All of us have extremely busy schedules. Quite often any type of meeting, whether it’s an office meeting with co-workers or a venue miles away, is viewed as an enormous time waster. Unfortunately, many of them are. Trade groups or associations are often thought of in these terms. But if you have never been active in an association related to your field, you are probably missing out on information that may not only be important, but possibly critical to your survival as a company.
Those of you who are in a Home Building related field are blessed with numerous organizations that represent our industry. A few of the Residential Construction related trade groups representing contractors are:
NAHB – National Association of Home Builders
NAHB is known as “the voice of America’s housing industry.” It is a trade association whose primary goal is to help promote the policies that make housing a national priority. At any given time, NAHB is working on more than 100 different issues relating to home building and the housing industry.
About one-third of NAHB’s members are home builders and/or remodelers. The others are associates working in closely related specialties such as sales and marketing, housing finance, and manufacturing and supplying building materials. www.nahb.org
HBAG -Home Builders Association of Georgia
Builders and contractors automatically become members of Home Builders Association of Georgia and the National Association of Home Builders when they join their local HBA.
The most important benefit of membership is the Association’s involvement in the government and regulatory arenas. Its members are represented at the local, state and national levels. Members are continually kept up to date regarding laws and regulations impacting the Home Building industry. www.hbag.org
Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association The Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association is the fifth largest local homebuilders association in the country. Builder members range from large companies to individual contractors and include developers, custom and speculative builders, multifamily builders, manufactured housing companies, residential remodelers and general contractors.
Membership in the association is not limited to builders; members represent an array of housing-related businesses and industries including t
www.atlantahomebuilders.com
NARI – National Association of the Remodeling IndustryNARI has 58 chapters nationwide and its core purpose is to advance and promote the remodeling industry’s professionalism, product and vital public purpose. NARI members are held to a Code of Ethics that are intended to provide uniform standards and maintain the public’s trust in the remodeling industry. www.nari.org
Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. ABC is the leading voice promoting free enterprise within the construction industry. ABC promotes and defends the merit shop philosophy. This philosophy encourages open competition and a free-enterprise approach to construction based solely on merit, regardless of labor affiliation. www.abc.org
AIA - American Institute of Architects With nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA has been the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners since 1857. www.aia.org
NSPE - National Society of Professional Engineers NSPE, in partnership with the State Societies, is the organization of licensed Professional Engineers (PEs) and Engineer Interns (EIs). Through education, licensure advocacy, leadership training, multi-disciplinary networking, and outreach, NSPE enhances the image of its members and their ability to ethically and professionally practice engineering. www.nspe.org
This is only a partial list of all associations related by residential construction. The description of each of those listed was wording obtained, at least in part, from the various associations’ websites.
Customized Information
Herbert Construction Company has for many years belonged to the Concrete Foundation Association of North America (CFA). We send at least one person to virtually every meeting and several individuals attend many of them. At last summer’s annual meeting, seminars were held concerning sexual harassment, the Affordable Care Act, crane safety, fall protection, marketing, a full day on the construction of concrete homes and several other topics.
Seminars at many of these meetings deal directly with problems you now have or are going to have. It’s important to attend as many of these seminars as possible. The one you miss could contain the information required to keep you from a huge OSHA fine or even keep you out of court.
Participation is Key
Get involved. Most associations are constantly looking for more board members and/or committee members. The more you become involved the more you will benefit. Most active association members will tell you that it has never cost them a penny to belong to the organization and attend the meetings, meaning they garner enough valuable information to easily pay for their dues and the trip.
At trade association meetings you can easily save more money and time from one simple idea or tip, than the time and money it took to attend. But the trick in really gathering the most information for your time spent, is to attend the meetings and become actively involved in the networking that goes on at these meetings.
Get to know your peers. Go out to dinner with a few of them after the meetings or, go to the bar with them, even if you don’t drink, and ask questions and offer thoughts of your own. At most of the association functions there are numerous people there who are not in competition with you, and will readily share their ideas or how they handled a particular problem. Believe it or not, they have experienced many of the same problems you have. Join the associations, attend the meetings and start reaping the benefits.
rade contractors, building materials manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, lending institutions, real estate companies, utilities, surveyors, title companies, attorneys, accountants, engineers, architects, designers, and more.