Meeting in the Virtual Middle
October 23, 2020 | REALTOR® AE Magazine
Tonya Deskins, Vice President of Member Services & Professional Standards Administratorread complete article
The National Association of REALTORS®’ Core Standards require that every association maintain a viable professional standards process to enforce the Code of Ethics and provide arbitration and mediation as member services. The standards further require associations to provide mediation services to members as required by Article IV of the NAR bylaws. The West and SouthEast REALTORS® of the Valley in Chandler, Ariz., provides this service through its Professional Standards team, which handles more than 100 cases per year. When Arizona put restrictions in place for several months to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus, we had to adapt quickly to continue processing cases. Allowing a backlog to build up would have been disastrous for the association.
Professional Standards determined that we should hold all Grievance Committee meetings, hearings, and mediations virtually if it could help continue to process the caseload. Our team transitioned scheduled hearings to a virtual environment and began scheduling new complaints for the same treatment.
We let the parties involved in each complaint know that due to health concerns, hearings would be held virtually. The parties have been receptive; we held 18 hearings and mediations successfully on Zoom from March through mid-July.
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