To best achieve that goal, the Education Committee created a task force in the first quarter of 2023 and researched new online learning software. After an exhaustive search, the committee identified Path LMS as our new learning center software as it integrated with our association software and promised a much easier registration process for our staff and our members. An added benefit of this program was allowing quizzing at the end of sessions, alleviating the burden on the committee members to monitor our peers closely during courses. This transition was not seamless, as we went through multiple Education Committee staff members during this process, and we couldn’t have made it happen without our task force members! This software is a robust system, and we are currently growing in our capacity to utilize its features fully.

Our committee restructured the education planning process to refresh our lineup of speakers for 2024, creating an open forum to discuss impactful speakers our members have experienced at other events. This brainstorming and adding Cindy’s past education connections created a nearly 100% new list of speaker opportunities for our Association.  We look forward to a dynamic calendar that will help you build your business with unparalleled education experiences offered at a board level as part of your dues package.

Registration Changes:

We are transitioning our course sign-in process in 2024, and you’ll now be able to sign in with a QR code at the door. No more passing a sign in around! Bring your phone or tablet to classes to ensure you can easily access the sign-in process.

We are also working to ensure every member who wants to attend an education course can do so. With the integration of Path LMS we have eliminated the 4:00 p.m. registration deadline that has been in practice for the last few years. Now, the registration will stay open as long as there is room in the classroom (both virtual and/or live) up to the beginning of the course. As we have up to 500 virtual seats, the Education committee would be THRILLED to have to close a class.

If you’d like to attend in person and you haven’t signed up, we will welcome you to wait in the foyer at the GAR office until about 3-5 minutes before the class starts. We will prioritize seating for the folks who did complete early registration and as long as we can stay within the fire code, we will invite any members who haven’t previously signed up to participate in-person upstairs. If we are at capacity and you’d like to stay on-site, we invite overflow members into a virtual experience in the downstairs meeting room, as scheduling allows.

Fines:

In honor of having our own meeting space and no longer paying for room rentals, we are no longer fining members who do not attend in-person or virtually for education events they’ve registered for. This is a thank you to our members for their financial commitment to our association that allowed the purchase of our beautiful new building! However, there are still consequences if you are an in-person no-show for education events. If you miss two live events in one calendar year, you’ll only be allowed to sign up virtually for the balance of that year. Remember that in-person seating is limited, and we want to ensure those committed to their education experience are prioritized in our course offerings.

Course Certificates:

The Board of REALTY Regulation requires our members to attend all but 6 minutes of the first hour of education to receive credit. With that in mind, whether you are attending live and utilizing the QR code system to sign in or virtually and Zoom is tracking your minutes, you won’t be able to test for your quiz and receive your course certificate if you miss too much of the class. Zoom and the QR codes are helping our committee members ensure your success in participation and alleviating the responsibility of your peers to police your attendance.

Remember, we are here working for you, so if you are having tech issues and you call Danielle and/or the GAR office and let them know what is going on, we can “reset” you and ensure you receive credit when you are doing the work. Help us help you, and sign in 5-10 minutes before each class to ensure your education success!

Online Education:

GAR has partnered with the CE Course to offer our members online courses at a notable discount. We understand that not all members can prioritize live learning during business hours, and we want to enable you to receive high-value content on demand. As we see issues arising in our market, we may even offer sale courses at notable discounts to our members to help you succeed.

Our CE Shop content will serve as an additional income generator for our Association as it would allow non-members to sign up through our portal and pay GAR for the CE Shop content. We hope that if this could become a statewide resource, our neighbors could help fund your outstanding future education opportunities. So share the link with your friends!

Our goal as the Education Committee is to elevate our members, and we hope these transitions will facilitate the growth of your personal business. Thank you for allowing us to support you. We are looking forward to a pivotal 2024!