Realtors Commercial Alliance of Mass. History & Purpose

The Realtors Commercial Alliance of Massachusetts (RCA-MA) is a professional organization of individuals who are commercial real estate practitioners. RCA-MA publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, holds monthly membership programs in various locations around the state that include a Haves & Wants marketing session, and offers Continuing Education focusing on commercial real estate good toward renewing a Massachusetts real estate license. Additionally, as one of 1,500 local chapters of the National Association of Realtors, RCA-MA serves as a conduit for its members to receive information and benefits from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Our Purpose The objectives of RCA-MA are: * To unite those engaged in the commercial real estate profession for the purpose of exerting a beneficial influence upon the profession and related interests. * To promote and maintain high standards of conduct in the real estate profession as expressed in the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Realtors. * To provide a unified medium for real estate owners and those engaged in the real estate profession whereby their interests may be safeguarded and advanced. * To further the interests of real property ownership. * To unite those engaged in the real estate profession in this community with the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors, thereby furthering their own objectives throughout the state and nation, and obtaining the benefits and privileges of membership therein. * To designate, for the benefit of the public, individuals authorized to use the terms Realtors and Realtors as licensed, prescribed, and controlled by the National Association of Realtors. History of RCA-MA The Realtors Commercial Alliance of Massachusetts (RCA-MA) — formerly known as the Northern Massachusetts Commercial-Investment Board of Realtors (NM-CIBOR) — is a statewide commercial overlay board of Realtors. Commercial overlay boards were first allowed by the National Association of Realtors in 1993, and this type of board serves commercial real estate professionals and "overlays the jurisdictions" of residential boards of Realtors This entity was originally conceived of by the 1999 Commercial-Investment Committee of the Northeast Association of Realtors as a statewide commercial overlay board, like those in Maine, New York, and New Hampshire. However, at that time, not all of the Realtors boards in Massachusetts agreed to the formation of a statewide commercial board. Because the founders of this board wanted to move along with all due speed and did not want to create any ill will with their fellow Massachusetts Realtors associations, they determined that they would, at that time, pull back their request for a statewide overlay board, and instead create the board covering the jurisdiction of just five residential boards that were contiguous to one another and which did not object to the formation of an overlay board in their jurisdictions — North Shore, Greater Newburyport, North Central Massachusetts, Eastern Middlesex, and Northeast Association of Realtors. Therefore, NM-CIBOR was created and chartered by NAR in 2001 and at that time covered 87 cities and towns in Massachusetts. The Northeast Association of Realtors board of directors agreed to manage the new entity with an eye toward "incubating" the group until they were able to achieve their vision of a statewide overlay board. In 2003, NM-CIBOR approached the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) for assistance in expanding to a statewide overlay board. MAR formed a Presidential Advisory Group (PAG) to study the issue. A second MAR PAG subsequently recommended the creation of the MAR Commercial-Investment Council. In 2008, the remaining boards of Realtors in Massachusetts not covered by the overlay board gave approval for statewide expansion, and the National Association of Realtors approved statewide expansion with a new name - RCA-MA. The MAR Commercial-Investment Council was also disbanded to support the overlay board. Although RCA-MA is currently managed by the Northeast Association of Realtors, it is a stand-alone board of Realtors, with its own Charter, Bylaws, and Directors to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and representation at the National Association of Realtors.