I think it is a great way to start a new year.

I will see you all tonight!

7:00pm
Crye-Leike Building
3400 JFK BLVD
North Little Rock

With all that, it has been decided to postpone the meeting one week until November 17. During that meeting, Don Hines will be leading.

I apologize that this is so last-minute, but I was trying to find a solution in order to keep the meeting scheduled for tomorrow. I know this messes up some of your schedules and again, I apologize.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

As a reminder, our guest speaker is Jason Schubert. I’ve attached a couple of PDFs about him and his upcoming Commercial Real Estate boot camp. As always, we are not necessarily endorsing Jason or his boot camp, but if it sounds interesting to you and you like what you hear Thursday night, consider attending.

As always, we will be meeting from 7:00 to 8:30-ish (maybe a little later this month because of our guest speaker). Doors will open at 6:30 for mingling and networking. Bring your deals and your questions and lets discuss. Our meeting location is at the Crye-Leike offices in North Little Rock on JFK. The address is 3400 JFK BLVD.

I have also included a promotional email below that Jason likes to send out in advance of his classes.

Let me know if you have any questions. I will see you there!

Please plan on attending this event as I know that more than a few of us have interest in dipping our toes into the commercial real estate market (or jumping in head first!). I’m looking forward to what he has to teach us.

We will see you there!

1) It was suggested that we meet every other month instead of every month. That is something that I hadn’t considered but everyone present agreed it was a good idea. So from this month on, CARREIA will meet on the odd months of the year (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov).

2) The day of the month we meet was decided to be on the second Thursday of the month which keeps us from bumping into the holidays we inevitably do every year.

3) Don Hines was elected as Vice President. Kim Hawkinson was elected Treasurer. We still need a Secretary.

4) A new advisory board was put in place. This board will meet periodically to continue discussing the direction of the association.

5) The dues have been raised to $60/year. All dues will be due every year on the first meeting in January. If someone joins the association during the middle of the year, the dues will be prorated. $60/year was decided on because it is easily divided by 12 and 6 to make proration easier.

6) On the “off” months of meeting, social gatherings will be encouraged. Most of them will not be created/arranged by the board or the executive team, but by the members themselves.

If you have not paid your dues for 2011, they will be due in the next meeting, May 12.

I still highly encourage any and all of you to get more involved in the association. This is your group and it needs you. Help make it what you want it to be.

Also, as a reminder, the $50 yearly dues are due this Thursday. We will discuss changing our regular meeting times and I’d like to open up the floor as to suggestions on making the association better, more influential and more beneficial to you. We will also be voting on Kim Hawkinson as Treasurer and asking for nominations or volunteers for other positions.

I look forward to seeing all of you who can make it this Thursday. As a reminder, family (and friends) are certainly welcome. Bring anyone who you’d 1) like to have dinner with; and/or 2) think might benefit from being a part of the association.

Over the past few months, attendance has been low to our monthly meetings. Every year, because of our last Thursday of the month meeting dates, we run into a number of holidays, most notably Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December. Because of that, I am proposing moving our monthly meetings to the 2nd Thursday of the month instead. We can discuss this change at March’s social gathering. If the idea is considered acceptable, we will keep meeting on the 2nd Thursdays. If everyone would like to keep the last Thursday schedule, we will meet again on March 31st.

This social gathering will also be a time to discuss the future of the association. This has obviously been a tumultuous time in the real estate arena and the purpose of the group may need to be different than it has been over the past 4 years. What should our focus be moving forward? Education? Networking? Deal making? These are also things we’d like to discuss at this social meeting.

All in all, this new year will bring changes to CARREIA. I am positive they will be beneficial changes, but we do need to increase the participation of the membership of this association. At the same time, membership itself needs to be increased.

Are you with me? I will see you on March 10. Stay tuned for the place and time.

We will also be having a short presentation by College Hunks Hauling Junk.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

We will meet at the regular place and time:
Crye-Leike offices
3400 JFK Blvd, North Little Rock
7:00–8:30pm, with doors opening at 6:30 for networking and deal-making.

I, for one, am very excited to hear the details for this area of Little Rock. Join us!

After some deliberation, I have decided to postpone tonight’s meeting due to weather concerns. I now have sympathy for the people who have to make the calls on canceling schools! =)

So to play it safe, let’s postpone it. I’ve seen differing reports on timing of both precipitation and temperature drop: some saying it will be icing while we are meeting and another saying it won’t do anything until after we are done. And I’ve already had multiple members let me know that they won’t be attending because of their own concerns.

I will discuss with the officers about the possibility of rescheduling this meeting sometime in the next couple of months. I’d like to possibly do it in mid-February or early March. Regardless, we will make it up at some point.

Thanks for understanding. It’s a tough call.
-geoffrey