The Inspector Committee met in Austin on October 9th and for the first time, the meeting was available to be viewed online in real time. This allowed license holders and members of the public to view the meeting live. This was an initial test run to see if streaming the meeting will be practical. No decision has yet been made about future streaming as TREC staff is continuing to explore options.
The new fiscal year started on September 1 and it has already been an eventful year. Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast at the end of August and caused unprecedented damage and disruption to those persons living and doing business in that part of the state. In recognition of the hardship caused by Hurricane Harvey, the Commission extended licensing and renewal deadlines statewide for all license holders and applicants with August and September deadlines until October 31, 2017.
October has just concluded and November is here. This is always an exciting time with the World Series (How about those Astros!?), Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos, and the beginning of deer hunting season in Texas. October 31 also closes our State Employee Charitable Campaign month, with new highs reached each year for generosity by our team members.
The full Inspector Committee met on Monday, July 17. On the agenda was a discussion of the pros and cons of continuing to exempt certain education providers from TREC licensure requirements (22 TAC 353.71 and 22 TAC 535.218).
The Commission met on August 7th for its regular quarterly meeting. Because of the number of bills that passed during the 2017 legislative session affecting the agency’s license holders and the agency’s operations, a large number of draft rules were proposed.
Education is often the focus of the articles written by the Chair or me. This is because improving inspector education has been the focus of the Committee over the last couple of years.
As the Commission and its staff get prepared for its next meeting on Monday, August 7th, I am pleased to tell you that the summer has been very productive. All of the agency teams are handling very high volumes of matters, even with daily staff numbers reduced due to summer vacations. Despite this, the teams are keeping up with demand, but not as many or as quickly as we want.
The full Inspector Committee met on April 3 to review the education related rules proposed at the February Commission meeting and discuss any needed changes to those rules prior to their adoption, of which there were none. The Committee recommended the rules be adopted as proposed and the Commission did so at its May 1st meeting. In addition to reviewing the proposed rules, the Committee also discussed the exempt CE providers rule and possible ways improve the process for awarding CE credit from those providers.
The full Inspector Committee met on February 3rd to discuss various education-related items. Part of the agenda for that meeting was the election of officers for the upcoming year. I was elected as Chair, Lee Warren was elected Vice-chair, and Brad Phillips was elected as Secretary. I believe I speak for all of the newly elected officers in expressing our appreciation to the Committee for their trust.
The Commission met for its regular quarterly meeting on Monday February 13th in Austin. This date is always selected to coincide with the Winter Meeting of the Texas Association of REALTORS so that more license holders for across the state get the chance to attend. 
It was also the meeting at which we elect officers and license holders can earn CE credit for attendance. As usual, it was a full agenda of reports fr