It’s a genuine honor and privilege to serve the AIR and its quality membership as your President for 2010. I look forward to your input and support.

In this spirit, I want to emphasize that as President I hope to pursue a twofold theme that emphasizes both fiscal prudence reflecting economic conditions, while fostering innovation that over six decades has made AIR the nation’s leading brokers organization.

We will be prudent in terms of how we manage the association and will monitor operational costs without reducing the level of service. At the same time, we will continue to refine and expand our standard Forms package. Our forms are the best in the industry, are available nationwide, and serve to lower the cost of doing business for brokers.

We will also continue to improve our already exemplary property data. It’s important to note that since this data, like our Forms, is owned by AIR and its brokers, it offers our members the best protection that can be achieved. This benefit plays a central role in insuring that we brokers can continue to provide our vital services as independent contractors in a fluid business environment.

The provision of just these two vital services means the optimum service and product at the best price. It also highlights the value of AIR enjoying the unique position of a non-profit organization that exists solely to benefit its membership.

Yet, while we will be prudent in monitoring our costs as an Association, we are committed to uncover new opportunities for our members’ services. One important means of achieving this is expanding exposure for your listings.

We are cautiously pursuing this by making AIR’s data and services available to respected outside entities in a manner that benefits the business success of our members, increases revenue to AIR, and helps maintain the cost of AIR membership.

I want to underline that we are pursuing this course cautiously so that in no way will it jeopardize our members’ position. At the same time, we recognize that because of a fundamental shift in our industry data sharing is now an idea for which AIR can comfortably and prudently take a leadership position.

As you can see, AIR is even more important today than ever, and as individual brokers we need the Association more than ever. If there’s one thing we can count on without hesitation to meet the needs of brokers as brokers see fit, AIR is that entity. Fiscal prudence coupled with continuing innovation will sustain the unique role AIR has occupied for some many years.