I have been starting to think about what AZREIA looks like post-COVID. We have all kinds of options and it is both exciting and very challenging to consider new ways of delivering all the important information and education AZREIA members expect.

COVID forced us to find alternative ways to deliver content. Most of them were good. It forced members to adapt and over time you got use to on-line meetings and education. While nothing can replace the in-person experience and outcome, there were other benefits on-line provided that in-person could not. Like ease of access to content, having recordings available for later viewing, providing remote members the ability to attend not only meetings, but subgroups as well, along with many other benefits too.

So, here are my initial thoughts and my hope is you will send me your thoughts on how you think AZREIA should move into the post-COVID future. The monthly AZREIA meeting is designed to deliver a variety of information and education each month. Even when in-person the networking was somewhat limited. The Tradeshow was a major component of the networking and it is almost impossible to deliver on-line even with the newer software options. Networking opportunities are much more beneficial in-person. You just cannot get the same outcomes on-line. Our subgroups are specifically designed to provide targeted networking and sharing opportunities. Here are some ideas:

• AZREIA Monthly Meeting – Have quarterly in-person meetings structured similar to what you are used to at the Celebrity Theatre. These meetings would offer multiple outcomes in information, education and “ B2B” networking. The other two months of each quarter would be delivered on-line with much of the same type of content as the in-person meetings, but without the networking component. Could we offer on-line viewing of the in-person meetings each quarter? Yes, but we have struggled with the quality of on-line in larger venues.

• Phoenix Real Estate Club & Tucson Chapter Meetings – These meetings tend to have around 70 – 100 people attend when in-person. On-line the attendance has been much lower. This is not surprising as these meetings are known for their exceptional structured networking which is best done in-person. Reverting to in-person after COVID seems appropriate.

• Add an On-line Haves & Wants Meeting – This would be AZREIA wide. We have noticed when we have done Haves & Wants in our Phoenix Real Estate Club and Tucson Chapter meetings, they have attracted people from both Phoenix and Tucson along with remote members. This meeting would only be Haves & Wants so it would be a shorter meeting. This would replace the on-line option for these two meetings.

• AZREIA Subgroups – The idea is our subgroups would be in-person only because of the benefits discussed above. However, since these meeting tend to attract between 10 and 50 people, we could possibly have a hybrid model to include the on-line options for members.

• AZREIA Education – This is an area where we could see the most change. On-line education has been around a very long time. Where there are difficulties tend to be when a hybrid model is attempted. Going forward, I think there will be a few different ways our classes are delivered. First, we plan to make our Core Skills Classes available 24/7 on video and possibly continue to offer them in-person on a less frequent basis. Our Strategy Classes will be in-person as they are a minimum of six hours and could go as long as two days. Drill Downs and Saturday Sessions with Guest Educators will probably be decided on an individual basis to consider the input from the educator.

Those are my thoughts as of this moment in time. I would love to hear yours. Please send your thoughts to MemberServices@AZREIA.org.

Thank you in advance and smarter investing.
Alan Langston,
Executive Director