2011 Association Young Professionals Survey

November, 2011

 To gauge how best to inform, educate and engage Young

Professionals Network (YPN) association staff so they can make valuable contributions and benefit from REALTORS association activities.

Objectives and Methodology

Online survey invitation delivered via email to 4,500

REALTOR association staff. 894 staff responded to the survey
(overall response rate of 20%).

Staff ages 46 and under (Generations X and Y) qualified to complete

the survey; 443 staff (49% of all respondents) fell into this age group.

The margin of error for these results at a 95% level of confidence is

+/-4.13%. This sample size is large enough and the margin of error small enough to consider results overall statistically valid and representative of the population of REALTOR association staff ages 46 and under.

Association Function
Function
57%

24%

14%
2% State association Local association State association Local association chief staff chief staff staff specialist staff specialist executive executive 3% Other, please specify:

Area(s) of Specialization
36% 27% 22% 18% 26% 17% 5% 15% 14% 19%

Age
Age Groups Age 30 and Under Generation Y 12% Over 46 Baby Boomers and Civics 51%

Ages 31 - 46 Generation X 37%

Best Ways to Communicate with Young Professionals

Best Ways to Communicate
Industry News Meetings/Conferences Education/Training Other Information 76% 70% 70% 64% 43% 39% 43% 33% 32% 33% 32% 29% 33% 31% 30% 26%

Email with text, links, images only (Weekly INS) Email with brief video & links for more information An NAR Association Staff Facebook Page Realtor.org/ AE Homepage on Realtor.org

*Respondents were allowed to choose more than one response, so percentages will not add up to 100%.

Engaging Association Staff Young Professionals

By far the most frequently mentioned suggestion (75 mentions) was to use Facebook/offer an NAR Association Staff Facebook Page. Several suggested that this page be private and locked to members and the public.
Only 50% of all staff were aware of the AE YPN Facebook page, and only 16% had actually used it. Staff who are not actually Executives may be confused by the name of this page and assume its only meant for their bosses.

Preferred Education Formats

The top three most preferred education formats for this group are all online, and two are webinar formats: For in-person sessions, they are most interested in Live webinar 55% lecture format (63%) and roundtable discussion groups Online course 55% (58%). Archived webinar 46%. Most Popular Topics
68% 63% 60% 58% 57% 55% 54%

53%

53%

52%

51%

50%

Awareness of NAR Association Staff Young Professionals Outreach

Aware of But NOT Used/ Participated In Used or Participated In Neither Aware of Nor Used

AE Institute RCE Designation Association YPN Meetup New AE Orientation AE YPN Facebook Page REALTOR Association Management (RAM) Self-Study AE Competencies & RCE Body of Knowledge Advanced REALTOR Association Management (RAM) Course New AE Networking Session

55%

29%

16%

50%
44% 39% 34% 23% 27% 30% 28% 22% 24% 25% 10% 18% 23% 14% 21% 14% 8% 8% 14% 11% 9%

14%
12% 14% 16%

36%
44% 47% 50% 56% 59% 62% 64% 64% 65% 66% 67% 68%

Association Management Roundtables

Advanced Administrative Concepts Self-Study Course on AE YPN Promotion Piece The Answer Book REALTOR Association Models Planning Tool Value Positioning Toolkit

16% 6%

78%

Generation X vs. Generation Y Association Functions

Specializations Association Function
Generation Y Generation X 0% 2% 2% 2% 20% 24% 15% 18% 14% 44% 57% All Staff Generation Y
Communications Education Govnt Political Affairs

Generation X

All Non-AE Staff

29% 27% 24% 18% 22% 18% 22% 18% 26% 23% 26% 41% 33% 36% 40%

State association chief staff executive Local association chief staff executive State association staff specialist

MLS Member Services Legal 3% 4% 5%

Local association staff specialist 12% 17% 3%

72%

IT Financial Operations Other

22% 21% 17% 10% 16% 15% 7%

Other, please specify:

13% 14%
19% 19% 25%

Recommendations
Send the Weekly INS e-Newsletter to all staff, not just to
designated Executive Officers. Offer free webinars to staff at lunch times. Send information about education/training and meetings directly to staff rather than to CEOs for distribution. Consider changing the AE YPN Facebook page to Association Staff YPN Facebook Page and promote it directly to staff as a place for young staff to network. Revisit the idea of a mentorship program, particularly for young Executives. Create a scholarship program for young professional staff to attend NAR conference and events.

This could be linked to the Association Young Professional Award

proposed in a recent focus group with Association YPNs.
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CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THIS REPORT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS Marketing Research Department 430 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60611 LISA HERCEG Manager, Marketing Research Marketing Research 312-329-8563 lherceg@realtors.org MATT LOMBARDI Vice President Marketing, Promotions & Marketing Research 312-329-8521 mlombardi@realtors.org

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