An attempt to air extreme dissatisfaction with the leadership of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors was thwarted late last week at a special meeting of the association’s board of directors. Sources say the issue is still very much alive, however, and will most likely be addressed at a later directors meeting.

The move comes on the heels of the removal of former MAR Executive Vice President Robert L. Nash from his post, which took place last month, and other controversial votes.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Nash – who still periodically works in MAR’s Waltham office – is considering taking legal action against the association for unlawful termination.

According to sources close to the situation, a number of MAR directors started a grassroots effort to express their dissatisfaction with leadership and try to unseat association President Fred Meyer shortly after the vote to remove Nash from office was taken.

The effort was apparently not a well-kept secret. E-mails to and from Realtors, informing them of the attempt to shake up association leadership by Nash supporters, were being circulated in the days leading up to the special directors meeting held July 13 in Framingham.

At the start of the session, which was held to discuss the association’s marketing of its MassForms real estate forms and finding a replacement for Nash, a motion was made to introduce new business at the meeting. The nature of the new business was not specified at the time.

Sources say the motion had to do with a proposal to remove Meyer from office, but two of the directors behind the motion, Richard H. Healey and Arthur M. Zweil Jr., deny that allegation.

“I’m looking to heal the association,” Healey said. “[Voting out Fred Meyer] is not my intention. I just want to look at methods to begin the healing process.”

When asked if a movement to oust Meyer was in the works, he responded: “I think internal issues should become news once they are a fact, and not beforehand.” He declined to comment further.

‘Cloak of Secrecy’
Although also denying that the motion would have involved a call to unseat Meyer, Zweil said there is widespread dissatisfaction among association members aimed at MAR’s upper leadership.

“The motion was not for the removal of any person at the head table, I swear to that,” Zweil said. “That may be their fear, because some of them are feeling guilty.”

Rather, Zweil said he wanted to address what he described as valid concerns about the manner in which MAR is being run.

“What we had [last week] was not a ‘real’ board of directors meeting,” Zweil said. “It was a tight agenda set by Fred [Meyer]. I believe the leadership has been acting under a cloak of secrecy.”

As an example, he said there has been no financial report presented to the membership since February. “The membership has no idea what’s being spent on the Nash issue, on this whole forms issue, or what it’s costing to have a professional [parliamentarian] at these meetings,” he said.

“If the true measure of the effectiveness of an association is the inclusion of the membership, the effectiveness and the control granted to the membership, we’re falling short on all counts.

“There are definite feelings by the membership that things are being hidden and not disclosed,” he continued. “That is not leadership. That is tyranny.”

Zweil said he believed Meyer has in some instances been in violation of MAR bylaws, but would not elaborate. “I think in certain instances he exceeded his authority, and I’m looking into that,” he said.

The parliamentarian at the meeting would not allow the new business to be discussed; stating that proper notice of the potential new business had not been given and it would be inappropriate to take the matter up at that time. A spokesman for MAR said that the organization’s policies allow only what has been posted on the agenda to be discussed at special director meetings.

The parliamentarian added that if enough directors supported the new business, they could prompt another special meeting to be called, where the issue could then be discussed.

In response to that, a motion was made about 10 minutes into the meeting to adjourn doing business until a later date. The motion to adjourn was eventually voted down and the meeting continued for about three hours.

“If they’re trying to hide behind a cloak of secrecy, it’s not going to work,” Zweil said. “It only takes 10 or 20 directors to get together to call [another] special meeting.”

Reached for comment on the matter the day after the meeting, Meyer said he had no knowledge of any movement against him that was afoot. “The first I’m hearing about this is from you,” he told Banker & Tradesman.

Later in the meeting, in response to several questions from the floor regarding the status of Nash, association officials gave an update on the situation.

Because MAR is still contractually obligated to continue paying Nash for 120 days after the vote to terminate him was taken, Nash continues to come into the office and do some work for the association, although the directors were told his schedule is not as regular as before the vote to terminate him.

Additionally, it was announced at the meeting that Nash is considering filing a lawsuit against the association for wrongful termination, and that negotiations between Nash and the association are ongoing.

In regular business at the special directors meeting, the association officially approved the list of search committee members charged with finding a replacement for Nash.

As was previously reported in Banker & Tradesman, the association has been considering forming a national search committee to find a replacement for Nash.

The seven-member search committee includes: Meyer; David Walsh, president-elect of MAR; James Dougherty, MAR’s immediate past president and current president of the Massachusetts Mortgage Association; Peter Casey, MAR’s treasurer and secretary; Paula Savard, a past MAR president and director of the National Association of Realtors; and David Bradley, a former MAR president.

The panel will be chaired by Edmund “Gil” Woods Jr., a former president of both NAR and MAR.

“This is the start of a positive new era for our organization,” Meyer said in a press statement. “We now have an outstanding team in place to find the very best person to lead our 15,000 Realtors into a strong, positive future.”

Meyer said the association has no further plans for making any announcements regarding the position of executive vice president until the search committee completes its work and the board of directors has approved the selection of the new executive officer.

In other action, the board of directors approved a measure that allows the association to once again aggressively market its real estate forms, an plan that proved to be controversial earlier this year and was eventually suspended for about five months.

MAR will now begin marketing the forms – an important source of non-dues revenue – at association meetings and conventions, on the MAR Web site, and through a direct-marketing campaign. An amendment was proposed by Dougherty that would have provided MassForms to members for free on the Internet, but that amendment was defeated.

MAR officials said although there were some concerns brought up about the new marketing efforts, the measure passed by a clear majority.

About 90 of the association’s more than 120 directors attended the special meeting.

“That was also a very positive development,” Meyer said of the approval of MassForms marketing. “We came up with a reasonable marketing proposal, and it gained the support of our membership.”

A motion was also passed that, in the future, proposed products and services are subject to 30 days of comment from local boards and executives before they are actually implemented.

The directors also passed a motion of “strong confidence in the abilities of current staff to carry on effectively the work of the association while the Search Committee does its work.” Although Meyer said in a press statement that vote was unanimous, sources at the meeting said there were a handful of dissenters who had concerns about any future effect a vote of confidence would have on the staff.