September 12, 2019 was a great night that will go down in the history of RAFV. It was our Annual Meeting and Installation of Paul Kempa and our Board of Directors as well as the time to give away our annual awards.
The night began with our emcee Christine Coleman of Coleman Land Company leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and officially opening up the Annual Meeting for the REALTOR® Association of the Fox Valley. We began by thanking our sponsors:
Platinum Sponsors:
MRED
Illinois REALTORS®
First Centennial Mortgage
Gold Sponsors:
Heartland Bank
Silver Sponsors:
Chicago Title
Cross Country Mortgage – The Benavides Team
Guaranteed Rate – The John Noldan Team
Neighborhood Loans – The Brandon Poulis Team
Realty One Group Excel
We then thanked our distinguished guests including:
Illinois REALTORS®
Sue Miller – President Elect
MRED:
Jeff Lasky – Chief Operating Officer
David Ferrel – Broker Outreach Manager
Heather Catt - MRED Compliance Team
Hometown Association of REALTORS®
Heather Wiedrich, CEO
MainStreet Organization of REALTORS®
Biran Kwilosz – President
John Gormley – CEO
3 Rivers Association
David McClintock, CEO
Eddie Ruettiger – President-Elect
Gibby Kirby – Secretary/Treasurer
Judy Panozzo – Immediate Past President
Heartland REALTOR® Organization
Jim Haisler – CEO
Becky Kirchner – 2019 President
North Shore Barrington Association of REALTORS®
Steve Volkodav – CEO
Chris Stevens – President
Brad Anderson – President-Elect
The program continued after dinner with speeches from Michael Simpson, outgoing president. At this time he reviewed the accomplishments of the committees over the past year and he gave President's Awards to 3 people who displayed outstanding leadership and support of RAFV during the past year.
President's Awards were given to:
Lucas Albright
Mark Coleman
Lisa Ayres
Association Awards were given to the following individuals:
REALTOR® of the Year - Lucas Albright
Business Partner of the Year - Doug Benavides of Cross Country Mortgage
Community Service Award - Lori Linkimer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Starck Real Estate (St. Charles)
The first-ever GOLDEN FOX Awards (Awards given to offices who had outstanding participation in RAFV events throughout the year) were awarded to:
Small Office Category - Coleman Land Company
Medium Office Category - HomeSmart Connect LLC
Large Office Category - Coldwell Banker the Real Estate Group - Geneva
Mega Office Category - Baird & Warner Fox Valley
Individual Participation Award Winner - Miguel Angel Fernandez
Then, the Installation of Paul Kempa began. Tina Kempa, the Installing Officer (and Paul's wife) led the installation of the following officers and Michael Simpson passed the gavel to Paul Kempa.
Executive Board:
- President – Paul Kempa
- President-Elect – Lucas Albright
- Treasurer – Miguel Angel Fernandez
- Secretary – Natalee Dismuke
- Immediate Past President – Michael Simpson
Directors:
- Ron Ewing
- Kristine Heiman
- Kelly Johnson
- Robert Kopp
- Angela Lebron-Cola
- Donna McQuade
- Patricia Romke
- Stacy Tucker
The evening ended with Paul's inaugural speech as RAFV's new president.
Congratulations to all newly installed officers, award winners and office winners!
