President’s Message: Addressing Challenges with Bright Remains a Top Priority

Phyllis Stakem, 2019 DAAR President

Following our conversion to Bright MLS in late 2018, challenges appeared within the system related to listing management, search, reports and exports, public records, client portal, statistics, dashboard navigation and subscriber accounts. In response, the DAAR Board of Directors appointed a Bright MLS Work Group, comprised of REALTOR® members who led the charge raising awareness of the need to improve the system. I would like to personally thank Tania Gonda, Michelle Frank, Margaret Halseth, Lou Cironi, Vicky Chrisner, Sue Smith, Sue Puleo, Kim Hurst, Kathleen Stakem, Mark Laing, Holly Weatherwax, John Kessler and Rocky Westfall for stepping up and participating in the work group.

The work group met with Vernon Jones, Regional Vice President, Bright MLS, on December 19th, 2018 to review and discuss issues, the rationale for a change and proposed solution. During the meeting, Vernon provided a response and feedback for each issue and shared the extensive process for considering changes and improvements. The Bright MLS Project management team, comprised of an expert team of thirty software developers, product managers, product experience team and third-party consultants, review, prioritize and determine how suggested changes fit into the overall system. The process for consideration and implementation often takes 6-8 weeks.

To expedite communication and advocate for solutions to growing challenges with the system, DAAR, NVAR and PWAR are now working together as part of a joint work group to help advocate improvements. Two videos from the CEOs and Presidents were produced raising awareness about the importance of this issue and efforts to work together.  The joint DAAR, NVAR and PWAR work group then met on Wednesday, February 27th and reviewed a newly created Requested Changes and Known Issues document  by Bright MLS to help track changes and improvements to date.  The group also discussed a timeframe for  additional issues and will meet again in the very near future to discuss progress on the issues that came up during that meeting.

In the meantime, you can track progress on each and every issue that will be addressed within the system here.  Please help us expedite that progress by taking time to submit data, technical, functional, structural and performance aspects of the system to DAAR via this form.   The information gathered is used to directly advocate for changes to add to that list with Bright MLS leadership.

As always, please continue to reach out to either me at president@dullesarea.com or Christine Windle, CEO, DAAR, at cwindle@dullesarea.com or 571-291-9803 (direct) if you have any thoughts or concerns to share.  We will continue to communicate with you via DAAR’s weekly news, dedicated Bright MLS page, social media and via the DAAR Ambassadors on progress moving forward with Bright.

All the Best,

Phyllis Stakem
2019 DAAR President