LCAR Banquet & Volunteer Luncheon

The LCAR Banquet & Volunteer Recognition Luncheon was held December 16th at the Wyndham Expo Center. 2021 PAR President Chris Raad installed the 2022 LCAR Officers -- President, Greg Bardell; President-Elect, Joe Younger; Secretary, Jeff Peters; Treasurer, Tom Weik; Immediate Past-President, Tom Blefko -- & Directors Richard Boas III, Brian Davison, Christina Diehl, Logan Hutton, Mandy Jankowski, Mike Julian, Corinn Kirchner, Debby Moore, Lisa Naples & Maria Rojas.

Brenda Crosby of Berkshire Hathaway North Pointe received the Elaine Vehovic Volunteer of the Year Award. Dan Berger, Jr. of U.S. Commercial Realty was named the Commercial & Industrial Council Member of the Year. Doug Foltz of Coldwell Banker Realty was honored as the Distinguished Service Award Recipient, and Tom Blefko of Berkshire Hathaway North Pointe received the Realtor of the Year honors. Click here to view the award presentations.

The following offices received the 2021 LCAR-PAC Awards:  Small Office, Rohrbach Real Estate; Medium Office, Century 21 Home Advisors; and Large Office, Berkshire Hathaway, Centerville.

Donna Giovingo presented Roger Steffy, TLC Director, with a record-breaking check for $35,500 from the proceeds of the September 21st TLC Fundraiser at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

The winners of the five $100 cash door prizes were Jeff Kurtz, Scott Lee, Josh Packer, Ken Pederson & Marlena Stoltzfus.

2019 LCAR President Richard Boas, Jr. served as the Master of Ceremonies, and the following is his formal introduction of 2022 LCAR President Greg Bardell and Greg's acceptance speech.

Richard:  Greg moved to Lancaster County from Thompsontown, PA in 1984 to attend Millersville University and study Clinical Psychology. After getting his degree in 1988, he worked for two years in the mental health field before getting his real estate license in March, 1990. This move was not well received by his mother even though his father was a new home sales manager for a local home builder and real estate WAS the family business!

After selling only one home in his first full year in the business, he went on to create a guaranteed sale program that sold almost 2,000 homes over a 25-year period and operated throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and Nebraska.

In 2005 he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in an effort to raise money to build housing for an orphanage in East Africa – something he has referred to as a life-changing experience. After returning from Africa, he was accepted into Lehigh University’s MBA program from which he now holds a master’s degree in Business Administration, as well as two graduate certificates – one in Project Management and a second in Corporate Entrepreneurship.

In 2010 Greg entered the real estate Brokerage business and went on in 2014 to open the first Realty ONE Group real estate office east of the Mississippi River. His daughters, Grace and Emily, joined him in the family businesses after both graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2018.

In addition to being the Broker/Owner of Realty ONE Group Unlimited, he is also the Regional Executive Director for the Mid-Atlantic region which he and his team have grown to 43 offices, 1,000 agents and over $2 billion in sales since 2016. In 2021 he acquired the Master Franchise development rights for 23 Caribbean nations for Realty ONE Group. He and his team expect to build out that region as well over the next five years.

Greg began serving on the LCAR Board of Directors in 2017, and today we induct him as our 2022 Lancaster County Association of Realtors President. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Greg Bardell.

Greg:  Thank you…good afternoon and welcome! I have been a member of LCAR for almost 32 years, and it is truly an honor to be elected as President of the Association for the year 2022. But we have much to do.

2021 and 2022 are truly years of transition for our Association. We are dealing with issues we haven’t had to deal with in almost 50 years. As appreciative as we are for the work that has been done in the past and the people sitting in this room who did it, we now must recreate ourselves as we look to the future and prepare us for the challenges we face today and in the years to come.

So much has changed in so little time. We were subject to the Governor’s non-essential business shutdown in 2020. In 2021 we have been impacted by some of the decisions stemming from NAR. And finally we are dealing with the departure of our Executive Vice President who served our Association for 47 years. 

Today, our membership is younger than ever, more connected than ever and larger than ever with over 1,600 Realtor members. At the Association level, we are having to find new ways to communicate and new ways to operate our Association to meet all these changes and challenges.

To that end, we have created several new initiatives to improve transparency, improve engagement with our members and our political leaders, improve the interaction between agents in transactions and improve how our Board of Directors functions. The six objectives for 2022 are as follows:

1. Continue what we started in 2021 with utilization of our social media platforms and our new website to better drive communication and engagement.
2. Recast the roles and responsibilities of our Board Members by decentralizing decision making and control. Individual Board Members will have greater involvement and oversight of committees that do the work of the Association.
3. Form an Owner-Manager Council to review and discuss important issues affecting our local market and our daily practice here in Lancaster.
4. Expand the role of our Governmental Affairs committee to be more active in our engagement with local, state, and federal officials on all matters affecting real estate practitioners and our consumers.
5. Look to create an Education Committee to oversee the courses and activities of our real estate school by offering more training and promoting further education for our membership.
6. Last, but certainly not least, hire a new executive vice president to lead our Association into the next decade.

We have a very busy year in front of us, and we need your help. There are many opportunities to get involved. We still need more members on the Communications and Member Engagement Committee, we need help on our Community Outreach programs, we want more input and participation in governmental policy at the local, state, and federal levels, and finally our professional standards – the ethics and standards of practice that we abide by every day.

The next time you ask, “What is LCAR doing for me?” I would ask you, "What have you done for LCAR?" Now is your chance. There are so many ways to be involved, so many ways to make this Association better. But it is up to all of us. To that end, I would like you to do a few things when you leave here today. Go back to your office and share this message that change is in the air. Challenge your office members to join us on social media and follow what is happening. Take an interest in what the Board is doing. Pay greater attention to what the committees are doing. And attend more Association events and activities.

This Association exists to represent YOU, your interest, your careers and the interest of your clients. Now is the time. Please get involved, stay involved and participate in protecting the business we all love.

Before I leave you today, there are some important thank yous that I need to make. 

• All the LCAR volunteers - The work you do is important and appreciated. Thank you for the commitment of your time and all your efforts throughout the year.
• The LCAR staff – you are some of the best in the business and a large part of who we are and what we are is because of you. Thank you for all your work during this difficult year.
• Pennsylvania Association of Realtors Officials including President Chris Raad who is here with us today. I am a big fan of PAR. The work you do, the relationships you have with our state legislators and your dedication to our membership is noted and appreciated. Thank you!
• Local, State & Federal Legislators here today - Thank you for all your work to make our industry an essential business in Pennsylvania. For many of us, our careers span generations such as is the case with my own. We thank you for doing the heavy lifting to get us back to work!
• Frank Christoffel III - What a special man. After 47 years at the helm of LCAR, your dedication to the real estate agents, brokers, owners and to Lancaster real estate consumers. We are better because of you and cannot thank you enough for your life’s work. Thank you, Frank!
• Finally, Tom Blefko - And we thought 2020 was a rough year! 2021 proved to be a year of great uncertainty and instability, but you steadied the ship and you led our organization with an amazing amount of skill, dedication and class. I know we are competitors, but we are also friends. You were the right person, at the right time and did exactly the right job. Thank you, Tom, for all that you have done.

I wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday!

Thank you!