The New England SIOR Chapter held its annual RW Holmes Scholarship Evening on Thursday, Oct. 14, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Algonquin Club in Boston's Back Bay. The event attracted over 40 SIOR members, spouses and invited guests. David Zimmer, the incoming SIOR national president, attended from Kansas City for the presentation. Zimmer updated the chapter on SIOR national news. Approximately 46 new members from England, France, and Germany have formed a new European Chapter to help expand the SIOR network. In 2010, SIOR only lost less than 1% of its members to attrition which is a great tribute to the SIOR organization. From 2006-09, SIOR members averaged 30 transactions per person and 1.1 million s/f per person. SIOR is still attracting the "best of the best". For the San Antonio convention in October, over 570 members have registered as great programs are planned.
Greg Klemmer then thanked Jim Boudrot and Don Mancini for their programming efforts and reflected on his last year in office. As chapter members are aging, the chapter needed new life and he focused on young blood. We started with the Candidate program and he stated that the Candidate program has become a big part of what the Chapter executes. Klemmer acknowledged some of the new SIOR Chapter Candidates
He then announced the night's scholarship process and winners. The scholarship was named after Bob Holmes who was a long-time SIOR member, past Chapter president of SIOR and the founder of RW Holmes Realty in Natick. His son, Garry Holmes now the president of the firm, is an SIOR and past Chapter president. The scholarship is by application only to an SIOR Candidate who exemplifies the commitment to the SIOR organization and stellar professionalism as an office/industrial broker in the greater Boston market. The applications were reviewed and interviews conducted by an SIOR panel including Mark Stevens, Bob Cleary, Greg Klemmer and Garry Holmes. The scholarship is in the amount of $2,000 and can only be used towards an SIOR designation course. Klemmer announced this year's co-winners; John Dolan and Bill Lynch, both of Meredith & Grew. Congratulations to both John and Bill!
Tom Farrelly was then introduced as the 2011 new Chapter president. Farrelly thanked Klemmer for his hard efforts to attract new members and praised the SIOR organization for its networking value and personal relationships. As he attends SIOR Chapter conference calls, Diana Lee, SIOR staff, informs other SIOR Chapters about the numerous and impressive New England Chapter programming events. He stated that the New England Chapter really sets the model nationally. Farrelly then thanked Klemmer with a gift from the New England Chapter.
The Chapter would like to thank Dacon for sponsoring this event.