Honored to be elected Secretary to the national Executive Officers Council
The week of July 11 saw executive officers, HBA staff, and volunteer leaders congregate in San Antonio for the Association Leadership Institute. This annual institute provides valuable resources for the modern HBA and the services it provides to its members.
This year was no exception. The speakers were excellent and the topics were very relevant. Every association should budget for their executive officer -- whether full-time or part-time -- to attend and be at the top of their game.
Think a moment about some of these topics – Building the Association of the Future, Effective Decision-Making in an Over-Thinking World, How to Generate Sponsorship Revenue (Which HBA doesn’t want to do that?), Reaching Future Leaders, Eight Steps to Get More Members to Your Event, Rev Up Your Social Media and Communications that Connect.
Yes, relevant, timely, and sure to be of benefit to any HBA. I know I once again learned some valuable ideas that will soon be implemented.
The two keynote speeches were also memorable.
The opening keynote was “Never Fly Solo” by Lt. Col. Rob (Waldo) Waldman. Rob is a decorated combat pilot and spoke about building trust. Trust is a key component of every relationship.
The closing keynote was “Successful Practices of a Market Leader” by Jason Young. Jason was a senior level manager at Southwest Airlines and spoke about its customer service culture. Valuable customer service should be a trademark of every HBA.
It is at the Institute where the senior officers of the NAHB Executive Officer Council are elected.
With the blessing of my senior officers, I was allowed to throw my hat in the ring and was elected as the 2017 Secretary for the Council. Provided I do not mess up and get tossed out, I should be Council President in 2019. I appreciate the confidence shown in me by my peers. I am sure they will help keep me on the right path.
I do want to take a moment and recognize a friend and colleague who helped me in my decision to seek the office. Although he is now in another state, Paul Kane, former Executive Officer for the Tulsa HBA, just finished his term on the Council ladder. Paul’s leadership has greatly influenced the path of the EOC and brought the very relevant education to the institute. It meant a lot to me to have his support. I hope to do as well for the Council as he did.
Another reason I want to serve the Council is because our Federation is going through some governance and growth pains. It is a changing world and a changing environment for membership organizations. Our Federation is no different.
I had the opportunity to go to Washington D.C, in late June and meet with leaders of NAHB and provide input as to the relationships between all legs of the Federation – national, state and local associations working together for the industry. This dialogue will be ongoing for the next few months.
So along with Kurt Dinnes, our State Representative to NAHB, and now myself, Oklahoma’s common sense approach to doing things should be well represented.
Election Update
First, a big thank you to those who contribute to our Homebuilders PAC, either through being a direct contributor, a contributor to NAHB Build-PAC -- by which we share once we meet our national goal -- or by participating in our annual Sporting Clay event. It is Oct. 14th this year by the way.
Through the PAC, we got involved in several open seats to elect those candidates we felt were friendly to the housing industry and to business issues. We were successful in the majority of the seats we got involved with. Some will be decided in the runoffs on Aug. 23.
Until next time….
Mike Means
