Does your home need updating to sell, but you don't want to do the renovation? We have cash buyers who will buy your home!
Have you ever wondered what is involved in being the President of a 2,000 member local trade association? Follow along with me as I share with you my journey as 2026 President of the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors.
Table of Contents
My term as President got off to a great start in October in Huntington Beach at the California Association of Realtor's annual Leadership Retreat. This was three days of high-level training in what it means to lead and how to best be an effective leader.
We heard from such dynamic speakers as Juan Benana, Diana Kander and Caroline Haulk and learned how to run run meetings from Adorna Carroll, Bruce Bishop, and of course our 2026 CAR Leadership Team.
Things started ramping up heavily in December. Finalizing the plans for my Installation ceremony, working with association staff to update the new agent orientation, and putting on the 2026 CSMAR Leadership Orientation!
As President, I get to choose the location and the facilitator for our Leadership Orientation. At the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors we like to make sure all of our leadership team and our extended leadership team is on the same page, so all of our Officers, Directors, Committee Chairs, and Committee Vice Chairs are in attendance.
I chose the Spanish Hills Country Club for the venue and wow, what a venue it was! We had one of their lounge areas reserved, which gave us ample seating, several places to mingle between sessions, a great screen setup to work from, and breath-taking views! Since this was an all day event, they catered breakfast, lunch, and some snacks and the food was fantastic. The cookies at the end were "out of this world".
We started the training session with an discussion on the legal duties and obligations of Directors, presented by top real estate attorney Jennifer Felten of Westlake Village based RELAW, APC
The bulk of our training was on association governance and was lead by Jennifer Lobenhofer of JSL Community Strategies and has a wealth of experience in guiding and training non-profit organizations. Jennifer is on the Advisory Committee for California Lutheran University's Center for Non-Profit Leadership. Our group of leaders varied from being brand new to Association Leadership to being seasoned veterans and everyone got something out of it, which was one of my most important goals since they gave up a day from their business to be at the training. There was a lot of interaction, from within our own tables to whole group exercises that really helped drill down to the most important factors for our organization to continue doing, stop doing, and start doing.
January, this is when it all became "real". As soon as the clock struck midnight on January first my term started. January proved to be a fun month with some interesting twists.
January and December had me traveling to some of our neighboring Realtor Associations to attend their installations. First I went to the Montecito Country Club for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors installation. Next I went to the Oxnard Dunes for Ventura County Coastal's Installation, and finally I went to "The Farm" at the Ojai Valley Inn for their installation. Each installation was unique and gave me great last-minute ideas for mine and, most importantly, for my speech! Ventura Coastal's was the most interesting, as not only did they have a live band, but they were able to get Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist from the National Association of Realtors, to speak at their installation and give an economic update. I learned and I had no idea how much of a comedian economists can be!
January also my my first meeting with city officials. I got the opportunity to meet with the Simi Valley Mayor, Mayor Pro-Tem, and the head of the Planning Commission to discuss with them their priorties, what projects were coming to Simi Valley, and how we can work in partnership with them to further our shared goals of increasing home ownership.
The next and biggest item on my calendar for January was my installation! My installation was held on Friday January 23rd, 2026 at the Los Robles Greens Banquet Center. This was probably the most stressful thing I've done in the preceeding 12 months because of the importance and significance of the event. Not only did we have the leaders of associations from Los Angeles to Santa Maria in attendance, but we had the Mayors of every city we serve as well as our County Supervisors. As President, I get to choose every aspect of the event from the smallest details like the color of the napkins, to the biggest details like the location and the speakers! This event is my baby.
The installation was extra important and special to me because it was the first time we've ever had the President installed separately from the Board of Directors. They were all sworn in by the President-Elect for the California Association of Realtors, Mark Peterson, and I chose to have my father who is my biggest real estate influence, swear me in.
I worked with a local comedy legend, Jason Love, to secure a fantastic MC for the event. We got David Studebaker who is an absolutely amazing comedian and his ability to improv was truly amazing.
Next we had Alex Ramierez and Frank Tomlinson III of Valor Home Loans lead us in the Pledge of Allegience and give us inspirational speeches that were better than I could have ever hoped for. They moved the room and were truly a gift to hear speak.
Next up was the farewell to the outgoing President, Tami Jo Colburn. Tami Jo gave a speech reflecting on her busy year as President, which included major projects such as revitalizing our Broker/Owner/Office Manager communication and event program, creating and sending out our first ever comprehensive member survey, and managing the retirement and replacement of our prior CEO Evelyn Schultz after 12 years as CEO and over 40 years with the Association! After her speech, our local officials gave her proclamations thanking her for her service to the association and the community.
Next up was Mark Peterson, CAR President-Elect, who gave us a great update on what CAR has been doing for our members, what they have planned for the year, and how they're working to address the issues we're all facing with insurance and housing affordability. Afterwards, Mark uninstalled the 2025 Leadership Team
Next we turned to the installation of the President... ME! This was a very memorable experience as I got to be installed by my father, Ronald Huggins, a 30+ year real estate Broker, founder of our company, and the reason I got into real estate. Ron gave a short speech introducing me, then administered my oath of office, after which I accepted and gave my acceptance speech
After my rousing speech outlining my plans and goals for the year, came the presentation of gavel, the passing of the gavel from all of the Past Presidents in attendance to me, and me presenting the Past President's plaque to Tami Jo.
The final part of the installation were the awards for Affiliate of the Year, Realtor of the Year, The Community Service Award, and the Mike Hanley Influencer of the Year Award. What I did not expect, was the giving of the President's Award. This award is not given out regularly, only once in a while when the President feels that something that happened in the year is worthy of it. What came as a total shock, was that I won the award! Tami Jo had a very busy year as President and through it all I was at her side helping her and putting in long hours with her on all of the projects. It was truly an honor to receive this award.
The following week after the installation was the CAR Winter Business meetings in beautiful Monterey California. These meetings were quite beneficial to attend. I'm a member of the MLS and Transaction and Regulatory committees. There was some good discussion regarding various MLS rule changes, the new Digitally Altered Images law, as well as discussions on requiring licenses for wholesalers and supporting a law to make it illegal to file fraudulant liens on properties.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any busier, on the last day of the meetings the Association office got a visit from a known troublemaker known as "Ninja Rick" who has been causing concern at open houses for years. This lead to a very involved conversation with our CEO as I was driving back from Monterey where I advised on some safety precautions, and scheduled a site visit from the Thousand Oaks Police Department and helped move furniture to make the office more secure.
And that was just January!
