Read what RAHB’s committees have been considering over the last three months.

Arbitration, Discipline and Professional Standards
There were no Arbitration hearings and only one abbreviated discipline hearing held during the third quarter. The Professional Standards Committee reviewed four new complaints:  two were deemed to fall under RECO’s jurisdiction, one was deemed not to fall under RAHB’s jurisdiction and one was opened and is being investigated by RAHB.

Contacts:  Wilf Wallace, Don Inglehart and Ann Cosens

Awards Task Force
The Awards Task Force met to review the forms and criteria for the three RAHB service awards – the Award of Merit, Volunteer of the Year and Outstanding Community Service Award.  All members received information about the awards and are urged to nominate RAHB members who qualify.

Contact:  Stacey Adamson

Charity Auction Task Force
Preparations for this year’s 25th Anniversary of the Charity Auction in support of the CHML 900, Y108 and Fresh 953FM Children’s Fund is well under way.  For more details refer to page 11 and view the auction promotional videos at:  http://youtu.be/cSaqNGtocSg and http://youtu.be/SdfoiPNFR_I

Contact:  Aileen Araujo

Charity Golf Task Force
RAHB’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament on June 27, 2013 raised $14,750 for the Karan Barker Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Home Ownership Affordability Partnership (HOAP). The task force is already working on next year’s tournament set for Thursday, June 26 at Copetown Woods Golf Club.

Contact:  Bob Schinkel

Communications/Government Relations
The City of Hamilton rental licensing proposal took centre stage in the third quarter.  Committee members met with City councillors to discuss RAHB’s opposition to rental housing licensing and to determine each Councillor’s views on the subject.  The Chair of the Committee presented RAHB’s position on the City staff report to the Planning Committee on September 17.

The Committee approved a donation to Ronald McDonald House Hamilton and reviewed a member market survey.

Contact:  Donna Bacher

Membership Area Representation
Town hall meetings were held in Ancaster and Burlington on September 27 and October 4 respectively.

MARC is sponsoring the Burlington Chamber’s Small Business Week Breakfast on October 24.  RAHB continues to benefit from these sponsorships in the community.

MARC has resurrected the monthly “Celebrate Your Community” REALinfo articles and we continue to encourage all members to take and submit a community photo for the RAHB photo contest.  These photos will serve to build our community photo catalogue for use in promoting future member events.  A selection of photos will be featured in upcoming issues of REALinfo.

Contact:  Tom Peddle

MLS®
Brantford Cutover
Beginning in November, our database will again get a little larger with the cutover of Brantford data to the MLS® database now being shared between Niagara and RAHB.  Members will be able to search for active and sold data in Brantford and will no longer need to interboard listings onto the Brantford Board or be Access Members with BRREA.

Alternate Feature Sheet
Alternate Feature Sheet URL link allows members to display feature sheets from their own websites on REALTOR.ca, rather than the REALTOR.ca report default.  If you wish to use this option please ensure your website complies with CREA’s MTC policies regarding Alternate Feature Sheet, as follows:

1.      The member/broker site generated feature sheet opens a new window smaller than the REALTOR.ca window;

2.      The feature sheet includes a “Return to REALTOR.ca” button which results in the member/broker window being closed;

3.      The link from the thumbnail to the feature sheet is for the specific property on the thumbnail result set;

4.      The link must be permission based on an individual property basis and an agent-specified URL is provided and supported; and Seller contact information must not appear on
alternate feature sheets.

Failure to comply with these policies will result in the URL being removed by RAHB staff.

Amendment to MLS® Policy
The current MLS® Policy (Sales#1) has been amended; please see the MLS® In Brief on page 6 in this issue.

Single Sign On (SSO) Portal
The MLS® Committee investigated the use of the Single Sign On (SSO) portal/landing page and made a recommendation – approved by the Board of Directors – to implement.  The SSO allows members to sign in once and have access to real estate websites used to conduct their business without needing to sign into those websites a second time.  The SSO was to have been available to members Monday, September 16 but was delayed when Clareity experienced unexpected technical issues during the implementation.  Clareity is working to resolve the issues and members will be advised when the SSO is available.

Contact:  Sean Morrison

Professional Development
The Professional Development Committee had a quiet third quarter as there were no Professional Development courses during the summer months.  A Point2 demonstration was offered on September 18, and Education Week started on September 30.

For upcoming CE Courses please see the Fall Continuing Education Course Schedule 2013.  A copy of the schedule was sent to each office and can also be found on MOD and REALTOR Link.

Contact:  Jim Duschl

Regional Commercial Council
Two commercial content education sessions are scheduled for this fall.  The session on Zoning and Multi-Units (October 3) was sold out within days of the Education Week schedule being announced.  On December 6, Richard Weldon will return to present Property Condition Assessments and Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments.

The RCC reviewed the two-page Commercial Reports which have been available since fall 2012 and decided to discontinue the redundant one-page reports as of October 11, 2013.  See full information (page 4) in this issue of REALinfo.

Nominations are now open and plans are underway for the RCC Election Meeting on

November 1.  This year a new format has been introduced:  the election meeting will be a morning event and will include a networking breakfast before the meeting gets underway.  Scheduled to deliver city updates are Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina and Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring.

See full details in this issue of REALinfo.  Consider volunteering your time on the RCC– full RCC members who have been a member of the RCC in good standing for at least one year may be nominated.

Contact:  Chris Allen