After an earlier article asked if over-regulation was hurting the modular housing industry many people replied with one of them saying that what our industry needed was a not well represented by any association, the Director of the MHBA explained what his organization and the BSC were doing to help.
Anonymous said…
I expect some to disagree, but I think we are seeing many of the overly regulatory issues popping up due to a lack of national/regional representation.
One residential trade association to represent the modular industry has been needed for quite a while, and the current situation isn’t working.
Tom Hardiman, Executive Director of the MHBA replied:
Anonymous – I agree and disagree with your comments. Disagree: Other than the building code cycles, we are not seeing regulations BECAUSE of the industry organizations. We do see more regulations when policy makers are misinformed or uninformed and overreact to a situation (often created by someone in the industry). Sometimes we see new policies when new staff take over at the state modular programs and sometimes we are the unintended “victim” or a new bill or policy.
I agree that there is still a lack of a strong industry organization. But that’s not due to a lack of effort on the part of the BSC of NAHB or the MHBA (the organization I run). We are only as strong as dues paying members and supporters allow us to be. Are you a member of either organization? If not, I encourage you to step up and join. If you are, step up and get more involved.
I spent the better part of this week working on issues and advocating for the industry in NY and MA. Did you know that there have been over 20,000 bills and regulations introduced across the country just in the last 60 days? 20,000! I know because I reviewed them all to determine potential impact on our industry.
In most cases, many people don’t see the impact of our work because we have been effective. There is a HUGE need for more education aimed at code officials, end users, policy makers, the industry, and other builders. Gary’s blog is a great tool to help reach this audience, but once informed, you should take some action beyond anonymous posts. Otherwise, you are just adding to the noise and not the solutions.
EVERY COMPANY THAT MAKES MONEY IN THIS INDUSTRY NEEDS TO JOIN AT LEAST ONE OF THE ORGANIZATIONS LISTED ABOVE – AND SHOULD JOIN BOTH!
Anonymous said…
I am sorry, but MHBA is a part time effort at best.
You can’t represent buildings and housing. they are two different animals.
what is needed is a residential trade association that gets is pro-active to the needs of the industry.
Putting out fires doesn’t help the industry grow.
Sorry, this is the opinion of a lot of people.
Tom Hardiman said:
Anonymous, MHBA is dedicated EXCLUSIVELY to the modular home industry – NOTHING ELSE. Proactive? You mean like creating a new consumer awareness program and the funding mechanism to go with it, which has resulted in us being able to quadruple the number of potential customers coming to our website in the last 8 months?
Proactive, like creating a Home of the Month contest which reaches 50,000 + people and averages 5,000 actions on our social media sites? Proactive? like my call today with the head of one state program, or my call yesterday with another state?
Nah, the issue isn’t the organizations. It’s too many people sitting on the sidelines complaining about how bad things are while others are rolling up their sleeves and doing something about it!
Why don’t you try to lighten the load for those carrying your water?
Devin Perry, NAHB’s Building Systems Councils said…
Wholeheartedly agree with Tom, best way to grow/support the modular industry is by joining the Building Systems Councils and Modular Home Builders Association. As an industry, we are only as strong as our individual members.
If you want to make a difference in modular construction, no better vehicle than joining BOTH organizations.
