At Home with Diversity Sponsor Responsibilities and Considerations

About the Course

At Home With Diversity is an award-winning certification course that will empower REALTORS® to reach out and serve the increasingly diverse population. It is an educational experience designed to present a picture of the changing face of the real estate industry. More importantly, the course teaches how real estate professionals can increase their sensitivity and adaptability to future market trends. These skills will help professionals to thrive as effective service providers and community leaders.

At Home With Diversity is a six to seven hour course, and addresses issues of diversity, fair housing, and cultural differences. All three subjects are closely related and have value for real estate professionals who must serve diverse local markets.

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Goals of the Course
The course has two major goals. The first goal is to heighten awareness of and sensitivity to the social and cultural constituencies of local real estate markets. Participants will learn about the types of people who make up the local market, along with their values, customs, real estate needs, and expectations of real estate professionals.

The second goal of the course is to provide practical skills and tools to increase the professional’s effectiveness in servicing all social groups. Specifically, the course provides skills in cross-cultural communication and strategic business planning.

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The Audience

This course is an educational opportunity for real estate brokers, agents, association executives, and anyone associated with the real estate industry.

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Course Time

The course is structured in two sessions. Each session is approximately three hours. The exact length of the course will vary between six and eight hours depending on the number of participants and the number of exercises that are offered. The course can easily be expanded for participants who require more than six hours of training to earn continuing education credit. Note: Because of the length of the course, participants must arrive and return from breaks promptly. You are advised to emphasize this point with your instructor and your attendees.

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Hiring a Facilitator

You are responsible for hiring a facilitator for the course. Occasionally, two facilitators may team up to teach the course. All facilitators must be authorized by NAR. NAR reviews facilitator qualifications, and requires that candidates complete a one-day training workshop before granting authorization to teach the At Home With Diversity course.

A list of all authorized facilitators, and contact information, is maintained on the NAR Diversity website, http://www.realtor.org/divweb.nsf. If you wish to verify the authorization status of a facilitator whose name is not on the list, please call NAR at 202-383-1201.

NAR offers instructor training several times a year, usually at NAR regional or national meetings.

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Facilitator Compensation

You are responsible for negotiating the details of compensation with the facilitator. You may also want to discuss and plan how administrative issues such as attendance and course certificates will be managed.

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Administrative Responsibilities

You and the facilitator will decide which administrative tasks each of you will handle. These tasks include distribution and collection of course registration/certificate application form, license agreements, and eligibility affidavits.

Plan to have extra copies of participant manuals, license agreements, and eligibility affidavits on hand.

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Registering Your Course with NAR

You must register your course with NAR. We suggest that you register the course at least one month prior to the course date. You will be asked to sign a Sponsor’s Agreement form and provide the date, time, and location (including street address) for each course that you offer.

Please refer to your signed sponsor agreement concerning your role and responsibilities in offering the At Home With Diversity course.
There is a course fee of $150 for each registered course offering, regardless of the number of registered participants. The course fee is not due when you register the course. NAR recognizes that not all courses take place as originally scheduled. You will be sent an invoice upon ordering the certificates for the course. Please order the certificates one to two weeks prior to the course date.

To register your course, call NAR at 202-383-1201, or email NAR at http://www.realtor.org/divweb.nsf. NAR will issue a course ID number for each At Home With Diversity course. These course ID numbers will allow you to input and report participant information on NAR’s web-based database. Individual participants will need the course ID number to receive certification in the course.

Registering your course with NAR helps NAR identify opportunities for additional course promotion, and is the only way NAR has the information necessary to promote courses on the Internet.

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Course Certificates

Please order a course certificate for each registered participant at least ten business days prior to the course. If you need additional certificates for late registrants, please order their certificates within three business days after the course. Call 1-800-874-6500 extension 1201, or 1-202-383-1201.

To receive a certificate at the completion of the course, each participant must sign the registration and the license agreement/affidavit forms provided by NAR.

Additionally, the participant must be:

• Free from fair housing violations within the last 12 months.
• In good standing to do business with HUD.
• In compliance with the fair housing conciliation agreements, court orders, and settlements.
• Free of charges of violations of fair housing laws at the time of application.

Course Materials

NAR will provide all the course materials via computer disk. You are responsible for preparing the printed materials that will be used in the course.

The disk will contain the following documents:

• The facilitator (and participant) manuals
• The PowerPoint presentation that accompanies the course
• A student registration/certification application form
• An eligibility affidavit
• Certificate license agreement
• Course evaluation form
• Letter of course completion
• Sponsor Guide
• Facilitator Guide

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Promoting and Advertising Your Course

Start advertising your course as soon as possible. Courses that are offered for continuing education credit often have the best attendance. Call your state real estate association or state real estate commission for more details about qualifying the course for continuing education credit.

It is a good idea to invite managers, brokers and association executives to your first course. They can help promote diversity throughout their organizations, and help you promote the At Home With Diversity course in the future.

You are welcome to use advertising information from NAR’s website, http://www.realtor.org/divweb.nsf. For additional promotional material, please call 1-800-874-6500 extension 1201, or 1-202-383-1201.

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Sponsor Checklist

Schedule the Course

• Select the date, time, facility, and the facilitator/instructor. (The terms facilitator and instructor are used interchangeably.)
• Make sure the facilitator(s) is authorized to teach the course by the NAR.
• Determine who (sponsor or facilitator) will complete the administrative tasks necessary for the course. Remember, you must be a licensed sponsor in order to offer the course, and must adhere to the terms of the sponsor agreement.
• Contact NAR (202-383-1201) with the name of the facilitator, date, time, and location of the course.
• Promote the program early and often.
• Review the computer disk that has the course materials to ensure you have everything you need. The following documents are on the computer disk:
  • Facilitator Manual: Cover page and Sections 1 through 10
  • Participant Manual: Cover page and Sections 1 through 10 (Sections 1 through 10 are the same for both the Facilitator and Participant Manuals. Print the Facilitator Manual without the facilitator notes.)
  • The PowerPoint presentation that accompanies the course (Note: If you will be using overhead transparencies, you can print them from the disk, or contact NAR at 202-383-1201 to request a hard copy.)
  • Sponsor Guide
  • Facilitator Guide
  • Course Registration and Certificate Application form.
  • Diversity license agreements and eligibility affidavits for participants of the At Home With Diversity course.
• Read the materials and review the overheads (even if you are not the facilitator).
• Make sure the facilitator has the Facilitator Manual, PowerPoint presentation, and Facilitator Guide.
• Make sure the facility has the equipment required:
• Overhead projector and screen, or computer projection system.
• Flip chart, masking tape, markers or whiteboard and markers.
• Ensure the facility complies with American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.
• Track the number of registrants on a regular basis to ensure that you have reserved an appropriately sized room, you have prepared a sufficient number of manuals, and have enough forms for all participants.

2-3 Weeks Before the Course and as Students Register

• Verify the number of registrations, and print a Participant Manual for each participant.
• Confirm the reservation and availability of the facility and rented equipment.
• Arrange for refreshments (if applicable).
• Confirm that the facilitator will teach the course.

Day of the Course

• Distribute the course registration/certification forms, affidavits and license agreements to all participants.
• Ask the participants to sign all the documents. All documents must be signed in order to receive certification.
• Collect the signed documents.
• Have extra copies of all documents available for those who would like a copy for their personal files.

After the Course

• Log on to http://www.realtor.org/cultural.nsf/webstart?openform.
• Click on the Add New Student button.
• Enter the student information.
• Click on the Submit Student Information button after you have entered all the information.
• Mail the course evaluation forms to NAR.