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Early Achieve Registrations Close to 100

Achieve 2007 already has almost 100 registered attendees. The event, which will take place January 18 – 19 at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, is destined to be a success. Association Executives are encouraged to visit the Achieve Web site at http://www.mirealtors.com/achieve/achieve2007.html to view the attendee list. If you still need to register your incoming leadership to attend this event, make your busy life easier and register them online at http://www.mirealtors.com/achieve/register07.html before the holiday bustle. This year’s event features an exciting lineup of speakers, including the nationally recognized Roger Turcotte and Jeff Crilley.

Turcotte, a much sought after speaker, author, and REALTOR® was recently named Educator of the Year by the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®, and is the past president and current REALTOR® of the Year of the Concord (New Hampshire) Board of REALTORS®. He is a co-author of the popular ten-course Leadership Training Series, as well as the book Buyer Representation in Real Estate.

Crilley is an Emmy Award winning TV reporter in Dallas who has 20 years experience in television news. He has made hundreds of national TV appearances including CNN, CNN Headline News, FOX News, The Discovery Channel, Good Morning America, and The CBS Early Show. Aside from his Emmy, he has been awarded the National Headliner’s Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Thurgood Marshall Award, and was named “Best TV Reporter in the State of Texas” in 2004.

Discover more information about Achieve 2007 here.

Create Thoughtful Holiday Greetings in Little Time

If you have not yet had time to create those thoughtful holiday cards and invitations for your association, don’t panic that there are only a few weeks left. You can still put something together that shows how much you care about your members and/or vendors. The good news is, it does not have to take a lot time from your already busy schedule. There are plenty of web sites you can use to help you stimulate and create your holiday greetings.

For a simple, yet personalized approach Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com/) has a over 100 holiday designs you can choose from. You can upload pictures of your members from events this past year and either use suggested text or create your own and you’re done. You can choose from 4x8 photo cards or the more traditional greeting card and you can have up to four pictures on one card. You should allow five to seven business days for shipping, though I have experienced a three to four day return on many orders. If you are in an extra time crunch you can use next day shipping.

A popular look for holiday greetings is the handmade look. Really, who has the time to make invitations for their entire mailing list and have them actually look nice? The Paper Source (http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/index.html) can help. They also have store locations, but unfortunately none are in Michigan. This web site offers card kits. These kits allow you to purchase everything you will need for a particular card in one click. They will take some assembling on your part, but they do come with instructions and most allow you to print your own greeting on the inside. The designs are trendy and fresh. If you truly want to create your own holiday greetings you can purchase envelopes and card materials here as well. If you have a question/or concern I have found calling one of the store locations gives you prompt courteous service. This site also offers the more professional letter pressed invitations and greetings as well and unique holiday gift-wrap.

If you are looking for the very traditional “Hallmark” holiday greeting, visit Hallmark Business Expressions at http://www.businessgreetings.com/hbe/homePageRedirect.do Hallmark offers many options for businesses and they are reasonably priced. For an extra charge, you can have your greetings personalized. Please check on the turn around times before placing your order.

Other little items you can do to make your holiday invites and cards unique include adding a festive color to the mailing labels instead of the standard black, getting creative with different fonts, creating your own return labels using either your logo or a holiday themed piece of clip art, pickup a tasteful holiday rubber stamp to use on your envelopes, and use holiday stamps to send them.

All Association Executives are invited to MAR headquarters for an On the MARk meeting with MAR CEO, Bill Martin on December 5th at 1:00 p.m.

The meeting will cover election results, RPAC, fair housing testing, 2007 Pro Standards and more. To reserve your spot, email Melissa Sterenberg at msterenberg@mirealtors.com or call 800.454.7842.

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the holiday season is being reshaped in character and duration by the rise of the gift card. Keep in mind that gift cards are not recorded as a sale until they are redeemed.

Based on ICSC surveys, about 13.5 percent of all 2003 holiday expenditures by consumers were gift cards. In 2004, consumers spent 14.4 percent of their holiday expenditures on gift cards. In 2005, that share was about 12 percent and represented about $30 billion in spending power.

In 2004, our consumer research found that about 60 percent of gift card redemptions (by dollar value) occurred by the end of January. But the calendar matters when the consumer will redeem them. In 2004, 6 percent of the cards were redeemed on December 26 (alone) while 19 percent were redeemed from December 26 through December 31. Another 44 percent of those gifts were spent in January.

According to consumers, their redemption rate soared to about 40 percent of the dollar value of gift cards after Christmas Day 2005 through month end. Another 38 percent of the value of the holiday gift cards were redeemed by the end of January 2006. In that season, there was a much higher cumulative percentage (79 percent) of consumers reporting that they redeemed gift cards than in 2004.

For the 2006 holiday season, we envision that gift cards will again be a significant gift item for the consumer to give and will likely capture between $30 and $40 billion in holiday expenditures.

The overall holiday shopping outlook according to the ICSC is : Santa is ready, willing and able to make this season jolly for retailers and children of all ages.