President's message: Summer of 2009 has finally arrived

The rain has gone. Our Boys of Summer are leading the AL East at the break (knock on wood). The summer blockbusters are rolling in on the big screen. The Cape traffic is backed up. Yes, it is summer in New England. So as we close out Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 and look ahead to the remainder of the year; where have we been? Where are we going? What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? During the first two quarters of this year, and about the previous sixteen quarters, our chapter has been overseen by Christine Gray as our administrator executive. Starting in August, Christine will be handing those reigns to someone new. On behalf of all of the current and previous board of directors and chapter members, we thank her for her and wish her well. Picking up the reigns will be Heather Campbell. We are all very excited to have her on board. Heather has worked as an agent for New York Life Insurance Company and Washington Mutual Bank as a senior loan consultant. Plus by finishing all 4 of the CCIM Core Courses, no one knows the program better than her! We are certainly grateful to have her on board our team to serve our members. From the start of the first quarter, we have been stressing networking, education and technology. The "NET"s of CCIM. Our programs for the first half of this year have been on everything from tech training on the CCIM Templates, to networking at our first ever indoor golf tournament. Though there are many different events we have to round out the rest of the year, there are three that I would like to use this time to highlight. Education, Education and Education. There is perhaps no better time that today to invest back into your career by taking one of the three education courses that we have laid out over the next two quarters. Whether it is for yourself, or for someone in your office, we have some great foundation courses outlined. In September, we will have the CI intro course which is designed to give the participants a great two day overview of the coursework, as well to serve as a strong base to learn more about commercial real estate and prepare you for the CI courses. The CI 101, which we will be hosting the first full week of October, is the first required course in the CCIM program and the knowledge gained here will help in the future 102, 3 and 4 classes. Of course the real reason to take it is for the education you can immediately take back to your desk. Lastly in December we will be hosting another intro course for those who may have missed it (no snow storms please). Two quarter's down, two more to go. If you are anything like me, then you may feel that this year has flown by, like Maverick past the tower. And seeing as how there are only a few more months left. Let's capitalize on as much of the networking, education and technology as we can! Chris Norwood is the 2009 president of the New England CCIM chapter, Bedford, NH.