We continue to ask our members to weigh the benefits of having a strong local voice for our industry--it is now more important than ever that you remain committed in your support of TABA to assure we are able to represent you in the halls of government and to provide opportunities for your business to grow. Here are just a few of the things that TABA has provided for our members lately:
Government Affairs. TABA works hard to maintain our voice at the negotiating table in representing our industry when local issues arise that can impact your business. We have a continuing commitment to developing and maintaining relationships and tracking government proposals for increased regulation. From codes to plans to ordinances, there has not been a new development related regulation proposed or approved in our area that TABA and our leadership has not weighed in on since we've had a full time government affairs person on staff. In fact, in 2009 the TABA organizational structure became an imitated model for local association management.
This year TABA has testified at government hearings or provided committee input regarding the Temple Fire Code; the Temple Electric Code; TCEQ irrigation standards; the City of Belton Design Standards (for which we made 25 recommendations for change); Temple's citywide trail and sidewalk system; storm water compliance; vested rights for existing developments; and multiple other issues that never reached the committee level. TABA continues to be the voice of the development community in East Bell County and with your support we will be for the foreseeable future.
Creating marketing opportunities. The TABA Home and Garden Show and TABA Parade of Homes are trade events that just about everyone in the area not only knows about, but looks forward to on an annual basis. These events provide our members with opportunities to market their businesses to the community in ways that can’t be compared. The 2009 Home & Garden Show allowed about 150 vendors to market their wares to more than 5,200 people in one weekend. The Parade provided our builders with an opportunity to showcase their homes to almost 1,200 visitors. These events require monumental levels of coordination and oversight to achieve the success that they do year and year out. Couple these events with ongoing opportunities to sponsor membership events that occur regularly and there is no doubt that TABA provides our members with powerful opportunities to market their businesses to their target market. At TABA, we are working for you!
The 2008/2009 TABA Buy Now Program was a five month effort designed to keep the benefits of new home ownership at the forefront of the minds of potential homebuyers in Central Texas during a period of traditionally slow sales in an already down economy. TABA leveraged our relationships with local print, radio, television and outdoor advertisers to provide a constant reminder of these benefits. TABA and our participants spent about $40,000 on the program--which in all honesty could have cost twice that if it wasn't for the relationships we have developed with the local marketing community over the years. The result was that your association worked to contribute to the reduction of the local inventory of new homes on the market in effort to keep builders building and supporting their associates, subcontractors and suppliers. Of the 53 homes originally marketed in the program prior to November 2008, about 40 percent had sold by the end of January 2009. The program also produced a national award winning website that complimented our marketing efforts.
At the 2009 Legislative Rally Day TABA took a contingency of members to Austin and joined more than 30 other home builder associations from around the state to emphasize to our legislators that we understood the significance of their work at the Capitol. We let them know that we appreciated their looking out for our industry as the 81st Legislature progressed. Senator Troy Fraser and Representative Ralph Sheffield could not have been more gracious in meeting with us and hearing us out on our issues. The message we left them can best be summarized in a presentation that was created leading up to the briefing. One of the key issues we presented was an opposition to a requirement for fire sprinklers. The Legislature ended their session by assuring that fire sprinklers would not be a requirement for new built homes in Texas. See the presentation page of our website for more on that issue.
Educational Seminars continue to be among the most important benefits of membership. With the demise of the Texas Residential Construction Commission, the mandate for continuing education for those in our industry has gone away for the time being. In our area, education was never really seen as a "have to" as much as it was embraced by our association and our members as an opportunity to remain current on industry trends and increase our knowledge on relevant industry issues. Local seminars in 2009 were held on a quarterly basis. In 2010, we hope to be able to offer even more frequent opportunities. Individual member savings from $30 to $50 is realized at the majority of the meetings.
Meeting rooms. Depending on your needs, TABA members can save $50 to $175 per day in the rental of our conference facility. The room, adjacent facilities and available technology can provide a quiet and professional setting for your next business meeting, seminar or small banquet. Members also have access to the smaller workrooms at TABA on an as needed basis.
At TABA, we try to go out of our way to serve our members. We are continuously looking for ways to improve. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any ideas for ways we may better serve you!
