The NCHBA 2nd Quarter Committee Meetings, Legislative Conference and Board Meeting will be held at the Renaissance Raleigh Hotel at North Hills in Raleigh June 9-10.
Regular committee meetings are scheduled for Tuesday. The Legislative Reception will be held at the North Carolina Museum of History in downtown Raleigh Tuesday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This is a great chance to meet your House and Senate members and begin a dialog on our most pressing issues. On Wednesday, from 9 a.m. to noon, we will visit the General Assembly and meet with our legislators and ask members to vote favorably on our issues.
Hotel Reservations The deadline for hotel reservations at the special group rate has passed. To see if rooms are still available, call the Renaissance at North Hills at 1-888-236-2427 or (919) 571-8773 to reserve your room.
Social Networking Seminar Join the Associates Committee June 9 at Bonefish Grill at the Lassister for the Lunch & Learn Seminar, "Where is the ROI for Social Media?". Carol M. Flammer, MIRM, CAPS, CSP, will be the featured speaker. Carol is Managing Partner of mRELEVANCE, LLC, a firm that combines the power of Internet marketing, social media and public relations.
The seminar is scheduled in conjunction with the NCHBA 2nd Quarter Board Meeting being held across the street at the Renaissance Hotel. Tickets are $23 if you pre-register and will include lunch. The seminar will be from 12:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Registration is required. Tickets purchased on-site will be $28.
Note: if you plan to attend the seminar AND the Legislative Conference you must fill out both registration forms.
The following update appeared in NAHB's May 22 Washington Update. NAHB told Congress on May 21 that the nation’s home builders are determined to play a constructive role in resolving the Chinese-made drywall issue. The drywall in question is believed to have been imported into the U.S. between 2005 and 2008 and is alleged to contain high levels of sulfur and/or other contaminants that are emitting foul odors in homes that have used the material.
Testifying on behalf of NAHB before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, New Orleans area builder Randy Noel said that NAHB members are continuing to work on a daily basis to respond to home owners who are reporting problems with Chinese drywall.
“As builders, we live or die by our reputation. Home building is a very competitive business and a builder who does not pay attention to quality, value and customer service won’t be in business very long,” said Noel.
To resolve the situation, Noel said that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other federal agencies must inform home owners, builders, remodelers and contractors on identifying the source of the problem so that it will not be repeated and also provide a reliable test for drywall problems and an appropriate method of remediation.
“We believe that the best possible scenario would be for a national consensus to be developed on these issues based on the work currently being done by the federal government,” said Noel. “NAHB supports the CPSC’s current efforts to identify the actual scientific cause of the problem and develop an appropriate testing protocol to identify problematic drywall,” he said. “Once the cause is identified and a testing protocol is established, it will greatly help builders identify potential home owners who may have problems.”
Congress should also explore ways to identify possible sources of funding to help offset the costs of remediation, he said, particularly if it is determined that the ultimate responsibility lies with manufacturing entities located in China.
Introduced by Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), S. 739, the Drywall Safety Act of 2009, would mandate that the CPSC, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Environmental Protection Agency conduct a study of Chinese drywall to determine its effects on metal wiring, HVAC units and other metal fixtures. The study would also assess the potential health impacts from exposure to the product.
Of concern to NAHB, the bill would seek to ban the sale of any drywall product in the U.S. that contains more than 5% organic compounds by weight. Noel noted that in many cases the organic compounds in the paper backing of the drywall alone could exceed the 5% limit, regardless of the content of the drywall’s core. “We urge the subcommittee and the bill sponsors to investigate other ways in which to target the drywall that is of concern, without potentially banning all drywall produced in the U.S.,” he said.
To read the legislation, click here and enter S. 739 in the box at the center of the page.
May 19 was national Membership Day at NAHB. The annual membership drive shaped up to be a great effort to defend membership in these challenging times.
By mid-June, when the May membership numbers have been finalized, the National Membership Day prize ordering site will be made available online at www.nahb.org/membershipdefenders and HBAs will be able to place orders for recruiter prize.
Thank you to all the North Carolina Home Builders Association members for an excellent job.
Photo: From left to right, Kathryn Atkinson, NCHBA Membership Director, Chad Collins, NCHBA Membership Committee Chair, Frank Wiesner, NCHBA President and Jerry Cowan, Builders Mutual Insurance Co., participate in National Membership Day.
The May is BUILD-PAC month contest is almost over! There is only one week left in this special competition where local associations can directly benefit from your contribution. We are encouraging all members to go the extra mile during May and if you have ever thought about supporting BUILD-PAC, this is the month and the time to do it!
Thank you to the local associations who have worked hard to get contributions early this month. To date, we have raised over $9,000 in the month of May alone! However, we still have many local associations that need to get involved. Remember, the more members that give, the better chance you have at winning!
As of May 20, the overall leaders are: Highest Percentage of Member Participation: Franklin County HBA (15%) Highest Percentage of Goal Raised: Moore County HBA (298%) Most New Contributors: Moore County HBA (10%)
If you would like a list of past contributors to assist in your efforts, please contact Erin Jones at (919) 676-9090 or . Remember that any personal contribution postmarked by May 31 will qualify towards your association’s total for this contest.
Keep up the hard work and thank you making NCHBA BUILD-PAC a priority this year!
The STARS awards program honors builders, associates, realtors, advertising professionals and many others who make major contributions to the residential home building industry. Enter your favorite projects, and then join us for an evening of excitement on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at the Hilton Charlotte Center City Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Please note that category numbering has changed slightly this year, with the addition of a brand new category - Best Internet Marketing/Advertising Project - to the marketing and advertising section of the program. Also, pricing has been reworked for the Single Family Detached Home and Attached Home Plan categories.
Entries will be accepted now through July 31, 2009. Don’t be left out of this exciting event! Enter today!
Register now for the 21st Century Building Expo & Conference
Registration for the 21st Century Building Expo & Conference (21CBEC) in Charlotte Sept. 16-18 is officially open. 21CBEC is one of the fastest growing regional builder shows in the nation, with attendance projected to surpass 5,000.
If you are a builder, remodeler, realtor, subcontractor or anyone else involved in the home building industry, you don’t want to miss this chance to see a large array of products and services by the industry’s leading manufacturers and suppliers. In addition, a three-day educational conference includes a line-up of more than 50 general session seminars, North Carolina Builder Institute courses and NAHB University of Housing classes ranging from “Green Building” to “Thriving in Times of Uncertainty.”
Why should you sign up now?
Get free admittance to the Expo floor. Simply register before Sept. 15, and you can visit the exhibit hall filled with more than 350 exhibits showcasing products and services for FREE!
Have your pick of the more than 50 general session seminars, NCBI courses and NAHB courses. Act now ... courses such as those needed to fulfill the Certified Green Professional designation fill up quickly!
Get a discount on a full delegate badge, which includes conference lunches, Expo floor access and unlimited general session courses.
Be registered to win a 4-day, 3-night stay at the Amelia Island Plantation in Amelia Island, Florida.
Business Management for Building Professionals will be offered June 17 by the Triangle Green Building Council at the Greensboro Builders Association office. Steve Monroe, CGP, SME & Associates, will be the instructor. Registration deadline is June 5.
The Charleston Trident Home Builders Association and the Sustainability Institute are joining together to bring the first Green Educational Conference and Tradeshow to the Charleston region. Atlantic Green will be held June 19-20 at 10 StoreHouse Row in the Navy Yard at Noisette.
For more information on Atlantic Green, please visit www.hbacharleston.com or call the Charleston Trident Home Builders Association at (843) 572-1414.
The Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association is offering both NAHB courses required to achieve the NAHB Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation. Green Building for Building Professionals will be offered June 22-23. Cost for members is $395 and $445 for nonmembers. Business Management for Building Professionals will be offered June 24. Cost is $195 for members and $245 for nonmembers. Both classes will be taught by Tom Gotschall and will be held at the UNCW Madeline Suite. For more information contact Tyler Newman at (910) 779-2611 or
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Single-Family Starts And Permits Edge Higher In April Production of single-family homes edged upward in April as builders responded to improving conditions for new-home buyers, according to newly released figures by the U.S. Commerce Department. While overall starts fell 12.8 percent to a record-low seasonally adjusted annual pace of 458,000 units, the decline was entirely confined to the multifamily sector, where production fell 46 percent to a 90,000-unit pace for the month, while single-family starts posted a 2.8 percent gain to 368,000 units.
“With some of the best home-buying conditions of a lifetime now in place – including historically low mortgage rates, affordable prices and a first-time home buyer tax credit – single-family builders are starting to see the light on the horizon as more consumers realize they can now obtain the home of their dreams,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson. “Meanwhile, the extreme difficulty that builders are encountering in obtaining financing for new multifamily structures has ground production in that sector almost to a halt.” Click here for the entire article.
Green Building Growing At A Surprising Rate, NAHB Says As builders and remodelers retool their businesses in a tight credit market and recapture the interest of jittery consumers, this spring is the greenest yet for the nation’s home building industry, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
“We’ve said for a while that green building is a bright spot in a down market,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder and developer in Tulsa, Okla. “However, the growth of the NAHB National Green Building Program exceeds even our most optimistic expectations.” Click here for the entire article.
The STARS awards program honors builders, associates, realtors, advertising professionals and many others who make major contributions to the residential home building industry. Enter your favorite projects, and then join us for an evening of excitement on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at the Hilton Charlotte Center City Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
