From the desk of 2020 RRC President Richard Waystack, CRS
We started 2020 working on our strategic plan, and holding Sell-a-bration, our premier annual event, for 1,200 attendees who participated in great education and networking. Two weeks later we were in a pandemic and had to quickly pivot and adapt. Everyone became well-versed in using Zoom, and we changed our focus and our strategic plan. Our education quickly went online and our staff did an amazing job working remotely. How we lived our life changed immediately, but we faced some of our fears, made the adjustments and moved forward. In May, our annual meetings with NAR took place online.
With all of my trips canceled, I’ll be known as the first virtual president of RRC. I reached out to members by phone and Zoom. My job this year has been to let our members and volunteers know that we care about them. Our organization has been doing a great job disseminating information to our members to keep them informed.
The RRC social media sites have enabled thousands of members to interact. It’s not what I anticipated at the start of the year, but it’s been a great joy being in touch with our members. This year has enabled us to reach out to more people than we would in a normal year. There are some folks who don’t travel to meetings, but who attended our virtual meetings. Now they can be a part of what we’re doing.
While it’s been a virtual year, we still accomplished so much that I need to recognize our staff for stepping up so quickly, taking our entire platform of information and making it readily available to our members. The members have been able to take classes online to fulfill their designation requirements.
As an organization, we have not only survived this pandemic, but we have actually thrived this year. And it’s due to so many wonderful staff and volunteers—none of whom expected their year would turn out this way. I am so proud of these people, and I just love this organization. It’s truly been an honor and privilege to lead it, and I look forward to where we’re going from here.
On a vacation in western Massachusetts this summer, my wife, Bernadette, discovered a moderate hike at Monument Mountain. I have a fear of heights, and as we ascended, that began to cross my mind as the trail got steeper and higher. We made our way up rock formations past the peak at 1,624 feet towards Devil’s Pulpit. Then we came upon a young man who greeted me with a hearty, “How are you doing?” My response was quick and succinct: “Just trying to overcome my irrational fear of heights.” His response was priceless, and summed up our trip as well as what this year has been about: “Dude, always have to be growing!”
He was absolutely right! I was working on one of my weaknesses. It was then that we saw three young falcons circling overhead, riding the updraft thermals off the cliffs. It was a magical moment. Not knowing what we were getting into, we began on the most strenuous approach to the peak, highlighted by steep cliffs. During the last 15 minutes, I thought about the incredible fear I felt walking the narrow passages to the top to experience the views and the grandeur of the mountain.
This year started very tough with the initial shutdown during the pandemic. We had to adapt and change course to see the view through the uncertainty. And then we realized that we could take a deep breath, secure in the knowledge that we would get through this—and we did.
Photo: Chris Cook
