I was a little apprehensive about what the MHBA “Best
Practices” Conference in Philly last week would achieve. That went away very quickly
when I started to see who was attending. Owners and top management from
many factories were in attendance.
Talk about a first class meeting…Tom Hardiman even served
Starbucks coffee.
Tom, the Executive Director of the MHBA, started off the
conference talking about all the ways our association is working to curb harmful
legislation in the different states effecting modular housing. He and his team
have had quite a bit of success this year blocking regs that would further
hamper modular housing. I wasn’t aware that so many states are trying to hold
modular construction to a different standard than site building.
Tom is always a tough act to follow but Anthony Zarrilli,
owner of Zarrilli Homes in Brick, NJ, did a great job talking about marketing
and selling modular homes.
Other speakers followed included Jack Daniels, Senior Plan
Examiner from NJ talking about fire suppression; Norm Hall from
Simpson-Strongtie telling us about the newest and best methods for anchoring
modular homes to foundations and Rick Terry, RESNET HERS rater explaining what
is happening in Energy.
Mark Conte, Director of Factory Built Housing program – PA DCED,
told us about his efforts to promote vo-tech in schools to help both employment
and training of skilled labor for our industry.
Overall, it was a very good meeting, especially the cheese
cake and chocolate cake for lunch but I was disappointed by the small number of
modular home builders that showed up for the conference.
Builders are always asking what the factory can do for them
but sometimes the builder has to take the first step to help themselves and
that can be accomplished by joining the MHBA and attending the training and
conferences offered for their benefit.
I can’t wait for the next one.
