Every year in the lead up to the Annual General Meeting I take stock of the work we’ve achieved over the previous year and the magnitude never fails to amaze. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of tasks and actions: nearly 50,000 MLS® transactions processed; over 11,000 member contacts and more than 8,000 trained by Membership & Education staff; 11,000 tickets logged with IT; hundreds of interactions through Communications and Professional Standards. And these are just the ones for which we have hard metrics. Add the myriad of internal activities and decisions made every single day, across every department, to ensure smooth operations and continuous improvement, and it becomes something truly impressive.

Yes, our talented staff is unquestionably highly productive. But what makes their achievements transcend the merely impressive is the enduring sense of community we share. It manifests in the volume of projects that rely on cross-functional teams, like Membership & Education and IT coming together to create the new Cybersecurity Essentials course, or IT and Communications partnering to launch FVREB Connect in record time. In our wider professional sphere it means working with partner Boards to revise the Rules of Cooperation or create. It means collaborating with the BCREA on advocacy issues. And it impacts the wider public domain through our Fraser Valley Realtors® Charitable Foundation or advocating for greater housing security under our revitalized government relations mandate.

Community is the alchemy that makes the whole of the Board greater than the sum of its parts. Community that is built on shared accountability, trust and pulling for one another, in the same way our members pull for their clients. The resulting synergies have accelerated knowledge-sharing across the entire organization, driving efficiencies and productivity. It’s our not-so-secret strength that powers a culture where our commitment to one another is surpassed only by our commitment to members.