Alyce C. Kleczek

Bay Realty Ltd.

 

The Rhode Island Association of REALTORS® has chosen Alyce C. Kleczek of Bay Realty, Ltd. to be the 2009 Rhode Island REALTOR® of the Year. It is the highest annual honor awarded by the state association. The winner is chosen from five Realtors recognized by one of five local Rhode Island REALTOR® boards. Alyce also received an award for Distinguished Service to the State-Wide Multiple Listing Service at the 2009 RIAR Recognition and Installation Dinner on October 22nd.

Alyce is also the 2009 KWAOR REALTOR® of the Year and was installed as 2010 President of the Kent Washington Association on October 8th. 

Alyce’s REALTOR® Spirit shines the brightest in her constant promotion of education in the pursuit of professionalism of her fellow REALTORS®. “It’s a reputation business,” she says, one that requires full time attention and an ongoing renewal of credentials and expertise. Real estate is “a responsibility involving people’s most expensive investment” and that it is “critical to be a professional.”

As an instructor at RIAR, Alyce enjoys teaching Code of Ethics, Agency, Forms and Contracts and MLS classes. She is Mediator for both KWAOR and RIAR. She has been a REALTOR® liaison to the Rhode Island Real Estate Home Inspectors, has testified before the Rhode Island House Corporations Committee, has organized and conducted a “First Time Home Buyer Informational Seminar,” and has been interviewed by local media, including the Providence Business News in 2009. She has been a consistent RPAC contributor, giving every year from the beginning of her REALTOR® membership to the present.

Alyce began her real estate career in 1983 upon her return to the United States from Osterholz-Scharmbeck, West Germany, after living 16 years overseas. She and her husband Ed were educators in the U.S. Department of Defense schools, where they met. Their three children were all born in Germany. They settled in Rhode Island in 1982, at a time when both interest rates and unemployment were high. There were no positions in teaching or as a guidance counselor available at that time. During the process of purchasing a home, Alyce’s interest in real estate was piqued. Real estate became her new profession.

She began as a rental agent at Carty-Connors Real Estate in Narragansett. Late in 1983, she transferred to Munroe Rental Agency in Wakefield. She transferred from rental and property management to real estate sales within a year and remained with the Munroe Agency until joining Bay Realty, Ltd. in Narragansett in 1995, where she continues to enjoy her real estate career.

Alyce joined the Washington County Board of REALTORS® in January of 1985 and became actively involved in the board when she joined the Equal Opportunity Committee in 1986. Between 1995 and the present, Alyce has served on the Bylaws Committee as a member from 1990 to 1999 and as Chair from 2000 until the present. She has also Chaired the Finance Committee in 2007 and the Strategic Planning Committee in 2009. She served as a member of the Professional Standards Committee and on hearing panels from 1989 to 2009, was a member of Equal Opportunity, Finance, Nominating and Personnel Committees and on the Policy Manual Task Force in 2005. Alyce has been a Mediator for the Association since 1998.

She served as a Director of the Washington County Board of REALTORS® from 1992 to 1995 and as a Director for the Kent Washington Board of REALTORS® from 1995 until the present. She has served on the Executive Committee since 2006, as KWAOR Treasurer in 2007, Vice President in 2008 and President-Elect in 2009. She will be installed as 2010 President this Fall.

Alyce recently completed two terms as President of Statewide MLS and has also served as MLS Treasurer in 2006 and 2007, and as a Director from 2003 to the present. She was a member of the MLS Bylaws Committee and Forms Committee from 1994 to 1996. She has been a RIAR and an MLS instructor since 1998.

Alyce has served on the RIAR Board of Directors since 2000, and has been Parliamentarian for the Board since 2004. Her Committee work at the State level includes her membership on the Forms Committee from 1994 to present, as well as being Co-Chair of that Committee in 1996 and 1998 and Chair in 1994-95, 1997, 1999 and 2000. She was also a member of the Bylaws Committee from 1990-96, and 1999-2009, Co-Chair in 1997-98 and Chair in 2003. She was a member of the License Law Committee from 1993-95, and Chair in 1996. She has been a member of the Professional Standards Committee since 1995 and has served as a hearing panel member each year of membership.

She was an invited member of the Agency Task Force from 1994-96, and then a member of that Task Force 2005 to 2008. She was a member of the Waste Management Task Force from 2005-2008 and a “Sharks” Panel member for education in Agency in 1995 and 1996. From 1993-95 she was the RIAR Liaison to the RI Real Estate Home Inspectors Association.

She attended all of the RIAR Conventions between 1984 and 2003 and attended the Annual Business Day in 2004 and 2005. She also participated in all of the State Leadership Conferences from 1990-1996 and from 1998 to 2009.

Alyce is a member of the NAR Multiple Listing Issues and Policy Committee. She trained at NAR as a Mediator in 2000, attended the Midyear Governance Meetings in Washington, D.C. in 2008 and 2009, as well as the REALTORS® Conference and Expo in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

As a new rental agent, Alyce completed a course offered by the RI Builders Association in Basic Electricity and Small Appliance Repairs in order to better serve the landlords and tenants in providing quick and inexpensive repairs and service. In 1996 she organized and conducted a “First Time Home Buyer Information Seminar” at a local restaurant.

Alyce achieved the designations of GRI in 1986, CRS in 1988, and CBR in 1998. She completed the Certified Buyer Representative course. She was a member of the Prudential Real Estate Affiliates “Leading Edge Society” in 1992-93, and became a Prudential Certified Home Buying Specialist in 1994. She was also a member of the KWBR Million Dollar Sales Club in 1995 and 1996, and a winner of the KWBR Circle of Sales Excellence Award from 1998 through 2005.

In 1995, she was the recipient of the Washington County Board of REALTORS® Distinguished Service Award, and received a special award from RIAR in appreciation of her service the following year. In 2006 she received the Kent Washington Association of REALTORS® Richard L. Phipps Distinguished Service Award for unselfish dedication of her time, talent and energy to the Association and its members.

When she and Ed first moved to Rhode Island in the 1982, her volunteering began as a Cub Scout den mother, later spiraling out into the community to include participation on the Parent Advisory Committee for South Kingstown High School for review by the National Accreditation Team. From there she went on to serve on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the Town of South Kingstown, in preparation for the town’s 10 year Comprehensive Plan. Meeting bi-weekly from 1989 to 1992, the Committee members undertook a self-education process, conducting in-depth research in order to make recommendations on everything from education to commercial zoning and development to the placement of sewer systems. Alyce provided leadership in the Committee’s research on housing and development. She rarely missed a meeting throughout the entire two year process.

As an elementary level teacher and guidance counselor for the Department of Defense in West Germany, Alyce had worked with the children of service personnel, government workers and diplomats. Even though she and her husband Ed had grown up living 20 miles apart in Massachusetts, they did not meet until she was conferring with him, an Assistant Principal, over a problem student. They married in West Germany and had two daughters and a son. Summers frequently included taking their children in the Winnebago and traveling all over Europe, including Eastern Europe. When they returned stateside and settled in Rhode Island, Alyce brought with her the wider perspective of someone well traveled, and she still retains a sense of adventure. To those who know Alyce well, it would come as no surprise that on trips to REALTOR® conventions, she is always ready for sightseeing in her free time and trying something new. Alyce and Ed have been married for 41 years and have lived in Narragansett and South Kingstown since 1982. Their favorite travel these days is visiting their grown children and four grandchildren.

As we are not always mindful of the structures that we inhabit and that shelter us day in and day out, so too do we sometimes become accustomed to the contributions of those individuals who quietly give of themselves year after year. These persons provide the glue that holds organizations together, consistently upholding and renewing the structure that gives form to the profession and defines its purpose. Such a person is Alyce Kleczek. She attends almost every General Membership Meeting and Association function, and she has never said “no” when asked to help. In an industry in which self-promotion is a requisite, Alyce lets the body of her work as a REALTOR®, educator, mediator and consummate wordsmith speak for itself. She harnesses the power of precise language in the service of professional standards of conduct, ever mindful of accuracy and compliance. As an Officer and Director, she keeps a vigilant eye on finances. In this time, when it is becoming increasingly obvious that small details and decisions have long-term consequences, she is ready to lead. It is with great pride and deep gratitude that we name Alyce Kleczek the Kent Washington Association's 2009 REALTOR® of the Year.