CEO Blog: Welcome to the NEW HBA Housing News Weekly E-Newsletter!

In September of 1908, Henry Ford released the first production Model-T automobile. Previous to the release of this car, horse-drawn carriage was the preferred mode of transportation. From 1908 into the late 1920’s, carriage and buggy companies worked furiously to improve their product in order to compete with the expanding automobile industry. Luxury seating and amenities were added, aerodynamics were improved and even a better buggy whip (used to whip the horses) was created. One by one, despite their best efforts and in spite of many legitimate improvements, buggy and carriage companies found themselves shutting their doors. By the early 1930s, nearly all of them were out of business. The few that remained were shadows of their former selves, doing only a fraction of the business they had enjoyed years earlier.

Our HBA Housing News monthly magazine is the best product of its kind in the U.S. In August the National Association of Home Builders Executive Officers Council gave Housing News the 2008 Association Excellence Award in the category of “Best Communication to Members – Magazines Published.” But the important question isn’t whether we have the best product of its kind. The question is whether the “kind” remains the best way to communicate with HBA members in 2009 and beyond.

Consider the simple fact that any significant news published in Housing News has long since been released on the HBA website (or elsewhere) before this printed document shows up in your mailbox. HBA members who advertise in Housing News rightly expect greater accountability and less competitive clutter than may have been acceptable in years past. And they expect to pay for actual return-on-investment value – not ever-increasing printing and postage costs. These expectations are very reasonable given how readily they are met in most places advertising dollars are spent.

Still, there is something to be said for holding a well-crafted, visually interesting printed product in your hand. HBA members want their news content delivered in real-time and digitally accessible, but they also want something that will look good on a coffee table.

In an effort to increase value, accountability and service to HBA members, the October issue of Housing News (which arrived last week in mailboxes and can be accessed online by clicking here) is the last monthly Housing News magazine the HBA will publish. The HBA board of directors has voted to replace this product with a combination of two new products: Housing News Weekly e-newsletter and the Housing News Quarterly printed version.

The goal is to provide HBA members and advertisers with the best of both worlds. The weekly e-newsletter (which will arrive in the e-mail inbox of every HBA member beginning Monday morning, October 12) will provide more hard-hitting industry-specific news, real-time content, greater advertising accountability, measurable return on investment, less ad clutter, and greater frequency. The quarterly mailer will be a gorgeous product that really puts our association and its members’ best foot forward. It will tell our most compelling stories in a visually satisfying medium. And it will provide limited advertising and advertorial opportunities for those members who benefit more from the printed and mailed product.

When the marketplace is transitioning to the automobile, it makes little sense to double down on manufacturing buggy whips. This transition is one way your HBA is on the leading edge of association growth and development. I am eager for the HBA to serve you better with these and other new products as we all work to position ourselves for the exciting new opportunities that lie ahead.

Matt Morrow

Chief Executive Officer

HBA of Greater Springfield

CEO Blog: HBA Wins Six National Awards

You know it has been a full week when you sit down to blog and can’t remember what day it is. Tonight, on my flight home, I’m sorting through what has been a whirlwind week at the National Association of Home Builders’ annual Executive Officers Council Seminar. At the annual event (held this year in Louisville, KY), HBA Executive Officers and staff from across the country receive outstanding education and professional development programs, networking opportunities with fellow HBA executives, and behind-the-scenes peeks at new technology and services that can help local associations serve their members better and more efficiently.

I could write a lengthy column just on all the HBA improvements that Operations Manager Charlyce Ruth and I have placed on our to do lists as we return from Louisville. But you will see these as they materialize in the months ahead anyway – and I promise that, as members, you will benefit significantly from each of them. Stay tuned for more on that later.

But for the time being, may I take a few moments to play the role of chief HBA cheerleader? This event also is where the annual NAHB Association Excellence Awards are announced. A variety of categories of Association Awards recognize outstanding work by HBAs of varying sizes from across the country. This year, the HBA of Greater Springfield received top honors in six categories.

That’s more AEA awards than our association has received in any previous year. It also is more association awards than any HBA – of any size – received this year. Briefly, here are the six awards your HBA received at this year’s ceremonies:

• Best Service Delivered to Members: Housing Market Research Project (Polling and focus groups on green building & general housing market)

• Best Communication to Members, Magazines Published: Housing News monthly membership magazine

• Best Communication to Members, Update Publication: HBA Daily News Electronic Newsfeed (Subscribe)

• Best Political Action Program Administered: Good Government Gameplan for Springfield City Council

• Best Specialty Targeted Fundraising Program: HBA Charitable Foundation Auction & Go-Kart Races

• Best Source of Non-Dues Revenue (under $50,000): Green Building Product Showcase Night (Coming up August 18)

Of course, receiving national recognition for our association’s work is gratifying and humbling. But it also serves to underscore what most of us already suspected: we live and work someplace special. The members of the HBA of Greater Springfield are remarkable people who do remarkable things, as if they were routine. Our HBA staff is hardworking and committed to serving those remarkable members at the highest possible level. And those who make up our volunteer leadership (board of directors, committees, councils, etc.) are people of extraordinary vision, purpose, and resolve. They are leaders who - even amid the unprecedented challenges facing our industry – consistently insist on excellence in everything they touch.

That’s a pretty good combination. So good, in fact, that others recognize something special about it – and they don’t have the privilege of living with it daily the way we do. In a word, our HBA (and our local industry) is special. What an honor it is - for me and for our entire HBA staff - to work with and for the extraordinary members and volunteer leadership of the HBA of Greater Springfield.

- Matt Morrow, CEO

HBA of Greater Springfield, Missouri

CEO Blog: Are We There Yet?

My wife Rachael and I recently drove to Chicago with our two young children. Being in the car that long brings a few repeat questions. Far and away, the question of greatest frequency was: “Are we there yet?” By my count the question was asked about 25,000 times on the trip (as if they somehow might miss our arrival at our destination).

Of course, many who make their living in residential construction and housing are asking similar questions, and some have been asking for a long time: Are we there yet? How much longer? Have we hit bottom? When does the recovery begin?

While nobody seems to think our current economic condition is due for a whiplash-inducing immediate and vibrant rebound, we are beginning to see encouraging signs.

Nationwide, housing starts and permits posted substantial gains in June. The U.S. Commerce Department reported a 3.6 percent gain in overall housing starts to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000 units and an 8.7 percent gain in permit issuance to 563,000 units.

Locally, one of our most telling barometers is the number of building permits issued in Greene county (the largest permitting jurisdiction in the region). One comparison I watch closely is how our most recent monthly building permit number compares to the number of permits issued in the same month a year earlier. That comparison hadn’t looked good in a long time. In fact, through April 2009, we had experienced 22 consecutive months of decline by that measure. Then, in May, Greene county issued more permits than it had in May 2008. Then the same happened in June. After 22 consecutive months of decline locally, we experienced two consecutive “up” months.

These are encouraging signs. But we are far from out of the woods. Challenging times lie ahead. That’s why now may be the very best time to prepare yourself and your business for the coming recovery. Consider just a couple of upcoming opportunities the HBA of Greater Springfield is offering to equip you.

Builder Breakfast

HBA leadership recently met with about a dozen area lenders to try to get our arms around the current credit environment and how it is affecting (and will affect) our members’ ability to shift their businesses back into a higher gear, once the recovery is underway. It was an enlightening conversation. Every builder owes it to himself/herself to get up to speed on this topic. The rules (both written and unwritten) are not the same as they were the last time many builders built their last house. For a quick primer on the content of the meeting, check out President Rusty MacLachlan’s blog.

On September 18, at the HBA’s quarterly Builder Breakfast, this issue will be the topic of a panel discussion/roundtable. The breakfast is no charge for HBA builders, remodelers & developers and it will be a valuable investment of time. Please join us (RSVP with a quick e-mail to Kay at the HBA office).

Get Certified & Get Green!

In September - for the first time in our 55-year history - the HBA of Greater Springfield will host a National Association of Home Builders University of Housing designation program locally. Members can earn their Certified Green Professional designation in Springfield in one three-day bundle on September 9, 10, and 11. Normally, to complete the education necessary to obtain this designation, a local HBA member would have to travel all over the country at considerable expense and inconvenience.

Not surprisingly, response to the designation courses has been very strong already, and we are anticipating a full house. If you ever have considered pursuing an NAHB professional designation, there is no better way to start than with the CGP. It is the hottest, fastest growing designation NAHB offers. It can be completed in a short timeframe. And courses you take for the CGP also can count toward other designations (Certified Graduate Remodeler, Graduate Master Builder, etc.). More information on this can be found by clicking here. You can also reserve your spot now by contacting education coordinator Carrie Smith in the HBA office

One way or another, recovery is coming. Will you be ready? Let the HBA help you prepare!

Blogging So You Don't Have To...

Matt Morrow, CEO

HBA of Greater Springfield

Follow Matt Morrow on twitter

Why Twitter sooooo fits the HBA - and you

Are you on Twitter? If so, waste no time - skip right to the end of this blog post and start following us (I know that sounds uncomfortably like stalking if you aren't familiar with Twitter... keep reading)! If not, allow me to run through a little background on this Twitter craze. 

Like a lot of people, I've been hearing a lot about Twitter lately. I was especially intrigued to learn that it apparently had been a very effective tool for political campaigns in the most recent election cycle (most effectively utilized by Barack Obama in his successful presidential campaign). 

But, really, I knew only two things about Twitter: 1) Twitter messages are required to be brief, and 2) they can be delivered to and from mobile phones (as well as online). Knowing only those two characteristics of Twitter made me believe it had potential value for our HBA membership (since we like to get right to the point, and we live and die by our cell phones). I wanted to learn what more was involved in Twitter. Turns out there isn't much more involved in it (other than the fact that it is 100% FREE - which is very nice). It is a wonderfully simple and useful tool for quick and convenient mass communication.

Twitter is a social networking online program not entirely unlike Facebook or Myspace. The biggest difference is that Twitter consists of brief messages (limited to 140 characters - short enough for cell phone text messaging) posted online, or to and from your mobile phone. People sign up to follow the "tweets" of other people. Check in on the people you follow either on your computer or by having their "tweets" directed to your mobile phone or other wireless device. Here is a youtube video (less than three minutes) entitled "Twitter in Plain English" that helps with the basics.

HBA President Rusty MacLachlan is on Twitter (Follow him here)

I'm on Twitter (Follow me here)

HBA Public Affairs Director Jennifer McClure is on Twitter (Follow her here)

If you are reading this on Springfieldhba.com, you might have noticed a "Twit This" button on several pages within the site. If you are a Twitter user, and you see something you find interesting on SpringfieldHBA.com, just click the "TWit this" button and you can post a link on your Twitter page to that page in SpringfieldHBA.com. If you like it, why not share it? "Twit this" allows you to share the good stuff with all the people who are following you on Twitter.

So, why not give it a try? Just as an HBA member, the uses can have great value. Rusty, Jennifer and I recently "tweeted" hot news updates live from our recent Construction Forecast event with the Zanola Company. And, this Tuesday I'll Twitter local election returns as they are released each step of the way in real time. 

So what are you waiting for? Why not give Twitter a try right now?

Matt Morrow

Chief Executive Officer

HBA of Greater Springfield

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HBA President Rusty MacLachlan is on Twitter (Follow him here)

I'm on Twitter (Follow me here)

HBA Public Affairs Director Jennifer McClure is on Twitter (Follow her here)

Raising the Ceiling, and the Floor

I recently was invited to speak to the monthly lunch meeting of the local chapter of the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women about the current and future state of the local housing economy. After my remarks, I was asked an excellent question. The question was prefaced this way:

Given the current slowdown, many of the pseudo-professionals (and non-professionals) are no longer in business. Those who are still builders today are the true professionals – like HBA members. The result is that the overall quality of professionalism in home building may never have been higher than it is right now. 

Knowing the professionalism of our members, and their resilience through this downturn, I couldn’t agree more.

The question: How can we ensure that our current high level of professionalism in home building is maintained once the housing economy is surging again, and the less professional practitioners want to return? 

I’ve spent enough time listening to the “setting the table” vision of HBA leaders like President Rusty MacLachlan and Government Affairs Chairman Matt Bailey to know how to answer that question. In fact, it is right in the HBA’s wheelhouse.

Every member of the HBA of Greater Springfield is required (among other things) to carry workers compensation and general liability insurance. We have observed that, in general, those who carry these forms of insurance tend to be the more professional members of the industry. Since workers compensation insurance is required by Missouri law and general liability insurance is basic good business (and protects consumers), you wouldn’t think these membership standards would be particularly controversial. Think again.

While I am told that most fulltime builders carry GL insurance, our fights generally come over our workers comp requirement. It can be very expensive, and many in the industry operate under the mistaken assumption that they are exempt from the requirement. They usually are familiar with the law’s requirement that any business in the construction industry must carry workers compensation insurance if that business has one or more employee. Since they utilize subcontractors rather than actual W-2 employees, they reason they are not required to carry the insurance. 

The problem with that reasoning is that Missouri’s workers compensation law goes on to define “employee” to include: W-2 employees, subcontractors, volunteers, or family members. So, unless you drive every nail and lay every brick personally, you are required to carry workers compensation insurance in Missouri.

Since builders who operate without workers compensation insurance are violating state law, why would any city or county building regulations department issue a building permit to them? They shouldn’t. Yet most of them do. Cities and counties should instead follow the example of the City of Branson and a handful of other jurisdictions that require current proof of workers compensation insurance to pull a building permit, and to complete inspections and receive a certificate of occupancy. 

The HBA of Greater Springfield is advocating for just such changes in city and county permitting departments throughout our ten-county service territory. Matt Bailey’s Government Affairs Committee has set the goal of establishing proof-of-insurance requirements in more than one of these jurisdictions by the end of 2009. To that end, we have had productive meetings with the Missouri Attorney General’s staff about co-hosting education programs about workers compensation law for local and county building officials and elected officials, and working together to encourage progress on this issue at the local level.

We strongly believe that now is the time to pursue more aggressive enforcement of state law in this regard. Because of the correlation between those who carry the proper insurance and industry professionalism, a requirement at permitting to show proof of insurance would help raise the “floor” in our industry.

But we shouldn’t be content just raising the “floor.” We also should raise the “ceiling” of professionalism by continuing to elevate our own HBA standards of professionalism. That’s why our president has appointed Brett Godfrey as the HBA’s Education Czar. Brett has been charged with offering unprecedented professional education opportunities and access to HBA members and, over time, creating a culture of education and professionalism among all HBA members. A comprehensive continuing education program for HBA members already is well underway. As you learn more about the opportunities available, I think you will agree that our “ceiling” for professionalism has never been higher.

This is what our president means when he talks about “setting the table” for future success. Based on the important steps we are taking now to create a level playing field, professional standards, and continuing education, I am excited about what the future holds for HBA members and our industry.

I'll be Twittering Today live from the Zanola presentation

Today is the HBA of Greater Springfield's big presentation of the latest area construction forecast and market analysis, courtesy of MarketGraphics and Zanola company. I am hopeful that lots of HBA members will be able to attend. If you'd like more information on the event, you can read all about it at this link, and I hope to see you at 10:30am at the Library Center in Springfield.

Meanwhile, if you are on Twitter, you can follow my updates live from the Zanola presentation later this morning (even if you can't make it in person). I'll be "Twittering" directly from the event. If you aren't yet on Twitter, it's a simple (and free) process to sign up. All you have to do is sign up to follow me on Twitter, and/or follow our HBA President Rusty MacLachlan on Twitter, and follow the directions as they are given. I'll share more about Twitter later on this blog (I think there is all kinds of potential in this for HBA members), but for now I just wanted to be sure you have this opportunity to follow the live updates from this morning's construction forecast event.

And, since by the afternoon you already will be following my "tweets," I'd also like to invite you to follow as I Twitter live from Senator Kit Bond's business roundtable discussion (starting at 3:30pm today at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce). Among those businesspersons participating in the roundtable will be HBA President and home builder Rusty MacLachlan and HBA board member Lee Beaman (Beaman Electric). I'll be sure and "tweet" all the highlights from there, too!

'Home-Grown' vs. Growing Homes (Click Here)

Back in the 1970s, my mother annually planted a large garden in our back yard. I was involuntarily drafted into service to help tend it. I didn’t much care for the restrictions it placed on my whiffle ball field. On the other hand, I developed an affinity for home-grown tomatoes that I retain to this day.

Times were tough. While I was not privy to the family finances in those days, I understand that garden saved us a few dollars in our monthly grocery budgets over the years. As an adult, I have never planted my own backyard garden. Given the economic challenges of this era, I admit I am considering it.

So, when an elected or other high-ranking official in our region suggests that the day is coming when people living here will have to “grow our own food,” I am taken back to those nostalgic days of my childhood. Then I listen further. The suggestion is not simply that more people will tend backyard gardens (which, incidentally, I would favor - anything that increases the supply of home-grown tomatoes is fine with me). No, these officials go much further. They posit that those of us who live in the most urbanized county in southwest Missouri must soon become self-sufficient when it comes to our food supply.

On its face, this seems to me like a quaint idea that is charming, but a little silly. Why would we choose the urban core of the region as the optimal location for such large amounts of agricultural activity (even if one day we find ourselves scrambling to “grow our own food”)? Would it really be that big of a deal if we had to “import” agricultural products from such far-off places as Aurora, Buffalo, Ava, or any number of active agricultural communities within a half-hour drive from Springfield?

Still, while the idea seems a little far-fetched to me, I am generally content to live and let live. In the end, what difference does it make if some folks are a little more “out there” than I am?

Then, over the course of the last couple of years, I began to see actual policy proposals come out of government offices that have used as their rationale this pretext of “growing our own food.” Such proposals have included:

• Prescriptive land use proposals;

• Mandated or non-market-based incentives for so-called “farmland preservation” (“so-called” because these preservation proposals generally are not for land that is actively farmed, but rather for land that simply is vacant);

• Density and mass transit proposals that seem out of step with our population requirements and culture.

If such unconventional notions are going to guide policy decisions – and those policy decisions directly impact the housing industry and future home buyers’ affordability – we are forced to take a closer look. At the very least such assertions should require some data or analysis before they are accepted as fact.

So, since it appears we must, let’s talk for a moment about meat. While there are exceptions, we are not – by and large – a culture of vegetarians and vegans. In the Ozarks, we like our meats. Even if we didn’t, the rock-filled clay deposits found throughout Greene County don’t exactly promote efficient row crop agriculture – not to mention banana or coconut trees. So, for the time being, let’s hypothetically put every resident of Greene County on the Atkins diet. Let us consider the amount of meat production alone it would take in Greene county just to feed the residents.

Based on conservative population and consumption estimates, Greene county would need to produce, butcher and process approximately 24,000 feeder calves, 80,000 pigs, 240,391 turkeys, and 6 million chickens per year, just to feed our current population. To give an idea of just how massive a shift that is, let’s look just at the smallest portion: feeder calves.

Given gestation periods and the fact that calves are born one at a time, producing 24,000 feeder calves means that each of those calves has its own distinct mommy. Assuming for a moment that no bulls are part of the equation, that means at least 48,000 head of cattle would be needed in Greene County per year. According to the most recent data I could find, the largest cattle producing county in Missouri is Texas County at 47,500 head. Texas county has nearly twice the land mass of Greene County. The largest city in Texas county has a population of 2,500. I don’t think we could fit 48,000 cattle in Greene county with a shoehorn. Even if we could, where would we put the six million chickens?

And what about processing? If we are really going to feed our own population, we can’t just raise the livestock, we have to butcher and process it here, too. If an ethanol plant in Webster county created a ruckus, how do you think a plant that annually processes six million chickens and 240,000 turkeys will go over? How about huge commercial hog farms?

This isn’t intended to qualify as a doctoral thesis--my data isn’t complete or perfect, but it all trends in the same direction. Frankly, it is more than I’ve ever heard from futurists who assert the imminent need to grow our own food, as if it is plausible.

So, what is the point of all this? If you want to start a backyard garden, go for it. If you want to encourage others to do the same, more power to you. If you really believe that Greene county ultimately must produce enough food to feed our local population, it is time to expand this conversation to include actual data, other regional governments and area food production, processing and distribution professionals. I would think that our restaurants and grocery chains among others would have some data and input on this issue but as yet I haven’t seen any of these folks invited to the discussions where these assertions have been made.

To suggest that privately owned prime development land should be taken off the table based on a totally unproven premise is irresponsible. Policy decisions should be guided by better sense. I fear the real goal of this assertion may be simply to block or significantly deter further housing development.

And here is the irony. While it is wholly unrealistic to think we could ever provide adequate food supply locally to feed our entire population, housing that same growing population is a very real and immediate local need. Importing housing is not an option. We must build it here, in the process creating jobs that can never be outsourced and generating much needed sales tax plus other revenue. Perhaps area futurists could focus on that for the time being.