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If an association has any chance of being relevant and useful to its members, it better make sure that, among other things, communication between the association and its volunteer leadership is instant and all-inclusive. The Houston Association of Realtor's (HAR) leadership, including a key volunteer president along the way, understood this imperative early in the digital game. And HAR's board was encouraged to stay in step with the association and the world, adopting the latest in technology tools to expedite board business. The experience demonstrates the benefits of what Tom Peter would likely call re-imagining communication. The immediate benefit of encouraging directors to incorporate technologies into their leadership experience was to give them confidence to consider technology issues from a more advanced perspective. This was a benefit to both the association and its individual brokerage firms. Subsequent benefits were derived as the board found itself making more and more technology-based decisions with a leadership group that was enlightened and engaged.

IN HIS CURRENT BEST-SELLER RE-IMAGINE (2003, DORLING KlNDERSLEY PUBLISHING), TOM Peters provides the perfect foundation for considering the relationship between association relevancy and effective communication. The book's tagline is telling: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. Peters quotes recognized leaders who get this. U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki, for example, who said, "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." Or former CEO of Xerox Paul Allaire, who warns: "We're in a brawl with no rules."

Peters's book serves as a wake-up call to announce that every industry, trade, profession, and interest is being buffeted by a torrent of change, with no immunity zones or bays of tranquility. Those who would have us believe that their world or membership is free of chaos are most likely standing in line for an Oscar.

What this means to association leaders and executives is that if an association has any chance whatsoever of being relevant and useful to its members, it better make sure that, among other things, communication between the association and its volunteer leadership is instant and allinclusive-anything less amounts to reporting history, a commodity with a limited value proposition. In today's world, communication must be measured in real-time parameters.

The Houston Association of Realtor's leadership, including a key volunteer president along the way, understood this imperative early in the digital game. And HAR's board was encouraged to stay in step with the association and the world, adopting the latest in technology tools to expedite board business. Our experience demonstrates the benefits of what Tom Peters would likely call re-imagining communication.

Eye on opportunities

As far back as the mid-90s, HAR's leadership recognized the particular value of applying the technology imperative to efficient governance and began the move toward paperless board meetings. While our Web site (www.har.com) is now the flagship of our communication program, it was this move to streamline board meetings that eventually morphed the site into what has become our largest member benefit.

The story of how HAR started down this road lies somewhere between its business planning process and the realities of the industry it represents. "By 1995 it became obvious to us that the traditional role and operational procedures of associations were simply not going to be sufficient in the information age, especially if the association was going to be part of its members' business solution rather than part of its problems," says Bob Hale, HAR's president and CEO. At this point, focus was not so much on the changes that were occurring within the real estate industry as it was on changes that the leadership was observing in other business models, such as finance and travel services. During this period, the word dismtermediation first became part of the American business lexicon, referring to the ability of consumers to bypass traditional distribution channels via technology systems and go right to the source for products or services. It didn't take much imagination to see that the concept's leap into real estate was just a matter of time and that the industry needed to embrace the same technology tools being used by competitors to remain relevant. "It was clear," says Hale, "that we were going to get left behind if we didn't get up to speed. Once the senior management team did ramp up, it became obvious that we needed to convert the volunteer leadership team to this way of thinking as well."

Other reasons for considering digital solutions for the organization and the board were straightforward.

1. Human resource and cost considerations. While an association's maintenance of high-speed electronic communication is increasingly essential to achieving its overall mission, such systems are also a critical factor in eliminating the huge costs associated with traditional staff-based communication programs. And when it comes to board business, tasks related to leadership communication represented a significant and time-consuming part of management's job. Today's realities do not allow for such inefficiencies. While it is difficult to put an exact number on savings realized by the reduction in mailing costs and of staff time to support board activities-making unending photocopies, creating cumbersome board books, and so forth-it was clear to senior management as well as to certain board members that the cost of technology support for the board would be justified across time.

As it turned out, setting the technology priority had far-reaching payoffs that HAR would also realize across time. The volunteer leadership was an incidental beneficiary of the Web site project that actually ended up raising the technology for everyone in the HAR family.

2. Need for speed. HAR's embracing of the change imperative translated into new planning initiatives.

Consequently, the organization initiated a business planning process; a strategic leadership program for elected leaders, key volunteers, and senior staff; and a program of structured annual goals and objectives. "We didn't just talk about change," says Hale. "We set about creating a leadership and management environment that was focused on effecting the change that was necessary to keep the association relevant to our members."

A critical element of this new approach was the need for senior management, leadership, and the governance functions to be able to communicate in a rapid, responsive, and flexible fashion. Similar to putting on seatbelts in a race car, electronic communication simply became the new standard. "It was the only way everyone could keep up the pace," says Hale.

Arming directors for action

To facilitate this early adoption, the association worked closely with its volunteer leadership to provide Internet access and basic technologies. The association's business plan included the following tools for its 22 board members all of whom were Realtors:

A stipend of $25 per month to cover the cost of dial-up Internet service. At the outset, this was all rather cutting edge for the board. Few board members had dedicated computers. Some had desktop units, but even among those who owned and used computers few had dedicated Internet access. Directors who did not have computers were either close to purchase or relied on a personal assistant to retrieve information from the computer. Early on in the program, directors realized that given the fact that all governance materials were to be stored, accessed, and presented from the Internet, computer ownership was a prerequisite to participation. However, early skills required to participate included merely the ability to turn on the computer and access e-mail.

A policy identifying electronic communication as a basic technology skill required for leadership participation. Like many challenging initiatives, ours was greatly assisted by a particular change agent, George Stevens, a past chairman of the board. "George led the effort to use email as the primary association communication tool long before it was the cool thing to do," says Hale. Stevens paved the way for a policy establishing technology skill as a prerequisite for serving on the board.

Frequent technology presentations at board meetings to help spread the message that high-speed communication was not only necessary but cool. Across time, HAR assembled quite a sophisticated technology department that, even then, was working on what would become more than 20 best-of-breed technology programs and tools for use by members. Monthly presentations at board meetings, made by staff experts and earlyadopter members, brokers, and agents, helped educate volunteer leaders but also included an element of industry status that provided relevance and validation. We definitely tried to emphasize the "wow" factor of the Internet, showing off the latest and greatest Web sites we could find, regardless of what industry they represented.

Early diagnosis of leadership technophobia. Reluctant directors were quickly identified and subjected to rehabilitation by sensitive yet insistent staff members who urged the leadership to "get with the program." As the organization has grown more technology savvy, we've grown to a technology staff of seven (of the total staff of 65) who are directly involved in technology development functions, with five additional senior-level staff with extensive technology integration and implementation backgrounds. They are at the disposal of any board members who continue to need assistance with technology.

Format of board meetings with technology as the centerpiece and a policy of becoming paperless within 18 months after the launch of the initiative. This doesn't mean that meetings were off site or remote. All of the directors were-and are-still in the boardroom. The electronic or paperless quality came from the fact that beginning in 1997 no hardcopy documents were sent out in advance or used during meetings. All meeting notices and related materials are forwarded by email and are archived in the online boardroom feature of our secure Web site. The meeting itself requires a secure Web site on which to store documents, a face-to-face meeting format, and an LCD projector and screen.

Today, the HAR board meeting format always includes relevant Internet site visits, evaluations, and observations that greatly enhance the board's knowledge on any given topic. Once the center of its electronic communication program, the association's facsimile resources now reside in a storage area as Internet-based communication have rendered them obsolete. Instead, the association sports its own technology laboratory, appropriately named the George Stevens Technology Center after the HAR board chair whose leadership in the area of technology adoption was especially effective. The center, funded in part by a contribution from the association's largest vendor, is a 22seat facility that provides state-of-theart hardware and software tools used for training, member events, and member company functions.

Early outcomes

The immediate benefit of encouraging directors to incorporate technologies into their leadership experience was to give them confidence to consider technology issues from a more advanced perspective. This was a benefit to both the association and its individual brokerage firms. Subsequent benefits were derived as the board found itself making more and more technology-based decisions with a leadership group that was enlightened and engaged. And while the task of recruiting leadership hasn't eased, the actual leadership experience has been enhanced and thus helps us attract the kind of board members we need.

Technology trickle-down effect

One of the most significant outcomes of a board that is on top of technology tools is the board members' acute awareness of how the tools must be incorporated into the strategic initiatives of the association. Tech-savvy directors are much more likely to recognize that the association's programs, products, and services go far beyond the maintenance of the association's culture and extend well into the members scope of professional and business practices. HAR's board, for example, has made dozens of governance decisions regarding technology in an expedient fashion simply because it has become more savvy.

Because of these board insights across the past eight years, the Houston Association of Realtors has become a model of communication and service delivery. It provides an excellent example of this new age of association involvement and ability to facilitate significant changes that can streamline and improve members' business. For example, in 2001, HAR made the decision to move to a Web-based multiplelisting service. This decision, while historic, was made well within the course of strategic business decisions and saved the association more than $1 million annually and provided a much higher level of member service.

For its 20,000 professional members, HAR provides a wide range of programs, products, and services that have been incorporated into the members' brokerage business model and into the real estate transaction itself. In addition, online tools provide highquality information and save time and effort for members, allowing them, for example, to make online payments or participe in the online election of officers. At the same time, the association's Web site has become a valued resource of unbiased information for the general public.

All this means that every month the HAR's Web site receives 376 million hits from 346,000 individual users who view HAR member property listings 4.5 million times. This real-time activity results in more than 400,000 transaction leads to HAR members annually with an estimated referral fee value of $27 million at no additional cost to the member. Comparing this number with the fact that HAR members only pay $132 in annual dues provides an excellent measurement of the value of electronic competencies and communication.

Another outcome of HAR's focus on technology is a world-class Commercial Information ExchangeHAR's commercial program was one of the first in the country to include nonmember commercial brokers, many of whom have now seen the benefits and have become association members. The most significant achievement in this effort was the association's success in getting the major commercial players to work together in a common effort. Companies the likes of Colliers International, CB Richard Ellis, Transwestern, Grubb & Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield, and Trammel Crow, as well as regional and independent brokers, overcame longstanding reticence and committed to HAR's innovative commercial support model. The board's vision was critical in bringing this about in that it allowed the association to take a radically different approach to the provision of commercial services, including the decision to allow nonmember firms to participate. At the core, rapid real-time communication is the glue that holds this effort together.

The techno-beat goes on

There is no telling where the electronic communication trend will go next. As most leading-edge Web sites move to a seventh generation model, HAR has begun to incorporate video into its communication whenever possible and appropriate. The association has invested in a state-of-the-art video production facility and has two staff members who are responsible for the video elements. Currently, video is incorporated into HAR.com's online coverage of association special events and member recognition programs, as well as into online volunteer orientation and training. This further enhances our ability to create a sense of community among our members. In addition, video significantly enhances the association's ability to communicate information and complex governance and management issues in a clear and concise fashion.

Today, communication with the association's leadership includes streaming video presentation, audio and video conferencing, and voice over Internet protocol. The HAR online directors meeting room contains a full archive of minutes dating back to 1996, including monthly financial statements, membership reports, and all governance documents.

Another factor that has made a big impression on HAR's leadership communication is the arrival of the generation X and millennial generation leaders. New directors and officers between the ages of 28 and 44 expect what the association has been promoting. They have been raised on highspeed communication and demand nothing less when they are elected.

What is clear is that associations that operate at the speed of light will have to enhance the quality of their governance and management with programs that communicate the expanded information, analysis, and real-time status that is critical to effective decision making.