AREW membership at 30-year high.

The Association of Real Estate Women (AREW) is experiencing a recordbreaking season having recently announced that sponsorship has increased 69% over last year's figures and membership is approaching the highest in the association's 30-year history.

"As the industry works its way through the financial markets meltdown and troubled economy, we are gratified so many leading companies and real estate professionals see the value in the exposure, educational programs and networking opportunities AREW offers," said AREW president Jennifer A. McCool, Related Companies, LP.

McCool took the helm of AREW in June 2008 and, with newly-installed 2008-09 officers and board, immediately began developing marketing strategies that would continue the momentum of the association's high profile 30th Anniversary Gala held in May 2008, and address sponsor marketing goals and member career needs in a turbulent economy.

Dubbing AREW's 31st year "The Next Generation of AREW" (a reference to an entire generation that has entered the real estate market since AREW's founding as well as a fresh, new vitality), the board adopted an aggressive marketing program that included provocative branding, repositioning AREW's image, an intensive advertising and promotional campaign and heightened emphasis on one-on-one and mass communications with its target audiences.

"Our goals are to help our members obtain a competitive edge through access to current knowledge and education and to provide opportunities to build relationships that build business, "said McCool. "The numbers prove we are succeeding."

AREW members and sponsors are in agreement that the association is providing an affiliation at the highest levels of association experience and meeting their expectations.

"This is an association whose leadership is committed to growing and diversifying its membership and sponsorship. It is succeeding by understanding the needs of its target audience; addressing the value-add of not only joining an industry association, but specifically this association; incorporating the market environment into their strategies; and making AREW a great resource in the new and challenging economic environment we find ourselves in," said new AREW member Laura Norman, shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

"We participate in AREW as both a sponsor and as members," said Helen Hwang, senior director, New York Capital Markets Group, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. "On the sponsor side, we feel AREW provides cost-efficient exposure of our brand to a wide audience of decision-making real estate professionals. As members, we are interested in meeting those same professionals on a one-on-one basis and building quality relationships."

The association has found its marketing efforts and the state of the real estate market coincided in what could be called a perfect storm. Some new members cite the slower market as allowing for more time to network within the industry. Others were seeking ways to improve their career skills and stay on top of market trends. And some were looking for an organization that allowed for maximum exposure to the full spectrum of the industry.

"My company has been doing work for real estate companies and we felt it would be productive, for both educational and business development reasons, to explore joining an industry association,"' said Orit, founder and principal of O Group, a leading strategy and design firm specializing in luxury brands. "We elected to join AREW because the diversity of membership and many opportunities for networking would best serve the goals of our organization."

Another contributing factor to AREW's record-breaking year has been the return of members who took another look at AREW based of its new positioning and the sense that something important was happening within the organization.

"The demands on my time were so great that I let my membership lapse and attended the occasional luncheon," said Diane Cramer, vice president, client relations for B.R. Fries & Associates. "But I felt compelled to to re-join AREW this year. There's a new energy and sense of excitement as well as superior educational events and networking."