We are well into the year already, and blessed with great weather.  Our program committee continues to mix up our events and locations to bring some excitement back to the general membership meetings.  On March 2, we welcomed William Strauss of the Federal Reserve Bank who gave us the 2017 economic forecast.  Looking forward to April 20, Kole’s will welcome us to their show room for our general membership meeting.

 

I hope you are all aware that your membership to SSHBA actually includes all three home builders organizations.  You belong to our local SSHBA, our state HBAI and to our national NAHB.  All three groups work at different levels and contain many resources to meet all of our needs.  Our national group, NAHB, is currently in discussions for some possible changes to the membership model and the overall governance of the organization.  We are trying to keep our board up to date as information is developed.

 

Our state home builder group, HBAI, has setup Tuesday May 9, 2017 as our HBAI Lobby Day in Springfield.  The days events will start with a briefing on pending legislation and lunch.  Then our members will meet with their legislators in the afternoon to be followed by an evening reception back at the Sangoma Club with invited legislators.  This is a free event and a great way to make your voice heard and see how the legislative process works.  Please call the office for details on transportation to Springfield that day.  I encourage everyone to try to participate this year.  Let’s have a unified voice at our capital. Also, on June 14, NAHB will be hosting our national legislative day in Washington, DC.

 

I want to remind everyone of the importance in our participation with the voter voice from HBAI.  From time to time, when an important issue arises that affects our industry, you will receive a voter voice request.  The email will automatically setup a letter from you to your appropriate legislator.  Feel free to personalize the letter and then please forward it on.  It will literally take less than a minute of your time to help make sure your voice is heard on the issues that affect your business the most.

 

 

As always – do business with a member.

As we begin this new year, there is a lot of optimism that the economy and our businesses will continue to get better. As it does, I think we all have a better appreciation for what we have accomplished. Now is the time to strengthen our foundations.

We have our work cut out for us this year, but I have great confidence that we have the right people to guide us through it. At the inaugural ball, I challenged our board of directors and committee chairs. We will need everyone’s help to achieve our goals, but in the long run it will benefit all of us with stronger programs and lobbying efforts. Get involved, and please send us your ideas and suggestions.

Your committee chairs have already been hard at work planning events this year. I encourage everyone to get on at least one committee. They are a great way to be active and to get to meet new people. Plus, its rewarding to know an event was successful because of your help.

We are going to get the year started off with a new event in January. Our kickoff party will allow our committee chairs the chance to recruit your talents for our unique events and goals.

In February, we will be bringing back our “date the builder” night. This event provides the opportunity for our builders to meet new subs in a one on one 5-minute presentation. Appropriately timed to get us prepared for the busy construction season this spring.

On March 2, we will welcome William Strauss with the Federal Reserve Bank. He will provide us with a new economic forecast for 2017. I encourage everyone to invite a guest for this popular and insightful event.

As always – do business with a member.