This was the first year that our association has had a DEI committee.  Our mission is to acknowledge, engage and embrace the existence of diversity, advocate for equity and foster inclusion within our association membership, our clients and the wider communities that we serve.

As new committee, we spent significant time in meetings discussing what DEI efforts should and could look like for our organization. As one may imagine, it is not a simple proposition.  We will be regularly asking ourselves the questions of how do we understand the diverse elements in our organization, what can we do to foster a more equitable environment and why including as many people as possible matters to the health of our organization, our industry and our community.

Obviously, Fair Housing is both federal law and integral to our work as realtors. Increasing our membership’s education on this topic is critical.  So last April, we hosted a Fairhaven house party which dramatically increased the percentage of our membership that had completed the Fairhaven exercise.  If you haven’t completed this interactive experience created by NAR, you can (click here) to log into the NAR website to access the course.  The education committee also offered an At Home with Diversity class that was well attended.  Attendees qualified for the At Home with Diversity designation, if they completed these 2 courses and registered with NAR.

We are also working with our new awesome communication and event specialist, Ben Jerome to use GAR’s social media to highlight multicultural awareness days and are also exploring ways to engage with the wider community particularly with Montana State University and the performing arts community to sponsor events.  As a committee we have committed to assist with greeting and sign-in at future GAR general membership meetings and events in order to enthusiastically welcome everyone and increase awareness of the DEI committee.   If you have ideas for ways the DEI committee can make GAR a more welcoming, inclusive organization, please feel free to contact Joanna Harper, 2023 committee chair or Jesse Lagos, 2024 committee chair to get your idea onto a future meeting agenda.