The chair of the N.C. Real Estate Commission is considering whether to spend commission money on a trip to Dubai next month for a conference organized by a real estate license law organization.

The commission does not receive tax dollars but draws its revenue from real estate license fees. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is a popular tourist destination.

The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials has offered to subsidize the travel for the commission's chair, Marsha Jordan of Lincolnton, by paying her registration, hotel and part of her airfare, said Phillip Fisher, the commission's executive director. No decision has been made, Fisher said. Commission members are considering sending Jordan to show their continued support for the association.

"It was with the understanding that it would have to be at little or no epense to the commission," Fisher said. "We’re obviously very sensitive to the budget impolications and the budget in general."

In the past, several commission members and staff have served as officers in ARELLO. The state commission's director of administration, Fran Whitley, was president last year and is slated to attend the Dubai conference completely at the organization's expense, Fisher said. ARELLO held a meeting in Asheville last year and Dubai sent representatives.

Phillip Fisher says the Order of the Long Leaf Pine has changed.

The executive director of the N.C. Real Estate Commission, who has compiled an exhaustive list of some 13,618 awards, told Dome that it originally was given to visitors, not North Carolinians.

"It seemed to be the award was commonly given to people who were visiting the state for some reason," he said. "It might be a celebrity. It might be people who were coming to attend a convention here. It was given to promote goodwill."

Since recipients were up to the discretion of the governor, it shifted. Later governors began giving it more to Tar Heels who had achieved some special accomplishment. In recent years, it has also been given to state workers with more than 30 years of service.

The first award Fisher could find was George Ringgold on June 15, 1965, under the administration of Gov. Dan Moore. But he said early records are spotty, so he could not rule out earlier awards.

Raleigh resident John Hagler says he received the award from Gov. Terry Sanford on Feb. 27, 1964.

More than 12,000 people have received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

That's the best-guess estimate from Phillip Fisher, the former president of the National Association of Real Estate License Law Officials and a recipient of the award in 1991.

Starting in 2000, Fisher made a list of the recipients by going through boxes of governors' papers at the Offices of Archives and History in Raleigh.

The list, which is in a three-ring binder alphabetized by last name, sits in a room at the state archives. Although it is not numbered, it has 131 pages with about 100 names on each page, said state archivist Dick Lankford. 

A recent article in Our State magazine says the first award was given to George Ringgold, editor of Film Careers magazine in Los Angeles, in 1965.

"The award appears to have been given in its early years as a gesture of goodwill or friendship to visiting dignitaries," notes reporter Janet C. Pittard. "Consequently, many of the earliest recipients were from out of state." 

Records from the first 17 years of the award are piecemeal, however. 

Previously: Gov. Mike Easley inducted 4,000 into Order.