![MLS Insight: The RMLS™ Service Advisory Committee]()
by Gail Hare | May 29, 2014 | RMLS News
This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about governance issues at RMLS™.
In previous MLS Insight posts, I covered the general governance of RMLS™ including our shareholders, Board of Directors, and standing committees. The Service Advisory Committee (SAC) is a topic that deserves a closer look.
When RMLS™ began serving areas outside the Portland metro area where our shareholder REALTOR® associations were located, we wanted to find a way to make sure that those subscribers’ voices could be heard. In 2000, our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were changed to establish the Service Advisory Committee. The Articles of Incorporation clearly define SAC’s purpose as “identifying the concerns of those who subscribe to the corporation’s service but who are not members of shareholders…”
Currently 16 REALTOR® associations appoint representatives to serve on SAC. The chairman of SAC automatically takes a seat on the RMLS™ Board of Directors, and SAC also appoints one additional director. SAC directors have full and identical rights and responsibilities as shareholder directors.
Our current Service Advisory Committee directors have both made many contributions to both RMLS™ and the broader real estate communities. Cory Neu served as the 2011 Chairman of the RMLS™ Board and a total of five years on the Executive Committee representing SAC from the Eugene Association of REALTORS®. Our current Treasurer, Lori Palermo, represents SAC from the Springfield Board of REALTORS® and has served on SAC since its inception in 2000. I asked them to provide their own insider views on the Service Advisory Committee for this post.
“I have had the pleasure of serving on the Service Advisory Committee since its inception. I especially appreciate the avenue that the committee provides for bringing questions, concerns, and issues of members across the state to the RMLS™ Board of Directors. Several suggestions and enhancements that have come from SAC have been implemented and are in use today.” –Lori Palermo
“I’ve served in several capacities for my local and state associations, and having the opportunity to chair the RMLS™ Service Advisory Committee for the last 11 years has been the most rewarding in my real estate career. In that time, the SAC has brought many recommendations to the board and staff, from rules and regulations to RMLSweb functionality. Those things directly effect our profession on a very real and direct level.” –Cory Neu
Next month we will give a brief history of RMLS™. If you have any questions you would like to have answered about RMLS™ governance or operation, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.
by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 25, 2014 | RMLS News
Update (May 28, 2014): RMLS™ recently prepared a FAQ document about the office exclusive changes.
As announced earlier this spring, RMLS™ is bringing changes to our office exclusive form and policies. These changes now have final approval by the RMLS™ Board of Directors and will take effect May 5, 2014.
After carefully considering additional input from subscribers, RMLS™ changed the original revisions in the following ways:
• Removed the requirement to submit a copy of the listing contract when submitting a signed office exclusive form.
• The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations have been revised to reflect that new construction is handled differently.
Retained is the language that prohibits beginning any marketing before “date marketing to begin.” This topic generated much of the discussion among subscribers, but RMLS™ President Kurt von Wasmuth recently explained some important details in how the rule will be administered:
The basic point of the changes to this (Section 3.2) is to prohibit marketing of a listed property unless the listing broker either submits the listing to RMLS™ or submits an office exclusive form for that listing within the time limits specified. The rule describes marketing activity as including—among other things—placing a sign on the property, social media or internet exposure, or direct marketing of the property to brokers or consumers. This rule does not prevent a listing broker from engaging in general, non-specific discussions about a property that will soon come on the market. Examples of these general discussions would be a broker’s announcement about property in a neighborhood “coming soon” during a company sales meeting, with X bedrooms, Y baths, and a certain kind of yard in a certain price range.
Falling under the rule would be specific marketing efforts regarding a particular property, such as identifying an address, a listing price, and the like. These constitute direct marketing, and in that case the listing either needs to be entered into RMLS™ within 72 hours of signing or the signed office exclusive form needs to be sent to RMLS™. This approach was designed to allow reasonable “pre-marketing” activities that the brokerage community generally regards as common, fair, and helpful to sellers, while preserving the basic premise of any MLS that all participants share their listings on a timely basis, unless a seller has made an informed choice to withhold a property from the MLS.
View a redlined version of the RMLS™ rules impacted by these finalized changes.
View the new Office Exclusive/Authorization to Exclude Addendum.
View redlined versions of the Oregon and Washington listing contracts.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 27, 2014 | RMLS News
Office initiation fees have been reduced to $50 in April!
This is a great opportunity for offices to join RMLS™ and experience the benefits of sharing with more than 10,000 REALTORS® accessing your client’s listings.
Main Office Initiation Fee: $50 (regularly $500)
Branch Office Initiation Fee: $50 (regularly $100)
Affiliate Office Initiation Fee: $50 (regularly $400)
For more information on this promotion, email our Accounting Department, call them at (503) 872-8003, or stop by your nearest RMLS™ office.
ONLY Available April 2014!
![MLS Insight: The RMLS™ Service Advisory Committee]()
by RMLS Communication Department | Feb 28, 2014 | RMLS News
This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about governance issues at RMLS™.
The four standing committees that exist to ensure that RMLS™ has practitioner input into decisions, planning, and regulation are the Technology, Forms, Rules, and Hearings Committees. The RMLS™ Board of Directors can also create a task force to focus on a particular topic. Recent examples include the Lockbox System Task Force and the Office Exclusive Task Force, both disbanded as their job was completed. There is currently no active task force.
The Chairman of the RMLS™ Board selects the committee chairs, and the board confirms their appointment at the first meeting of the year. Our bylaws wisely require that all committee chairmen be on the RMLS™ Board of Directors, which results in direct input back and forth between the Board of Directors and the committees. The committee chair selects the committee members, who serve for one year.
The Technology Committee reviews software and services of potential use to RMLS™ subscribers and may recommend systemwide products to the board for approval. The most recent instances of products recommended by the Technology Committee are RatePlug and New Home Source. The Technology Committee also acts as a resource for evaluating improvements to the RMLSweb system. A new role of the committee this year is the Technology Forum, which are invitational presentations about technology offerings for the brokerage community. The 2014 Chairman of the Technology Committee is Dale Chumbley.
The Forms Committee reviews all suggestions about changes to RMLS™ Listing Input Sheets, working to make the listing data we collect both rich and relevant. The Forms Committee was on hiatus last year in order to allow our development department unbroken time to work on the browser and tablet compatibility project. A forms change requires changes to many parts of the system, including all reports, all searches, and Listing Load, so it is always a formidable task. The 2014 Chairman of the Forms Committee is Maureen Bonfiglio.
The Rules Committee has two main functions. It reviews all formal complaints which allege violations of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, and has the power to impose sanctions. There were six formal complaints filed in 2013, and the committee imposed fines totaling $650 in three of those cases. The Rules Committee also discusses potential changes to the Rules and Regulations and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors. The 2014 Chairman of the Rules and Regulations Committee is Rick Jenkins.
The Hearings Committee exists in case the recipient of a sanction by the Rules Committee requests a hearing. Hearings are conducted in substantial accordance with the procedures applicable to REALTOR® Professional Standards hearings. No hearings were requested in 2013. The 2014 Chairman of the Hearings Commitee is Mark Meek.
Next month we will cover the prioritization process for in-house development of the RMLSweb system decisions. If you have questions you would like to have answered about RMLS™ governance or operation, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.
by RMLS Communication Department | Feb 28, 2014 | RMLS News
This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about governance issues at RMLS™.
The four standing committees that exist to ensure that RMLS™ has practitioner input into decisions, planning, and regulation are the Technology, Forms, Rules, and Hearings Committees. The RMLS™ Board of Directors can also create a task force to focus on a particular topic. Recent examples include the Lockbox System Task Force and the Office Exclusive Task Force, both disbanded as their job was completed. There is currently no active task force.
The Chairman of the RMLS™ Board selects the committee chairs, and the board confirms their appointment at the first meeting of the year. Our bylaws wisely require that all committee chairmen be on the RMLS™ Board of Directors, which results in direct input back and forth between the Board of Directors and the committees. The committee chair selects the committee members, who serve for one year.
The Technology Committee reviews software and services of potential use to RMLS™ subscribers and may recommend systemwide products to the board for approval. The most recent instances of products recommended by the Technology Committee are RatePlug and New Home Source. The Technology Committee also acts as a resource for evaluating improvements to the RMLSweb system. A new role of the committee this year is the Technology Forum, which are invitational presentations about technology offerings for the brokerage community. The 2014 Chairman of the Technology Committee is Dale Chumbley.
The Forms Committee reviews all suggestions about changes to RMLS™ Listing Input Sheets, working to make the listing data we collect both rich and relevant. The Forms Committee was on hiatus last year in order to allow our development department unbroken time to work on the browser and tablet compatibility project. A forms change requires changes to many parts of the system, including all reports, all searches, and Listing Load, so it is always a formidable task. The 2014 Chairman of the Forms Committee is Maureen Bonfiglio.
The Rules Committee has two main functions. It reviews all formal complaints which allege violations of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, and has the power to impose sanctions. There were six formal complaints filed in 2013, and the committee imposed fines totaling $650 in three of those cases. The Rules Committee also discusses potential changes to the Rules and Regulations and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors. The 2014 Chairman of the Rules and Regulations Committee is Rick Jenkins.
The Hearings Committee exists in case the recipient of a sanction by the Rules Committee requests a hearing. Hearings are conducted in substantial accordance with the procedures applicable to REALTOR® Professional Standards hearings. No hearings were requested in 2013. The 2014 Chairman of the Hearings Commitee is Mark Meek.
Next month we will cover the prioritization process for in-house development of the RMLSweb system decisions. If you have questions you would like to have answered about RMLS™ governance or operation, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.
![MLS Insight: The RMLS™ Service Advisory Committee]()
by Gail Hare | Feb 28, 2014 | RMLS News
This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about governance issues at RMLS™.
The four standing committees that exist to ensure that RMLS™ has practitioner input into decisions, planning, and regulation are the Technology, Forms, Rules, and Hearings Committees. The RMLS™ Board of Directors can also create a task force to focus on a particular topic. Recent examples include the Lockbox System Task Force and the Office Exclusive Task Force, both disbanded as their job was completed. There is currently no active task force.
The Chairman of the RMLS™ Board selects the committee chairs, and the board confirms their appointment at the first meeting of the year. Our bylaws wisely require that all committee chairmen be on the RMLS™ Board of Directors, which results in direct input back and forth between the Board of Directors and the committees. The committee chair selects the committee members, who serve for one year.
The Technology Committee reviews software and services of potential use to RMLS™ subscribers and may recommend systemwide products to the board for approval. The most recent instances of products recommended by the Technology Committee are RatePlug and New Home Source. The Technology Committee also acts as a resource for evaluating improvements to the RMLSweb system. A new role of the committee this year is the Technology Forum, which are invitational presentations about technology offerings for the brokerage community. The 2014 Chairman of the Technology Committee is Dale Chumbley.
The Forms Committee reviews all suggestions about changes to RMLS™ Listing Input Sheets, working to make the listing data we collect both rich and relevant. The Forms Committee was on hiatus last year in order to allow our development department unbroken time to work on the browser and tablet compatibility project. A forms change requires changes to many parts of the system, including all reports, all searches, and Listing Load, so it is always a formidable task. The 2014 Chairman of the Forms Committee is Maureen Bonfiglio.
The Rules Committee has two main functions. It reviews all formal complaints which allege violations of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, and has the power to impose sanctions. There were six formal complaints filed in 2013, and the committee imposed fines totaling $650 in three of those cases. The Rules Committee also discusses potential changes to the Rules and Regulations and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors. The 2014 Chairman of the Rules and Regulations Committee is Rick Jenkins.
The Hearings Committee exists in case the recipient of a sanction by the Rules Committee requests a hearing. Hearings are conducted in substantial accordance with the procedures applicable to REALTOR® Professional Standards hearings. No hearings were requested in 2013. The 2014 Chairman of the Hearings Commitee is Mark Meek.
Next month we will cover the prioritization process for in-house development of the RMLSweb system decisions. If you have questions you would like to have answered about RMLS™ governance or operation, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.
“I’ve served in several capacities for my local and state associations, and having the opportunity to chair the RMLS™ Service Advisory Committee for the last 11 years has been the most rewarding in my real estate career. In that time, the SAC has brought many recommendations to the board and staff, from rules and regulations to RMLSweb functionality. Those things directly effect our profession on a very real and direct level.” –Cory Neu