• Wars
• time spent in tibet
• bad luck as associated with breaking mirrors
• Guy Richie and Madonna’s marriage (now ending in divorce)
• my marriage (not ending in divorce, still on going, so this doesn’t count, I guess)
• my time as part of the Center for REALTOR® Technology (one week longer than the last thing mentioned)

If my records are correct CRT was created on the week of August 13, 2001. I’ve always been proud to say I’ve been part of CRT since day 3. Only Mark Lesswing was there on day 1, but I got there when I could. Mark launched CRT with the NAR member focused three part program of Advocacy, Education, and Implementation, but we needed to create the specific of what that program was.

For the first 5 years of my time at CRT I held the title of Strategic Architect. My daily duties included coding, some system administration, some education/presentations, and some writing. One duty I took on that you won’t see in a position description was to help explore and define exactly what CRT was.

During that time, CRT grew to 6 people and a handful of consultants who came and went. I’ve very proud of the work we did at that time and the impact we started to have on our members, NAR, and the industry as a whole. From our papers, to being a knowledge base for leadership, to open source software projects like JAMMand ezRETS, to hardware projects like our lockbox prototype, to giving presentations/education sessions at national, state, and local meetings.

Two years ago, Mark was promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of NAR. CRT became one of the three departments that reported to the CTO, along with InfoCentral and Information Technology Services (ITS.) While Mark was still associated with CRT, his view become bigger and someone needed to deal with CRT’s day-to-day. At that time, I became the Managing Director of CRT. During those two years I kept the torch burning on the original concept and tried to build some new concepts and tasks for the CRT. Some of these things you’ve seen, some will be announced soon. All this time I’ve continued to be proud of CRT, its staff, and our service to NAR’s members.

Yesterday, my association with CRT ended with the naming of CRT’s new Managing Director (more on this in a second.) Don’t worry, I’m still at NAR continuing to service its members, but in a new role. Just over three weeks ago, I became the Vice President of ITS. It’s a new challenge for me, and a good step forward in my career. I plan on bringing the energy and creativity that serviced me well at CRT and focus it on NAR’s internal computing needs.

There are many things I’ll miss from CRT. The biggest adjustment will be not being as connected to NAR’s members was once was by having the conversations when CRT traveled to speak. Luckily there’s still blogs, twitter, and instant messaging out there to help me stay up to date.

However, there is one thing I’ll keep doing. As I’ve said before, “I cannot not code.” So I’ll be staying on as the main coder on ezRETS for the time being. Besides, no one else needs learn the horror that is ODBC internals! I like to keep my hands dirty, so that’s a good project to do it on.

As a quick aside: Its funny, but I feel like I’m getting a preview of something 14 years in my future personal life: letting one of my children go. I’ve always felt to be, at the very least, a co-parent to CRT.  Its actually been a bit harder than I would have thought.

The big announcement

As I mentioned above, CRT’s new Managing Director was named and its a name known to anyone who already knows CRT. I’m very pleased to announce that Chris McKeever has agreed to take the reigns.

I first met Chris when he was the lone IT guy for a large brokerage in Chicago. I had seen his e-mail to a local Linux Users’ Groupmailing list looking for a php developer. Based on the job description and the industry he was in, I contacted him to speak at one of CRT’s sessions at NAR’s Annual convention in 2004. We kept in touch, and when he was looking for a new challenge and CRT was looking for an employee, it worked out really well.

Chris’s biggest contribution to CRT has been his tireless championing of the needs of the Broker and Agent. From his participation in RESO, to his speaking engagements, to his writings, Chris has a true desire to make the industry better for our members. He will be a great leader for CRT and those it serves. I look forward to the great things that he’ll do with CRT.

In closing…

This ended up being a lot longer of a post than I thought it would, and much more of a history lesson.  However, 7 years is also a good time look backwards and reflect.  In many ways I’m MORE of the person I was when I started out at NAR, and in some ways I’m a very different person.  Guess that’s called “growing up” despite my resistance to that every step of the way.

And as cheesy as it is to quote song lyrics at a time like this, Green Day keeps playing over and over in my head that I think applies to me as much as it does to Chris:

"Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don’t ask why.

It’s not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It’s something unpredictable
but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life."

Keith Garner
mailto:kgarner@realtors.org?subject=CRT_Fall_Newsletter2008