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.A two-year search to bring OMDREB's hun- dreds of members serving Oakville and Milton "residents the fastest and most efficient comput- Zer MLS system for transmission of colour pho- itographs and property details has resulted in a Eunit which can deliver a colour visual in six 'seconds. ’ “Oakville will have one of the most sophisti- Féated MLS systems in Canada when we complete our transformation,” explains public relations ommittee chairman Ken Mair. “We had a com- mittee search all of North America for the best system and the one chosen is an all-Canadian kfersion.” “Communities don’t just happen, they are built with a combined talent and skills of a range of people, ” commented her Worship. To people transferred into a new community such as Oakville, or who wish to move within Oakville boundaries, the services of the members of the real estate board are absolutely essential to make such a location or move, as effortless and as smooth as possible Oakville Magor Ann Mulvale congratulated OMDREB on its anniversary move to Navy Street, noting the vast range of changes and challenges which members have over- come. “For the fourdecades of service, our sincere thanks â€"â€" the people of Oakville look forward to working with the pre- sent and subsequent members of the OMDREB to further enhance the calibre of service that potential and existing res- idents receive” REBs, with further improvements being constant- ,y added. Development results are shared in return for the right to use the system. "’ the usual pattern of events had unfolded, then Tom 'les would have been the Oakville, Milton and District Keal Estate Board's first â€" or charter â€"â€" president. But 1 persuaded the rest of the adâ€"hoc group that gathered - e old Riverside Lodge on Lakeshore Road East that he is “too old” and Bill Davis, now a sprightly 81, in his own words: “got stuck with it”. Davis, who took the guiding reins under protest â€"â€" because Giles did most of the research and much of the initial liaison to get the local group up and running â€"â€" looks back on the foundation now with a little pride and much humour. “Tom was the senior realtor. For years he had felt that we should get a group of us together,” explained the veteran The new Vandat operation was first intro- ,uced by the Real Estate Board of Greater ’ancouver, but has been adopted by some 30 Veteran Looks Back from 40th Anniversary with Pride In the corner of the new Navy Street suite “I was a town council member, chairman of the planâ€" ning board and a member of the parish council at St. Jude’s church and with my own business I wasn’t around (my home) very much,” he said, recounting an evening when he came home to hear his wife tell him that one of his daughters had broken down in tears because she rarely saw her father. Davis in a special interview recently. It was Giles who had persuaded a member of the Brantford REB to come down to talk to the Oakville group that he felt should become a board to give it some membership advantages. “There was no rate of selling commission in those days. We could charge 3 to 4% or 8% whatever we want- ed. We went to the Ontario Association of REBs and got their blessing and then we got a copy of the Brantford con- stitution and we got one from Niagara and then we made up our own, taking the best out of each.” Davis said it took about a year from the first ideas of forming a real estate group in the to'wn to bring it to fruition. Taking the presidency gave him more responsibil- ities at a time when he had little scope to take on more positions. To gain access to the Vandat link, members dial OMDREB’s number and after the call is answered, computer modems exchange signals to establish the data link, then they enter their bro~ ker code, membership number and password. For some programmes, a manager’s password has to be entered. Members can call from the office, home or their laptop computers. So, at the stage, he resigned most of his honorary posi- tions. “My family came first, so far as I was concerned.” sits the “brains” of the Vandat system which uses Hewlett Packard-based equipment â€"â€" a suit- case-sized computer along with 12 grey boxes containing micro chips and gadgetry. It takes the place of a whole roomful of equipment used in the early years. Three types of property information is avail- able: Residential, Commercial/Industrial and Vacant Land. Seven districts are covered, with Oakville being divided into 16 sub areas and Milton into five sub areas. “Once you have loaded all the data, you can sort the information and have the colour picutre The new Navy Street Headquarters, near the town centre. However, he received an engraved silver cigarette case which he still possesses today, to commemorate his found- ing president’s year. Looking back on the 40 years since the OMDREB was inaugurated â€" with minutes dated Sep. 9 1954 â€" Davis recalls some of the local estate companies which have dis- appeared or been amalgamated: Clark, Craigmyle, Schreiber, Ryrie and Carter, Cornwall and so many indi- vidual businesses, including Tom Giles and himself. Young Davis, whose firm would provide two other future Oakville REB presidents down the years, started off selling insurance from his Lakeshore Road shop â€" a curi- ous circle of circumstance â€" because his son-in-law Peter and is now in the insurance business almost opposite at Carberry Davis brokers. Bill, who started selling property when he came home from the war, by buying the business from his father's estate, was made an honorary life member of the board in 1979. Both Margaret Paul and Rusty Cumberland,who worked for him, subsequently became OMDREB presi- dents, Margaret was the first female president in 1963 and Rusty held the office in 1965. One of his daughters, Sandra Davis Zulauf is still continuing the family link with real estate. At the moment -â€" as the first stage of the upgraded service â€" the Vandat system is only delivering property information at a lightening rate to members’ offices. But the second stage will bring the colour photos, just as quickly as the property history can be loaded and the corre- sponding pictures are scanned. “Eventually, I suppose it Will make our bi- weekly catalogue redundant,” admits general manager May Barrett, while noting that despite the new system, the catalogue is still likely to be used for some years to come. “It’s a marvellous system. It's amazing how fast technology brings change these days,” adds Mrs. Barrett. of a property on your monitor within six seconds. It’s just one more tool to enable our members to give top-notch service,” add Mair. “Some of the REBs out there are still just moving to black-and- White systems that take twice or three times as long to get on screen.”