Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in on an NAA task force that is developing a new designation for Contract Auctioneers. This task force has opened my eyes to the auction industry in a ton of new ways.
The task force was chaired by Janine Huisman, CAI, AMM, BAS, GPPA, who hired contract auctioneers for her family’s business focused on equipment and classic cars and is a benefit auctioneer. Ten committed NAA professionals sit on this task force – all of whom have been or work with contract auctioneers. And all are singularly focused on ensuring that NAA’s newest designation will help contract auctioneers in the automobile sector, the livestock sector, real estate or benefit work (or with any other asset class) be successful.
Here’s what I learned – as much as I have been exposed to in the auction industry, each asset class and auction professional is very unique with unique needs for their business. We at NAA know this inherently, but I don’t know that we have acted on it as well as we could have.
Enter a new concept that the NAA Board of Directors has approved: called the Communities of Practice. It works very simply: We have identified five communities: Contract Auctioneers; Real Estate; Benefits; Personal and Commercial Property; and Marketing and Management. All of these communities will have education targeted to them (including a specific summit each year ), each community has designation programs focused on them, and all will have content written and provided specifically for them.
It is NAA’s opportunity to help you get the information you most need for your business to be successful.
It is not a one size fits all approach. Having said that, you WILL have the opportunity to receive ANY content you want.
Let me give you an example. Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, the NAA Knowledge Center will be completely free. For those of you who don’t know about the Knowledge Center, it is simply a collection of recorded conference sessions that range back several years. In the past, we have charged $20 or more for each of these sessions. But, we want members to have access to everything they need. So, the Board approved a proposal to make those free to NAA members.
To further help you decide what you want, each title will be tagged with an icon that will let you know which of the five Communities of Practice the specific session addresses. Some may address more than one community; some may address all five of the communities; and some may be specific to one audience.
If this all sounds big, that’s because it is. The Communities of Practice will take a long time to be integrated into the fabric of NAA. But, we are starting.
We are grateful for our members (Chris Fisher ” I am a NAA member”)at NAA and grateful to the state associations for helping us spread information to those of you who do not belong. We want all auction professionals to be successful – it is important to our industry.
On behalf of the NAA Board and staff, I would like to wish all of you happy holidays and best wishes for a very SUCCESSFUL 2017.
Semper Fi, Chris Fisher
Chris Fisher, Auctioneer, Marine, Steward