Greetings everyone,

I hope everyone’s projects are going well in this beautiful Illinois summer! Hopefully with the lower lumber prices and leveling mortgage rates we will see further momentum in our market.

The SSHBA had the month of July off from events but the fun Autobahn Event is Wednesday, August 24th at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. There are only 4 teams left to fill, get your teams together as this event sells out fast! The event starts at 4:00 P.M. and if kart racing isn’t for you, come on out as a spectator and stay for the buffet dinner and drinks after the race!

Following Autobahn will be the Annual Tour of Homes the weekends of September 17th/18th & 24th/25th. The Kick Off Party will be Thursday September 15th at Embers Tap House in Lockport. Stay tuned for all the details! We do need sponsors for the kick off party!

We’re starting to enter the last half of our year so there are a few reminders for you all. First, keep an eye out for the Directory data sheets coming out in the next month or so. We will be putting the 2023 Directory together soon and we want to be sure all of your contact information is correct.

Remember that year long membership drive? Well, the summer quarter is ending in September so keep working on bringing in new members to count for this time frame.

Last but not least, if you haven’t taken advantage of the member rebate programs with State and National you may want to check their websites for details hbarebates.com OR nahb.org/ma. These programs both will give you rebates on products you may already be using.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Brian Wille

Hello everyone! Looks like we are in the heat of summer with our hot dry weather!

Our June Golf Outing at Silver Lakes Country Club in Orland Park turned out to be a heated fun day with over 200 golfers attending! It was great to have so many nice raffle and auction prizes for the many winners! Thank you to all of our sponsors and Committee Members who participated in making this years golf outing so successful, it’s great to see everyone getting back to enjoying big social gatherings again! Be sure to check our photo gallery for some pictures of our fun day!

The next upcoming event will be a Builder Breakfast sponsored by Nicor Gas, to inform our members about possible gas bans and information on stretch codes. It will be held on August 2nd at 7:30 a.m. Location and further details to come soon!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Autobahn racing event on Wednesday, August 24th, this is always a good time and SELLS OUT! When the registration opens up don’t wait to sign up or you may miss out!

After that, the Tour of Homes festivities will begin. The tour will “kick off” with our Kick Off Party on Thursday, September 15th. Location and further details to come soon but we are in need of sponsors NOW! so head over to sshba.com/upcoming-events and sign up for one. The tour itself will run the weekends of September 17th/18th and 24th/25th. We will also urgently need advertisers for the map we are putting together for the tour. Deadline to submit ads is July 15th so don’t delay on this either! You can also register for ad space at sshba.com/upcoming-events

On a more serious note, if you have not heard, on June 10, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law an amendment to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act making general contractors (or trade contractors that themselves have subcontractors) liable for the wages of their subcontractors’ employees. The new law is commonly referred to as the “wage protection act.” HBAI had been fighting against this bill since earlier this year but unfortunately it has been signed and is in effect as of the time of signature. You will find additional details of this bill on page 9 and we are working with our Government Affairs committee to bring more information to you in some way in the very near future.

In closing, I’d like to again remind everyone that we’re in a long term membership drive. Members can earn up to 4x the spikes and the SSHBA will earn as much as 2,000 for new members gained this year. We stand by our motto “Build With a Member” so if you work with anyone not a member, this is a great time to bring them in!

Thank you and God Bless you all

Brian Wille

Greetings everyone, looks like we are finally going to get some nice weather for all of our projects we currently have underway!

Our April Kentucky Derby event at Harrahs Casino in Joliet turned out to be a really fun evening, with a large turn out of 150 people! Greater Illinois Title’s horse took the win in the races and Dick Searl’s won the $2500! Mark Scaggs was the highest ticket seller with 56 tickets! Thank you to all of our sponsors and Committee Members who participated in making the this years Kentucky Derby enjoyable, as well as successful! See photos on page 7.

The Train Crawl is our next event! Friday May 20th we will Ride the Rock Island line from Joliet and make stops in Mokena and Tinley, and then head back to Joliet. Be sure to sign up for this fun and social event!

After the Train Crawl will be our Annual Golf Outing on June 15th. We are more than half sold out so please register ASAP! We are in need of sponsors in all categories!

As much as we enjoy the social aspect of our association, help is needed from time to time to protect the building industry. Recently, NAHB sent a strong message to the Biden administration to take immediate action to address the issues that threaten to derail the current housing and economic expansion.

Members were asked to sign a letter to be sent and thanks to the effort, more than 10,000 signatures were received on the letter from members and home builders associations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Many people called, emailed, and the communication outreach efforts have paid off. View the final letter with the signatories on nahb.org/letter.

In closing, I’d like to remind everyone that we’re in a long term membership drive. Members can earn up to 4x the spikes and the SSHBA will earn as much as $2,000 for new members gained this year. We stand by our motto “Build With a Member” so if you work with anyone not a member, this is a great time to bring them on!

Thank you and God Bless you all.

Brian Wille

Greetings everyone, I hope your all doing well this winter and hopefully some spring like weather is around the corner. I hope everyone enjoyed IBS In Orlando , I look forward to hearing all about it!

January events included the PWB Sip and Paint which I’m told was a success! I heard there was a great turn out and a good time was had by all. Our other event was the chili cook off hosted by Chad Kurtz, Owner of Brakur cabinets in Shorewood.  Chad and company did a great job setting up their beautiful showroom up perfectly for what was a great party. There were many excellent chili entries with Sherry Wille taking first place with her organic grass fed beef chili, and Chad with a close second with his fantastic Pheasant chili. We had a big turn out for this event which gave us an opportunity to check out Brakur’s beautiful cabinetry and enjoy the fellowship of other members.

Coming in March we will have an Economic Forecast with Danielle Leach of Zonda Advisory. She did our Economic Forecast in 2019 and gave a great presentation so this will be good for sure. Registration is open and the flyer will be posted on page 6 for details. Please mark your calendars for the Kentucky Derby Event that will be on Friday April 29th! Keep your eyes out for the Kentucky Derby Raffle information that will be coming out soon!

Thank you all for your continued support of the SSHBA throughout the last year. Your dedication means everything to this association and we are so grateful you’re here!

We have already begun moving back to in-person events and back to regaining a bit more of normalcy for our Association. Our Cinco de Mayo event was a HUGE success. Special thank you to Dick Searls and his staff at Searls Windows & Doors, Inc. for hosting our event. We had a food truck with margaritas, a pinata, churros, and most important, over 60 people in attendance. Be sure to check out the photos on page 6.

On page 7 you will see our Tour of Homes recap which was another HUGE success…we’re sensing a trend here! We had 10 homes between 9 builders in the area and many reported traffic volumes higher than previous years.

Coming up we have our Annual Golf Outing on June 16th. We’re back at Silver Lakes in Orland Park this year. It is a guaranteed fun day for you whether you golf, staff a hole or just come out for dinner. Contact Kate at the office to get registered.

After the Golf Outing, there are a few events in the works but no firm dates yet. That means you should keep an eye on your emails from the office to stay in the know about SSHBA!

Our committees are all active and meeting again. If there is something you have an interest in and would like an opportunity to get involved, a committee is the best place to start. Ask Kate in the office for details.

This has been a great start to our year despite the difficulties we’ve all encountered. Let’s keep up the good work!