By Amy Konstas

Government Affairs Directors from across the country gathered today to learn about initiatives and programs from NAR’s government affairs department, including the new Electoral Services Program (ESP) that will enable state and local associations to reach target audiences more effectively during campaigns.

ESP provides recent voter data, data usage tools and even political consultants to help design effective campaigns. It also offers a national REALTOR® Voter File to enable effective communication with REALTORS® and a non-REALTOR® Voter File of more than 170 million registered voters that can be targeted to state or local needs.

GADs also received an update on NAR’s community programs – Housing Opportunity, Smart Growth and Diversity – including an addition to NAR’s conference lineup. “Bringing Workers Home,” scheduled for October 6, in Chicago, will highlight employer-assisted housing and the advantages to organizations that provide this valuable benefit to their employees. CVS Pharmacy and Harley-Davidson, two companies currently doing just that, are slated to be on the agenda.

Results from the NAR Green Building Survey of members were also shared during the session, and demonstrated that REALTORS® care deeply about environmental issues. Seventy percent believe NAR should become more involved on environmental issues, 40 percent said green building is important to business and energy efficiency was cited as the #1 environmental issue in real estate. A whopping 90 percent of respondents believe that environmental issues will continue to increase in the future.

Jerry Giovaniello, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, provided a legislative update. Networking sessions for both state and local GADs followed.