The Leader - September 2007 - (Page 8) messaGe fr om the ceo by prentice knight, iii mcr – 25 years of developing talent My message in the last issue of the Leader stressed that people are the critical resource for the growth and development of corporate real estate management. We must do a better job of both recruiting talent to our industry and developing our talent. One of the keys to developing talent is a robust educational program. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) designation, a program that demonstrates both the strong commitment of CoreNet Global to education and the need to further develop that program to meet the changing educational needs of our industry. NACORE initiated the Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) in 1982 as a professional designation for corporate real estate management. IDRC started the Board Certification for Corporate Real Estate Management (BCCR) as its professional designation in 1996. When IDRC and NACORE merged to create CoreNet Global in 2002 the two designations were combined to form a single professional designation carrying the MCR name. This new MCR is based on a new set of requirements developed by drawing on the best features of both the original MCR and the BCCR. From a small beginning the MCR has grown into strong global program, as indicated by the following statistics: n 1,240 people have earned the MCR designation n People in 19 countries currently hold the MCR n 985 people are currently official candidates for the MCR The success of the MCR stems from a dedicated staff team, an outstanding volunteer faculty and a body of MCR holders and candidates who believe that continuing education is the foundation for professional excellence and advancement. Becky Binder and her staff team have developed a quality program and provide outstanding guidance and support for the staff and students. The 121 instructors and speakers are primarily volunteers who are passionate enough about education to develop and deliver courses while working full time in our industry. Together staff, faculty and students have created a dynamic MCR community that supports the program and promotes the importance of professional education in our industry. Every year, for example, the MCR graduation dinner is attended not only by the new MCR graduates but also by a large number of MCR holders who want to congratulate the new members and welcome them into the MCR community. The use of dedicated volunteer faculty and face-to-face learning results in highly rated courses in the MCR program. However, this also limits the scalability and accessibility of the MCR. CoreNet Global now has members distributed around the world, and members everywhere have less time for educational travel. Therefore, we must develop an educational delivery system that blends face-to-face and virtual learning. In some cases an entire course th e le ade r will be online. In many cases, however, a course will have an online component, a live virtual component, and a face-to-face component that is focused on discussion, debate, team projects and non-routine learning. In addition, because teaching requires a substantial investment of time that limits the pool of people able to volunteer as faculty, we also must develop a learning model that combines paid faculty and volunteer faculty. One way to do this is develop strong partnerships with universities and other associations. Brenda Wisniewski, CoreNet Global’s Chief Learning Officer, is in the process of designing a new learning model for CoreNet Global that will make learning more accessible in terms of time and cost, is more scalable to accommodate growth and change, and employs a broader range of educational resources. You will be hearing more about this from Brenda in the near future. We have reason to celebrate the first 25 years of the MCR. It is a strong professional designation with increasing credibility in the marketplace. We are now ready to take the MCR and the entire CoreNet Global education program to a whole new level of quality, accessibility, credibility and influence in the marketplace. 8 september / october 2007
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