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One of the nice things your Association does for its past Presidents and Chairs is to have an annual luncheon where we can all get together, share some stories and just reconnect. At this summer's luncheon, a number of us decided to stay connected, and particularly for those of us who haven't served on the board for some time, to help keep each other informed.
One of the things we all had in common was working with Sue Frank. She has been our CEO for 14 years. We all felt that, while we each contributed to SAR in some way during our terms in office, our affect on the organization is very temporary. It is really the staff, and in particular our CEO, who carries the heavy load and makes sure all the programs, new and ongoing, are carried out. We all agreed that we, and the organization as a whole, owed a true debt of thanks to our CEO, Sue Frank.
We also recognized that any currently sitting Chair may be familiar with what is going on in the present, but there is much value in understanding our history, including the aims and efforts of past chairs and boards. We decided to tap our combined knowledge and let you all know how we felt about Sue. So here goes. This analysis was prepared by, and is supported by, the following SAR members (we just happen to be the ones who connected this summer):
Dennis Johnson, President 1986/87 – CAR President 2000 – NAR Director 1995/current
Paula Stanton, President 1992/93 – Colorado Real Estate Commissioner 1993/99
Lisa Bova, President 1995/96 – MLS Chair (several yrs) – Chair, Summit MLS, Inc.
Phil Heller, President 1996/97
Dennis Clauer, President 1997/98
Allison Simson, President 2000/01
Andrew Biggin, President 2001/02 – MLS Chair (several yrs) – Director, Summit MLS, Inc.
Ken Deshaies, President/Chair 2002/03 – CAR Grievance Committee 2004/09 (Chair 09)
Butch Elich, Chair 2003/04 – CARHOF Chair since 2003
Bonnie Smith Allen, Chair 2004/05 – NAR Director 2008/09
Jason Brewer, CAR Director (current)
Eric Degerberg, MLS Director (5 years) – Director, Summit MLS, Inc.
1996: Sue Frank was hired as a new CEO for the Summit Association of REALTORS on June 15th, 1996, when Phil Heller was President. She took over an organization that had suffered through a former CEO who was caught embezzling from the organization and fired. Financial records were in a horrific mess. Contracts and other numerous documents were either misfiled or not filed at all. Her first meetings were the CAR Summer Conference in Steamboat.
She started the process of cleaning up the SAR billing system and working with members to get their bills straightened out. This entailed, among other things, reporting to Board of Directors all the delinquent accounts of SAR members with an itemized accounting. She began turning the MLS off on past due members to get them to pay their charges. In addition, during this, her first year as CEO, she worked with Phil and the MLS committee to transition from the old lock boxes to Supra electronic boxes. This required, among other things, (1) a full vote of the membership, (2) negotiation of a contract with Supra (working in partnership with the Vail Board enhanced negotiations), (3) training of members, and (4) distribution of the boxes.
1997/98: Under President Dennis Clauer, she worked with the Board to purchase an office space for SAR. SAR moved from its rented space in the basement of the McCrery building to the Mountain View Center across the street in Frisco. During that year, she simplified and corrected the SAR billing system and worked with SAR members to get their billing straightened out. Due to the years of inattention, this required many extra hours. She also worked with Allyn Mosher of Overlode to accomplish this.
1998/99: With Don Angell as President, Sue engineered a change in MLS systems, from FBS to GTE (Marketlinx). This was the precursor to MLXchange. She worked with the MLS committee to accomplish this. Andrew Biggin, who was MLS Chair at the time, states, “She was instrumental in helping me create the partnership between Vail and Summit to be able to get the MLS system. If we had not had that trust and great relationship between Sue and Dawn (Vail CEO), that partnership would never have been created and we would not have been able to get the MLS rolling. Without Sue's help, it would not have happened. It was huge. SAR also added membership data software called MMSI, our first management software. Sue set that all up and did everything necessary for that implementation. In addition, she added a new phone system for SAR.
1999/2000: With Jo Laird as President, she worked to bring the CAR Summer Conference to Breckenridge. This involved working with volunteers and CAR to help get organized, get sponsors, do the marketing, etc. The Conference was one of the best attended, and she received accolades from CAR for her tremendous work.
2000/01: With President Allison Simson, Sue launched the first website for SAR. She worked with Bonnie Smith-Allen to establish a Charitable Donor Fund under the auspices of the Summit Foundation. SAR then began soliciting donations from members to support this Fund. She was appointed the AE Representative for the Colorado Association of REALTORS. It is during this year that she was forced to fire an employee who was consistently insubordinate and mishandled SAR member payments. After failing to get a decent response to several ads for a replacement, she hired Jamie Berry, and subsequently, Jeremiah Berry. As Allison says, “I don't know how many can say that they have had administrative staff that have been as loyal and as good as Jeremiah and Jamie for almost 10 years!”
2001/02: With Andrew Biggin at the helm, she helped bring about a new MLS system upgrade with MarketLinx. This obviously required major training of both staff and membership.
2002/03: Sue worked with Ken Deshaies, who came in as President and left as Chair. During that year, she helped transition the organization to Policy Governance, a process that took three days of board retreats and intense effort on the part of all board members to accomplish the change. The newsletter was transitioned from an 8 ½ x 11 photocopied format to a full newspaper format supported by the sale of ads. Under direction of the Board, Sue set up a committee to advertise for RFP's for new legal counsel, helped with interviews and gave her input as to recommendations. That was the year that Oliver Frascona and his firm were retained. Sue helped solicit ideas from membership for a logo for the organization, and two were selected, which are still being used. Significant effort was spent in public relations in a first effort to improve the image of Realtors within our communities. Two online forums were set up – a first for any Realtor Association in Colorado and, as far as we could tell, in the country. The first was to facilitate communication among members, and served as a way for members to voice opinions about SAR activities and present ideas. The second was a forum for communication among board members on issues with which it was dealing. And, with the assistance of Andrew Biggin and Ken Deshaies, Sue helped engineer the purchase of land in Frisco on which it planned to build a new SAR headquarters. An architect was hired to design a building, and ultimately, it proved too costly. Nevertheless, the eventual sale of that land provided the money that was needed to purchase the current SAR building.
2003/04: With Chair Butch Elich, SAR switched over to the new Supra IBOX from the old gray Supra box. Sue worked with MLS committee and legal counsel to again (1) secure the vote of members, (2) get a very favorable contract negotiated with Supra, (3) establish a fair distribution system for the boxes, and (4) implement the training of members, and (5) distribution of the boxes.
2004/05: With Chair Bonnie Smith-Allen, SAR sold the Frisco office and the Frisco land in a 1031 Exchange for the new SAR Office in Dillon. She assisted the Board in planning the changes to the building and managed the remodel, supervising the workers and reviewing costs and payouts. We came in under budget for this work, while accomplishing all of our objectives. Additionally, she took over the task of being a landlord, working with leadership to manage the tenants on an ongoing basis.
2005/06: With Chair Pam Boyd, the CAR Summer Conference was again held at Beaver Run in Breckenridge. The CEO was instrumental in helping CAR and the board volunteers organize the meetings and ensure the success. The new SAR Website was built and published. Sue was a co-chair with Jody Condie of the Steamboat Springs Board on the search for a Government Affairs Director (GAD). The combined boards eventually hired Sarah Thorstenson as a new GAD, with her expenses being shared by Summit, Vail, Glenwood Springs and Steamboat. After tenants moved out of what is now the SAR classroom, the CEO recommended that space be remodeled into one large space and used as a classroom. The result has been considerable savings over Holiday Inn rentals for most classes.
2006/07: With Chair Gail McDonald, the CEO installed a check scanning machine to expedite deposits to the SAR Account at Alpine Bank.
2007/08: With Kouri Wolf as Chair, Sue worked with the SAR Charitable Donor Fund to review and modify the agreement with the Summit Foundation. She recommended that the Board pay off the SAR Building. She researched commercial lease rates and drafted new lease agreements for the SAR tenants. Per Board direction, she interviewed candidates for the new SAR Public Relations Director, eventually hiring Karen Mason. Sue encouraged the Board to nominate Dennis Johnson as CAR Realtor of the Year, then worked closely with Tyrone Adams and Okie Arnot to put together the presentation packet for Dennis. The CAR Summer Conference and business meetings were held in Keystone, and Sue again worked closely with CAR to organize, market and produce this successful Conference. She recommended to the SAR Finance Committee that SAR invest some of their reserves in the NAR Investment program. She started to work with the Finance Committee to organize the non-profit/tax exempt project. She implemented and organized the new SAR GRI rebate program. It was such a big success in 2008 that the Board decided to offer it again in 2009. Finally, Sue completed the study and passed the test to receive her RCE (Realtor Certified Executive) designation. Out of 1,800 boards in the country, there are only about 300 AE's.
2008/09: Working with Chair Bonnie Arnold, Sue worked closely with SAR's accountant and CPA to get new SAR financials completed for the transition of SAR from a for-profit to a non-profit organization. Sue scheduled and held a new educational designation class called the CNE (Certified Negotiation Expert) that was held the end of July. After expenses, this brought in $4,000 to SAR that was not budgeted. When the open house sign issue came up this year, Sue made a decision to order 6 open house signs to be used by SAR members who could not afford to purchase their own. The signs are always checked out every weekend. MMSI went through an upgrade this year, requiring huge training and time of staff. Sue and the Board are looking at doing the all the SAR billing through that program and making that program more effective. Sue was recently chosen by George Harvey, incoming CAR President, to be the AE representative to the 2009/10 CARHOF Committee at CAR.
2008/09: Working with new MLS Chair Lisa Bova, Sue helped create a new company, Summit MLS, Inc., a for-profit organization, working with financial and legal counsel to implement new bylaws, ballots for official bylaw changes, and the non-profit application (for SAR) to the IRS. She also worked on getting the MLS set up with their set of policies. Much of this work is ongoing. Sue implemented several new items to the MLS, including Data Checker, Stats Pro, RETS Pro, ListHub and MLX Wireless, all taking time and coordination and training of staff and membership. Sue is now the CEO of two Associations, requiring duplicate work for things like elections, corporate filings, bookkeeping, bylaws and governing documents management (requiring NAR approval), and attendance at monthly board meetings.
General: Sue has been able to bring to the membership consistent monthly membership meetings with good content and exceptional attendance, something that had been dropped in the past. There are so many other things she has done, but every year we have taken on something big, and Sue has been there for it and done it with grace and ease and made the Board, the MLS and the Chairs of both look like superstars!
She brings unique talents to this position. She multi-tasks without getting upset or disorganized. She has an ability to work with virtually anyone and get their support. She does not take criticism personally, but always looks for a solution. Someone with a more Type-A or “gung ho” attitude would never have lasted as long as Sue. There are several boards we could name as examples, but the Vail Board is just one.
Because of Sue's reputation with other CEOs, a strategic partnership was struck with the Vail Board early in her tenure. Without that partnership, we would not have been able to have an electronic lockbox system or our current MLS. We were the first in the State to adopt electronic lockboxes as a service to our membership! It established Summit and Vail as the most technologically advanced Boards in the state, offering tools and informational services that no other Board had accomplished at the time. We have still maintained this standard of excellence and are the envy of nearly all other Boards of CAR.
Sue is a source of information and advice for many CEO's/AE's in our State. Many have been more than willing to put their support in writing. We hope you are as proud as we are to have her as our CEO. Whenever you are near the SAR office in Dillon, do yourself a favor and stop in to say hello. (You might call first, because she does attend a lot of meetings on our behalf.)
One of the things we all had in common was working with Sue Frank. She has been our CEO for 14 years. We all felt that, while we each contributed to SAR in some way during our terms in office, our affect on the organization is very temporary. It is really the staff, and in particular our CEO, who carries the heavy load and makes sure all the programs, new and ongoing, are carried out. We all agreed that we, and the organization as a whole, owed a true debt of thanks to our CEO, Sue Frank.
We also recognized that any currently sitting Chair may be familiar with what is going on in the present, but there is much value in understanding our history, including the aims and efforts of past chairs and boards. We decided to tap our combined knowledge and let you all know how we felt about Sue. So here goes. This analysis was prepared by, and is supported by, the following SAR members (we just happen to be the ones who connected this summer):
Dennis Johnson, President 1986/87 – CAR President 2000 – NAR Director 1995/current
Paula Stanton, President 1992/93 – Colorado Real Estate Commissioner 1993/99
Lisa Bova, President 1995/96 – MLS Chair (several yrs) – Chair, Summit MLS, Inc.
Phil Heller, President 1996/97
Dennis Clauer, President 1997/98
Allison Simson, President 2000/01
Andrew Biggin, President 2001/02 – MLS Chair (several yrs) – Director, Summit MLS, Inc.
Ken Deshaies, President/Chair 2002/03 – CAR Grievance Committee 2004/09 (Chair 09)
Butch Elich, Chair 2003/04 – CARHOF Chair since 2003
Bonnie Smith Allen, Chair 2004/05 – NAR Director 2008/09
Jason Brewer, CAR Director (current)
Eric Degerberg, MLS Director (5 years) – Director, Summit MLS, Inc.
1996: Sue Frank was hired as a new CEO for the Summit Association of REALTORS on June 15th, 1996, when Phil Heller was President. She took over an organization that had suffered through a former CEO who was caught embezzling from the organization and fired. Financial records were in a horrific mess. Contracts and other numerous documents were either misfiled or not filed at all. Her first meetings were the CAR Summer Conference in Steamboat.
She started the process of cleaning up the SAR billing system and working with members to get their bills straightened out. This entailed, among other things, reporting to Board of Directors all the delinquent accounts of SAR members with an itemized accounting. She began turning the MLS off on past due members to get them to pay their charges. In addition, during this, her first year as CEO, she worked with Phil and the MLS committee to transition from the old lock boxes to Supra electronic boxes. This required, among other things, (1) a full vote of the membership, (2) negotiation of a contract with Supra (working in partnership with the Vail Board enhanced negotiations), (3) training of members, and (4) distribution of the boxes.
1997/98: Under President Dennis Clauer, she worked with the Board to purchase an office space for SAR. SAR moved from its rented space in the basement of the McCrery building to the Mountain View Center across the street in Frisco. During that year, she simplified and corrected the SAR billing system and worked with SAR members to get their billing straightened out. Due to the years of inattention, this required many extra hours. She also worked with Allyn Mosher of Overlode to accomplish this.
1998/99: With Don Angell as President, Sue engineered a change in MLS systems, from FBS to GTE (Marketlinx). This was the precursor to MLXchange. She worked with the MLS committee to accomplish this. Andrew Biggin, who was MLS Chair at the time, states, “She was instrumental in helping me create the partnership between Vail and Summit to be able to get the MLS system. If we had not had that trust and great relationship between Sue and Dawn (Vail CEO), that partnership would never have been created and we would not have been able to get the MLS rolling. Without Sue's help, it would not have happened. It was huge. SAR also added membership data software called MMSI, our first management software. Sue set that all up and did everything necessary for that implementation. In addition, she added a new phone system for SAR.
1999/2000: With Jo Laird as President, she worked to bring the CAR Summer Conference to Breckenridge. This involved working with volunteers and CAR to help get organized, get sponsors, do the marketing, etc. The Conference was one of the best attended, and she received accolades from CAR for her tremendous work.
2000/01: With President Allison Simson, Sue launched the first website for SAR. She worked with Bonnie Smith-Allen to establish a Charitable Donor Fund under the auspices of the Summit Foundation. SAR then began soliciting donations from members to support this Fund. She was appointed the AE Representative for the Colorado Association of REALTORS. It is during this year that she was forced to fire an employee who was consistently insubordinate and mishandled SAR member payments. After failing to get a decent response to several ads for a replacement, she hired Jamie Berry, and subsequently, Jeremiah Berry. As Allison says, “I don't know how many can say that they have had administrative staff that have been as loyal and as good as Jeremiah and Jamie for almost 10 years!”
2001/02: With Andrew Biggin at the helm, she helped bring about a new MLS system upgrade with MarketLinx. This obviously required major training of both staff and membership.
2002/03: Sue worked with Ken Deshaies, who came in as President and left as Chair. During that year, she helped transition the organization to Policy Governance, a process that took three days of board retreats and intense effort on the part of all board members to accomplish the change. The newsletter was transitioned from an 8 ½ x 11 photocopied format to a full newspaper format supported by the sale of ads. Under direction of the Board, Sue set up a committee to advertise for RFP's for new legal counsel, helped with interviews and gave her input as to recommendations. That was the year that Oliver Frascona and his firm were retained. Sue helped solicit ideas from membership for a logo for the organization, and two were selected, which are still being used. Significant effort was spent in public relations in a first effort to improve the image of Realtors within our communities. Two online forums were set up – a first for any Realtor Association in Colorado and, as far as we could tell, in the country. The first was to facilitate communication among members, and served as a way for members to voice opinions about SAR activities and present ideas. The second was a forum for communication among board members on issues with which it was dealing. And, with the assistance of Andrew Biggin and Ken Deshaies, Sue helped engineer the purchase of land in Frisco on which it planned to build a new SAR headquarters. An architect was hired to design a building, and ultimately, it proved too costly. Nevertheless, the eventual sale of that land provided the money that was needed to purchase the current SAR building.
2003/04: With Chair Butch Elich, SAR switched over to the new Supra IBOX from the old gray Supra box. Sue worked with MLS committee and legal counsel to again (1) secure the vote of members, (2) get a very favorable contract negotiated with Supra, (3) establish a fair distribution system for the boxes, and (4) implement the training of members, and (5) distribution of the boxes.
2004/05: With Chair Bonnie Smith-Allen, SAR sold the Frisco office and the Frisco land in a 1031 Exchange for the new SAR Office in Dillon. She assisted the Board in planning the changes to the building and managed the remodel, supervising the workers and reviewing costs and payouts. We came in under budget for this work, while accomplishing all of our objectives. Additionally, she took over the task of being a landlord, working with leadership to manage the tenants on an ongoing basis.
2005/06: With Chair Pam Boyd, the CAR Summer Conference was again held at Beaver Run in Breckenridge. The CEO was instrumental in helping CAR and the board volunteers organize the meetings and ensure the success. The new SAR Website was built and published. Sue was a co-chair with Jody Condie of the Steamboat Springs Board on the search for a Government Affairs Director (GAD). The combined boards eventually hired Sarah Thorstenson as a new GAD, with her expenses being shared by Summit, Vail, Glenwood Springs and Steamboat. After tenants moved out of what is now the SAR classroom, the CEO recommended that space be remodeled into one large space and used as a classroom. The result has been considerable savings over Holiday Inn rentals for most classes.
2006/07: With Chair Gail McDonald, the CEO installed a check scanning machine to expedite deposits to the SAR Account at Alpine Bank.
2007/08: With Kouri Wolf as Chair, Sue worked with the SAR Charitable Donor Fund to review and modify the agreement with the Summit Foundation. She recommended that the Board pay off the SAR Building. She researched commercial lease rates and drafted new lease agreements for the SAR tenants. Per Board direction, she interviewed candidates for the new SAR Public Relations Director, eventually hiring Karen Mason. Sue encouraged the Board to nominate Dennis Johnson as CAR Realtor of the Year, then worked closely with Tyrone Adams and Okie Arnot to put together the presentation packet for Dennis. The CAR Summer Conference and business meetings were held in Keystone, and Sue again worked closely with CAR to organize, market and produce this successful Conference. She recommended to the SAR Finance Committee that SAR invest some of their reserves in the NAR Investment program. She started to work with the Finance Committee to organize the non-profit/tax exempt project. She implemented and organized the new SAR GRI rebate program. It was such a big success in 2008 that the Board decided to offer it again in 2009. Finally, Sue completed the study and passed the test to receive her RCE (Realtor Certified Executive) designation. Out of 1,800 boards in the country, there are only about 300 AE's.
2008/09: Working with Chair Bonnie Arnold, Sue worked closely with SAR's accountant and CPA to get new SAR financials completed for the transition of SAR from a for-profit to a non-profit organization. Sue scheduled and held a new educational designation class called the CNE (Certified Negotiation Expert) that was held the end of July. After expenses, this brought in $4,000 to SAR that was not budgeted. When the open house sign issue came up this year, Sue made a decision to order 6 open house signs to be used by SAR members who could not afford to purchase their own. The signs are always checked out every weekend. MMSI went through an upgrade this year, requiring huge training and time of staff. Sue and the Board are looking at doing the all the SAR billing through that program and making that program more effective. Sue was recently chosen by George Harvey, incoming CAR President, to be the AE representative to the 2009/10 CARHOF Committee at CAR.
2008/09: Working with new MLS Chair Lisa Bova, Sue helped create a new company, Summit MLS, Inc., a for-profit organization, working with financial and legal counsel to implement new bylaws, ballots for official bylaw changes, and the non-profit application (for SAR) to the IRS. She also worked on getting the MLS set up with their set of policies. Much of this work is ongoing. Sue implemented several new items to the MLS, including Data Checker, Stats Pro, RETS Pro, ListHub and MLX Wireless, all taking time and coordination and training of staff and membership. Sue is now the CEO of two Associations, requiring duplicate work for things like elections, corporate filings, bookkeeping, bylaws and governing documents management (requiring NAR approval), and attendance at monthly board meetings.
General: Sue has been able to bring to the membership consistent monthly membership meetings with good content and exceptional attendance, something that had been dropped in the past. There are so many other things she has done, but every year we have taken on something big, and Sue has been there for it and done it with grace and ease and made the Board, the MLS and the Chairs of both look like superstars!
She brings unique talents to this position. She multi-tasks without getting upset or disorganized. She has an ability to work with virtually anyone and get their support. She does not take criticism personally, but always looks for a solution. Someone with a more Type-A or “gung ho” attitude would never have lasted as long as Sue. There are several boards we could name as examples, but the Vail Board is just one.
Because of Sue's reputation with other CEOs, a strategic partnership was struck with the Vail Board early in her tenure. Without that partnership, we would not have been able to have an electronic lockbox system or our current MLS. We were the first in the State to adopt electronic lockboxes as a service to our membership! It established Summit and Vail as the most technologically advanced Boards in the state, offering tools and informational services that no other Board had accomplished at the time. We have still maintained this standard of excellence and are the envy of nearly all other Boards of CAR.
Sue is a source of information and advice for many CEO's/AE's in our State. Many have been more than willing to put their support in writing. We hope you are as proud as we are to have her as our CEO. Whenever you are near the SAR office in Dillon, do yourself a favor and stop in to say hello. (You might call first, because she does attend a lot of meetings on our behalf.)
