To all fellow and future CVBBA members,
Thank you for the opportunity to be your 2024 President of our Carolinas – Virginia Business Brokers Association (“CVBBA”).
Our Board of Directors will be meeting on Tuesday, January 30th in Raleigh to plan the strategy and tactics for our 20th year of CVBBA.
Hope you will join us at 6 pm on Monday evening January 29th at the “Meet the Leadership” reception in Raleigh so you can present your ideas for 2024. If you prefer, send me an email () or text message (804.241.9999) and I will forward your comments to the board members.
We have an opening on the board (to serve the rest of 2024) which we plan to fill at our January 30th meeting. Please let me, or any member of the board, know of your interest in serving (or suggest someone we should approach to inquire of their willingness to serve).
One benefit of being President is that you get to select a theme for the year. I have chosen “Grow 2 Serve”, meaning –
- Grow our skills and well being,
- Grow our team (internal and external), and,
- Grow our respective businesses.
So 2..
- Serve better our family,
- Serve better our clients, and
- Serve better our business community.
What do we have in store for our 20th Anniversary?
1. Look back to look forward – Steve Radekopf (Charleston) is our historian. He is working on a series of interviews by recent Presidents of those Presidents who served CVBBA in the past.
2. Local Socials – Ben Shaw (Wilmington) is developing upwards of eleven local socials in our eleven markets to allow members to better build relations with members and associates.
3. Extend our reach – Joe Moorman (Williamsburg) is taking our communications beyond brokers to those associations where their members might benefit from what we do (e.g., Chambers of Commerce).
4. Make me smart – Van Daughtry (Raleigh) is developing upwards of ten webinars on topics that will help make us better, smarter, and for some, better looking!
5. Make it right – A. J. Ramsey (Raleigh) is leading the fight to protect brokers on the state level from transactions being deemed a security. He is also serving on committees led by past Presidents Steve Minnich (Bylaw review) and Adam Petricoff (Geographic Expansion).
6. Teach me quick – J. T. Tatem (Greenville, SC) is working to help us with short attention spans (raise your hand; you know who you are!) by developing a library of podcasts to give members a taste of a topic when time does not allow an opportunity to go deep.
7. Member embrace – Dustin Zeher (Woodbridge, VA) will be developing our membership by improving our “onboard procedures” (so no one gets left behind), reaching out to new associate members (to help with the cross-pollination of ideas), and helping CVBBA define what it means to be a member (eg., attendance at events).
8. Gather to learn – Lanayah McCullouch (Richmond) is leading CVBBA into joint venture events with other associations, creating new learning opportunities (e.g., a year-end “Planning for 2025 Success” overnight gathering in Richmond), helping us to expand to two master classes, and working with me and the board to help make our 20th-year Annual Conference the best for our members.
9. Money, Money, Money – Good does not come cheap! It is my job to develop ways for our sponsors to gain the relationships they seek with our members while helping provide CVBBA with the capital investment needed for success. We started in 2023 by adding fees for attendance at events beyond the Annual Conference (e.g., Business Broker Bootcamp, Master Class) to show our sponsors that we are there – shoulder to shoulder – in helping cover the costs of great gatherings.
Ok, now for the “there is no free lunch” part of my message. With an association, you get out of it what you put into it. If I have not yet tracked you down to serve on a committee, now is the time to make yourself available (and accept that what you want may not be where I ask you to fill a need).
It is also the time to dream. What would an ideal CVBBA mean for you? What might we consider on topics or processes (whether for 2024 or the next 20 years)?
We will “leave the light” on; as we are always open to the members of CVBBA!
Sincerely,
Rick Chess
2024 CVBBA President