I have been a member of other similar networking groups with nowhere near the success of the Baldwin Business Council.  I have been with the core member group for over 5 years.  Being in real estate sales, I am a “big ticket item” so referrals to me are somewhat limited.  However, in the past 2 years, I have had an additional 9 transactions resulting entirely from this group.  In addition, I use this group to make me THE source of information for my clients.  Almost any vendor they may need, I have someone I can refer them to.  In essence, I have my very own “Concierge Service”. 

If you know anyone in need of an experienced Realtor – whether buying, selling, or renting – please send them my way.  Let me put the “Real” in the Real Estate Dreams.

Ginny Stopa, CRS, ABR, CDPE

RE/MAX By The Bay

Toll Free: 800-625-8330

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DAPHNE, Alabama -- With news reports on the rise about traffic deaths and injuries caused by texting while driving, a team of three teenagers -- 2 of them from the Eastern Shore -- came together this summer to find a remedy through technology.

Their solution was an iPhone app they dubbed textPilot, which was released this week on the Apple App Store at 99 cents per download.

"It’s something you read about all the time, kids having accidents because they’re texting, and every time you drive you have to remind yourself not to do it," said Matt Hogan, 18, a Spanish Fort High School student.

"This adds to the growing number of much-needed devices and applications that can help us all be safer on the road," said Andy Citrin, a Daphne attorney. His Citrin Safety Foundation offers a 6-hour "Alive at 25" safe-driving course a few times a year to teen audiences along the Gulf Coast.

"I’m really proud of these guys. I hope they have a ton of success with this and we see new versions coming out again and again," Citrin said.

It was Hogan who kicked off the app’s development 3 months ago after talking with a friend’s mother.

"I was hanging out at a friend’s house when his mom said she had this great idea for an app," Hogan said. The next day, he called Brian Schroeder, 17, of Greenville N.C.

"I knew him from seventh grade when we lived in North Carolina. He created the Slango App and has had a lot of success with that," Hogan said. Slango allows mobile access to Urban Dictionary, the popular web-based reference of slang words and phrases.

"He loved the textPilot idea. He said ‘Let’s do this,’" Hogan said. The pair then called on Joshua Hunt, 17, of Daphne, a graphic design student at Pensacola Christian College.

Hogan led the team while Schroeder did the coding and Hunt handled the graphics.

"We worked about 3 months and, wham, there’s textPilot," Hogan said. The app was released Monday.

The user can press a button to send a text message to selected groups of people that includes information such as departure time and GPS coordinates. The information can also be posted on the user’s Twitter account.

"You can send a message to your family group saying, ‘I’m on the road, so I won’t be texting. I’ll see you later. I love you,’" Hogan said. "You can have a friends group that you would send a different message to, probably leaving out the ‘I love you’ part. That would be weird."

If anyone replies to that text, those messages will be forwarded to an email account to be viewed later, Hogan said.

TextPilot also has an emergency feature that, with brief hold of a button, automatically dials 911 and sends the user’s GPS coordinates to selected groups of people.