Chairman's message: A successful year for YM/WREA

The Young Men's/Women's Real Estate Association (YM/WREA) of New York enjoyed a fantastic 2008. We kept our members informed by featuring the best speakers at our luncheons including Paul Pariser, Kent Swig, Bill Rudin, Jerry Speyer, David Levinson, EDC head Seth Pinsky and MTA chair Dale Hemmerdinger.   We had a full social calendar which included cocktail parties, wine and cheese tastings and a Charity Casino Night benefiting the N.Y.C. Clothing Bank. We ventured out and explored our great city with a walking tour of historic lower Manhattan, tours of the spectacular new 1 Bryant Park and Hearst Tower skyscrapers, we kayaked the East River and witnessed the restoration efforts of the magnificent Park Ave. Armory building. We gave back to our community by cleaning up Marcus Garvey Park, collecting food for underpriveledged kids, built affordable housing with Habitat for Humanity, ran a blood drive, fed the homeless and collected coats for New York Cares. We developed and launched a state-of-the-art new website which allows our members to keep abreast of our activities, RSVP to events, see photos and videos and  interact with each other in new ways. We developed the ability to allow our members to pay dues and other fees via credit card. Most importantly we built new relationships and nurtured our longstanding friendships by enjoying each other's company as often as possible. It is this fellowship that makes YM/WREA so great I am ending my stewardship of the organization confident that the next generation of leadership will keep us moving in the right direction. They will lead an organization in excellent fiscal health that is well able to weather the turbulent times we're facing. It was an honor and a privledge to lead the Honor Society of New York Real Estate. William Montana is the 2008 chairman of the Young Men's/Women's Real Estate Association and a managing director at Studley, Inc., New York, N.Y.