CIBS continues to be involved in a myriad of local economic growth initiatives

Seems like just yesterday that we welcomed in the new millennium and now we are embarking on its second decade. Time goes by so quickly and it proves one thing...time never stands still. Strangely, time is, in my view, the single most important "dynamic" in real estate. Interestingly, today's real estate environment is widely viewed as a "time of gloom and doom," while in fact, this is a fabulous time filled with endless opportunities! Let's maintain our eye on the ball and focus on the positives. To focus on negatives and doom and gloom will surely put you into a virtually death spiral which is unproductive and harmful. It's been a year since I have had the privilege of stepping in as the president of CIBS, the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island. And a challenging one at that! I am quite pleased that we set out to achieve some aggressive goals and the board of directors are working real hard to achieve these. Goals like getting our younger members more interested and actively involved in our organization. In that light, we have formed a "future generation" committee that meets regularly and has had some fun events like "Bowling with the Board" and "Billiards Evening." As well, we continue to participate in major events with partners like Hofstra, hold exciting educational gatherings for our membership, and alligning ourselves with strategic partners, which is resulting in benefits to both sides of the alliances. Our REO alliance with the Association for a Better Long island - ABLI, the Long Island Builders Institute- LIBI and the Long island Board of Realtors - LIBOR is also gaining excellent momentum and proving to be a valuable alliance for team efforts on important local issues related to Long Islands local real estate matters. We are proud to have joined forces in this regard. CIBS is a strong organization of real estate professionals and other professionals seeking to be involved with our community. We are growing both in numbers and in recognition, as the industry's "cream of the crop." We are focused on moving the organization to the next level and I am personally quite confident that we will be highly successful with the team that we have put together. While our focus had been industrial and office properties, we have since expanded our vision to attract and assist retail brokerage professionals, as evidenced by our recent addition of Ken Breslin to our board of directors. Ken's participation has been both welcomed and valuable. As we move forward into the new year, we are eager to continue to be a driving force on the economic development of Long Island and in assisting our small and large business alike, in their efforts to remain locally. Helping local businesses thrive and survive is crucial to our sustained existence. Where appropriate, and effective, CIBS gets involved in a myriad of local economic growth initiatives and we will continue to do so. I would invite your readers to go to our website and view the exciting events that we have planned for 2010. We welcome guests at our events with open arms and I encourage you to join us. The values that you might reap from our networking and educational functions just might prove to be a wonderful surprise. All the best and Happy New Year to all! Jeffrey Schwartzberg, SIOR, is the president of Commercial Industrial Brokers Society and senior director for Sutton & Edwards, Syosset, N.Y.