Our Mission:
The Home Builders Association of Ft. Wayne, Inc. supports all segments of the residential building industry through advocacy, education, workforce development, networking and community involvement.
To carry on from last month and our Strategic Plan lets focus specifically on Government-Regulatory Affairs. Membership is always important, but illustrating the benefits of membership is key. Let’s take a moment to concentrate on the Government-Regulatory Affairs pillar of our Strategic Plan.
As part of your local HBA membership, you are also part of IBA (State Membership) and NAHB (National Membership). On all levels, you have a team of people working on your behalf with local, state, and national governments to keep housing affordable. As an example, many communities are now administering architectural standards, but because of a lot of hard work with local officials, we do not. Land use is another area that gets a lot of concentration.
Government-Regulatory Affairs is important because it helps us grow our 5 pillars including Membership, Workforce Development, Government-Regulatory Affairs, Event Networking, and Public Relations. Locally, our concentration with Government-Regulatory Affairs comes down to three goals.
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Dedicate HBA resources towards monitoring and reviewing new building codes through our codes committee.
Our Codes Committee met once a month to review the new code that was adopted in December 2019. They reviewed every chapter, providing notes of concern to the state as to what should and should not be passed and the reasoning behind their decisions. -
Reinvigorate our Government Affairs Committee to have 7 – 10 active members.
We are still working on this goal. If you’re interested in or involved in local politics, we’d like you to join this committee as we prepare for the upcoming election season. -
Engage up to 50% of our members registering for Voter Voice/Builder Link calls to action.
How many have seen the Voter Voice information at the bottom of Beth’s emails? Have you taken a couple of minutes to sign up? This service allows you to stay informed on current legislative actions through the Indiana Builders Association. Your response to calls of action will play a large part in what gets adopted during each legislative session.
Alongside our regulatory efforts, we need to continually focus on retaining our current members. Through your networking efforts, you may be the touchpoint they need to remain a long-term member—reach out to your fellow members. We know time is tight for everyone, so we’ve added several touchpoints throughout the year to engage and educate members on all the benefits of their membership, regardless of their in-person interactions.
My goal in showing you this is not only to be held accountable but to show you everything going on if you were not aware. Where do you think you could get plugged in? Maybe it’s just asking one prospective member a month to join and now you have another reason why. If you have a question about something, please feel free to reach out to me and I will do all I can to assist.
Have a great month everyone,
Greg Gerbers
HBA President
Contact Me by phone at (260) 969-1311 or email at greg@dehayes.com