to keep that promise, and the “age” excuse is the one the keeps boiling to the top; it’s the easiest one to indulge….

No matter where I travel, when the topic of technology/change comes up, I hear “I’m too old to change” and they are usually younger than I am.

Don’t become Blockbuster

The sad reality is, if you don’t welcome change you could become the next Blockbuster Video. 10 years ago they had it all until the small upstart Netflix made the conversion from warehousing to online downloadable movies. Blockbuster watched their market share shrink and their stores close. Is that the business model that you would like to follow? Is that the life model that will guide your future? Are you ready to retire?

Today’s toys are tomorrow’s tools: The iPad launched in April 2010, the modern day cell phone in the early 1980’s, smart phones in 2000, the modern car is just over 100 years old, yet very few homes are without them today.

When change confronts us, lines in the sand are drawn but you would be aghast today if someone told you they did not drive a car, or have a phone number. We adapted and we learned.

Does age force that adaptation to stop or do we just feel overwhelmed and tired? There is no doubt that the amount of change has increased but is slowing it down the answer or is engaging new technology the solution…why not bring back that child’s sense of wonder?

Nobody in today’s working world was born into technology…we have all had to adapt. Each one of us will make our own personal decisions but we now live in a digital world and need to get used to it.

In my 50’s I found myself parenting my parents…the hardest job I undertook and was never trained for…but I did it because there were no options. Did I really believe it when I was promised that life would get easier as I got older? I was set up and fell for it!

What’s the ROI of change?

What was the ROI (return on investment) in looking after our parents and children? We do it because it had to be done…The ROI of change is engagement in the world. Not engaging is like saying you want to stop living, stop moving forward and hide…is that realistic?

Change is the only constant in our lives, no matter what age…embrace it, enjoy it, get used to it, and celebrate it. Stop using age as an excuse…

If you think you don’t like change, I know you will like irrelevance even less…

Reposted from the Trulia Pro Blog September 16, 2011

A search here will show that I have written blogs about this event before. One of my favorite sessions is called “Innovation Showcase” or I call it…..”The new kids on the block”.

There were 4 Presentations: Yobongo.com, Skygrid.com, ThinkNear.com and Houzz.com.

The last Houzz.com is something everyone should check out right away if you are looking for design ideas or designers for your home. It is a great application for homeowners and will make it easier for us all to communicate our needs and wants when it comes to design. You can create an “idea book”and it will save you from schlepping design magazines all over and still not finding what you are looking for…probably the second largest cause of divorce could be cured with one web site!

It was very well received and I suggest you try it out and let us know what you think….

The past six months have really been a great trial by fire as I have had my busiest Spring in my Real Estate career plus chairing two committees at the Board, doing some teaching (Blogging and Social Media) and being part of the negotiating team that met with the Competition Bureau…Some friends have wondered how I could do it all but I have always found that “give a busy man a job and it will get done!”

My intention is to do what I always have done…work full time at real estate, manage my volunteer commitments, and stop teaching to free up more hours each month. I will always work to make sure that my clients are number one and well looked after.  However, you will be seeing more of me in the Press and think that I am too busy for you. Let me tell you that will not be the case. My Toronto Real Estate Board involvement only serves to help my clients benefit from trends that I learn about in the marketplace.

Like most years, I will be taking a quick two week holiday in July and a family holiday at Hanukkah/Xmas/New Year’s…this time with nephews, neices, great-nephews, brother, sister-in-law and friends…should be great fun!

I love my job, so know that at all times, even if I am out-of-town, technology will always allow me to respond quickly. Whether by Blackberry, iPad or laptop, I will always respond. Remember mail@richardsilver.com….

Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

One of the main reasons we chose Holland America is that two of the three of us are addicted to the Internet and the Ship advertises the best of technology, Internet in your room, and technology classes in the use of the “Window Live” platform.

The first day out I checked out the Computer Lab and was impressed with the class and on-site instructor. Like a good Social Media addict, I tweeted that I had a great class provided by an excellent instructor on our Holland America ship. Within a minute whoever tracks the Twitter in the HAL offices had tweeted back to me that he/she was glad that I had enjoyed the course…I was impressed…a large Corporation was reaching out to engage the consumer…

The next day after a frustrating few hours in the Internet Bar, the room Internet not working as promised, and the charges being excessive for less than dial up connectivity, not aided by the fact that a harassed and surly attendant was getting complaints from all over, I tweeted directly to the HAL birdie that although we were having a great time, the Internet was less than stellar on-board.

One minute later, the answer came back….”Thanks for letting us know…I will pass it on”. Days went by…..I tried once more, same answer exactly…”I will pass it on”.  Never hear back and when I was asked for comments at the end of the trip, I again made the exact same complaint….

Fast forward to today: I have never heard back from Holland America. Almost weekly they mail me offers of new and exciting locations to visit. Each one visits the shredder….let them spend money. I will never travel with them again and I have told this storey at least 50 times….that cannot be a good business decision for Holland America…

If you take the time and money to try and engage the consumer, then you have to listen to the bad as well as the good and do something to correct or assuage the clients sentiments…Is it that hard for corporations to get it? It is all about commitment!

Take a flight on an Asian Airline, visit a Taj or Oberoi Hotel in India….service is a commitment and given with gusto.

What are your stories?

Rick McCarthy www.rickmccarthytheartist.com

Rick McCarthy has lived on Wellesley Street for years and here is your chance to collect some great art from a famous neighborhood artist. See you at the JetFuel!

Make sure you ask him for his C.V. or visit his web site. You will be impressed!

I was lucky enough to work with June Callwood  or as we used to call her, Saint June. She was responsible for many of the community services that support Torontonians. I worked with her at Casey House Hospice , the AIDS hospice in Downtown Toronto which has become a model worldwide. In the early days I started by writing charitable receipts for donations in a corner of the basement and within a few years became the Chair of Fundraising, then a Board member, and finally President.

In the early days of Casey House, the governance model only allowed Board members a three year term…I found it strange that as a Board member got a good head of steam going and understood the organization, they were being moved off the Board. However, it was the thought at the time that term limits stop Board members from taking ownership of the organization and reminds them that they must keep any organization moving forward.

I remember once sitting in a meeting called by Frances Lankin , the then Minister of Health who announced changes in the Hospitals Act, when one man stood to preface his reaction to change with the familiar “I have been on the Board of _____ for 15 years”. I remember turning to the Executive Director of Casey House and at the same time we both realized that the problem with the Health Ministry was the entrenchment of Boards and staff in the “status quo ”.

Fighting change is not acceptable in 2010. Most of our governmental and volunteer organizations are invested in the Status Quo. We, the Public have to insist on term limits for any organization, political or otherwise. We are held hostage by inflated governments that are resisting change.

The private sector is moving ahead. It is forcing employees to become more tech saavy and look for alternatives to become more efficient. We, the Public are having to pay higher taxes to pay for the inefficiencies within the Public sector.

One of the best things we could do is insist on term limits for Politicians, Public Servants and Leaders of any organizations. Yes, three years may too short but something like six years would be great. It would force young, talented contributors to get involved.  The talent out there is incredible however most potential candidates are intimidated by the “OLD GUARD” and voters rely too much on previous experience and name recognition when we should be looking at innovation and motivation.

There is strength in numbers; we can make a difference but we must start by encouraging term limits at every level of an organization.