Approximately 35 SIORs and guests attended the New England SIOR Chapter annual fall reception at the BC Club, 100 Federal St., on Nov. 1st. The location venue offered social and networking interaction on the top floor of 100 Federal St. that oversees a panoramic view of the city of Boston and the western suburbs. Additionally, the evening marked the first chapter educational scholarship. The scholarship pays for the winner to attend the November St. Louis SIOR National courses and the SIOR National Fall Convention. The scholarship was named after former SIOR chapter member and Chapter president Robert Holmes of Natick.
Mark Stevens, Chapter president, welcomed the audience and then described the night's scholarship as an idea that has evolved for two years. The scholarship has a value of $2,500 and is to be presented to a young broker in our industry to learn about the SIOR accreditation and to attend an SIOR national course and national convention. The Scholarship Committee that reviewed nominations and selected a winner was comprised of Garry Holmes, chair and son of Robert Holmes; Bob Cleary; Greg Klemmer; and Tom Farrelly. Stevens then introduced Ned Leeming who entered the industry with Bob Holmes and to say a few words about Bob Holmes.
Leeming asked the audience how many cooperating brokers were on each person's e-mail list when advertising properties. Most of the answers were 400-500 names. But Bob Holmes had 40-50 cooperating broker names because the industry was that small. Bob had contributed to the industry over the years in the 1970s and 1980s to create the industry to become as large as it is today. Bob was initially a school teacher living in Natick and worked for various commercial brokerage firms including Ryan Elliott. He then started his own firm in Natick and became Chapter president of SIOR in the 1970s. Bob was very involved with civic organizations and an expert on MetroWest real estate. The scholarship is named after Bob Holmes to memorialize a great professional and SIOR.
Stevens then introduced the four finalists: Tim Brodigan of Klemmer Associates, Jeremy Freid of Boston Realty Advisors, Evan Gallagher of NAI Hunneman and Mike Zieja of Meredith & Grew. He noted that these four finalists represented great examples of young people in our industry today and all were worthy of the scholarship. The winner was then introduced as Jeremy Freid. Freid headed to St. Louis the second week of November to attend the SIOR courses and attend the fall convention. Stevens thanked all involved and will look for more nominations for next year's scholarship offering.