Founders Unite behind CIELA – “Independent agents to own their future”:
Attendees at today’s preliminary meeting of prospective Founder Members of the Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents, all active owner-managers of independent firms, have unanimously signed a Letter of Intent to move forward with the formal inauguration, expressing total support for the idea based on what was presented to them today.
– The next meeting, an all day session to review details of the proposed club articles, proposals, membership offerings and contracts, will be held on Wednesday 22nd February at a location to be confirmed, with a view to formal inauguration on 1st March.
The Names of the Founder Members are:
Simon Gresswell – Finlay Brewer, www.finlaybrewer.co.uk
There is a waiting list of 16 further agency owners who have asked to be considered for any un-taken positions which may arise.
The two remaining positions are being held for female founders, and it is the Club’s hope that at least one but preferably two women Founder Members apply to join, and to that end we welcome any applications either by email to club.secretary@ciela.co.uk or via the registration form on our website at www.ciela.co.uk/register.
The question of whether or not a challenger portal might be launched was not discussed at this meeting, but it was re-confirmed by the Club Founder Charlie Wright that, even if the club succeeds in gathering the required support to launch, and even if members demand a vote and vote in favour of launching a new portal, such a vote is, at the very soonest, one year away, and a portal offering does not constitute part of the launch plans of the CIELA organisation.
The overwhelming topic of discussion was the lack of success or total support for any organisation launched to date, and how to overcome the understandable cynicism within the industry, having had it’s fingers burnt so often in the past.
The question raised was, with the required initial membership structure of Founder Members, Regional, County and London Borough officers which would total almost 100 club officers, what would be necessary to win the majority support of the approximately 15,000 small independent agency businesses across the country.
“Will independent agents unite swiftly in majority numbers?” was seen as the major question, and received unanimous support for the outline idea. The Founder outlined his strategy for overcoming this challenge, and explained that he has a detailed 8 point plan to ensure that every independent agent in the country will want to join from the outset, a plan he will present in detail at the next meeting.
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