President's Message

Spring has sprung. The weather is finally turning favorable to get outside and do some real work. A few of our members have reported that they expect a very busy spring. That’s great to hear. We hope that all of us will experience an increase in business in 2008.

Thank you to all who attended our March meeting at the Hideaway. It was a great turnout, with over 40 members attending. We had a terrific steak dinner. The invited elected officials were favorably impressed with our presen-tation and our program of work. In addition to expressing their thanks, a couple of our guests suggested that we should do it again (that may have had something to do with the steak dinner).

It was a great opportunity to tell our story to the local town supervisors and mayors. Those who attended were: Larry Soos, North Tonawanda Mayor; Tim Demler, Town of Wheat-field Supervisor; Wright Ellis, Town of Cambria Supervisor; Vince Vecchiarella, N.T. Schools Superintendent; Jim McCann, Lockport Building Inspector; Bill Ross, Niagara County Legislature Chairman; and Tim Horanburg, Town of Newfane Supervisor.

Bill Ross gave the NCBA a huge plug, speaking glowingly of the good work that we do, and our impact on the local economy. In all, it was an excellent evening. Thanks to Bill Burg for recommend-ing we do this, and to all who helped put it together.

Our association was saddened by the passing of Guido Villani, a former members and officer of the NCBA. Guido, who died on February 11, was the founder of Cataract Door, now operating as Gui’s Lumber in the Town of Niagara. Our sympathy goes out to the Villani family. The NCBA gave a memorial gift to Prince of Peace Church in his memory.

Plans are already underway for our golf outing in late June. Jim Kuryak will again chair this event. We are looking for a few members to work with Jim on the committee. Call the NCBA office at 693-5736 if you can help.

Next Meeting

Wednesday, April 9 at J.T. Wheatfield’s 6935 Ward Road Wheatfield 5:30 pm Board mtg 6:30 pm Cash Bar 7:00 pm Dinner mtg RSVP by Friday, April 4 693-5736

BIG HUNT MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN

The NCBA is tying in to the NAHB’s member-ship campaign in May. The official date for Membership Day is May 20, but all new members brought in from May 1—20 will qualify the sponsoring member for Double Spike Points, and a wide variety of prizes. We are working to put together our own prize list, to add to those the national is offering.

The success of our Direct Drive campaign last year tells us that getting new members is not difficult. When you tell a prospective member the advantages of membership in the NCBA, signing them up gets quite easy. For example, last year Larry Quigliano recruited Carmen Pariso trucking into the NCBA. Mr. Pariso has told us that one of the selling points was the GM $500 discount
offer. He has now used that offer to purchase five GM vehicles, paying for his membership several times over. Nationally the GM offer was used to buy 10,000 vehicles in 2007, and this is just one of several discounts available to members.

Start working on your list of vendors, subs, and others you do business with. Tell them why you belong, and sign them up!

If you have an item or two that you can donate for our campaign incentives, please call the office. Event tickets, restaurant gift cards, shirts, caps, etc. all make great prizes.

INDUSTRY DAY MAY 14

Our third annual Industry Day, which we co-sponsor with the BNBA, has been rescheduled to May 14 at the Seneca Niagara Casino Hotel and Conference Center. An exciting array of exhibits, speakers, meetings and programs is being assembled, and we are looking for a great turnout from the NCBA. Our May board and membership meetings will be held at the event.

Display booths at Industry Day cost only $300, and include lunch and dinner .

The main speaker this year will be Elliott Eisenberg from the NAHB. Eliot is responsible for updating the Economics of Homebuilding data that the national publishes regularly. This is one of the key items that our industry uses to influence government to help promote homebuilding. Elliot delivers his important message with a unique style and great humor.

Industry Day also offers workshops on a variety of subjects from financing to win-dow installation. It’s a great day to promote your business to others in the homebuilding trade, and to learn the latest techniques and products available to you. Come on out and join your friends in the trade at Industry Day.

NCBA TOPS NATIONAL LIST

The NAHB recently released membership statistics for calendar year 2007. Our association had the second highest retention percentage of all HBAs in the country with over 50 members. That’s second out of over 700 associations! Our renewal rate for the year was 96.8%. It doesn’t get much better than that. We also placed in the top 10 of HBAs with 50-99 members in percentage of increase for the year. Congratulations to Larry Quigliano and his board for posting such impressive numbers.

NCBA Officers & Directors

MAXIMIZE RETURN ON YOUR MEMBERSHIP DOLLAR
Jerry O'Neill

Last month I went to Washington, DC for an EO Orientation session for newer Executive Officers. We learned about the wealth of services that are available from the NAHB. Most of our members have probably never taken the time to discover all of the services your membership dollar buys.

In recent months I have included info in this newsletter on the Builder Books website, training programs and legal assistance available through NAHB. In addition, there are councils that specialize in several areas of the homebuilding trade, For example, there is a Remodelers Council, a Multi-Family Council and a Sales & Marketing Council, just to name a few.

The NAHB also offers planning tools for local HBAs. They can help with strategic planning, and will do a governance and operations review to help locals operate more efficiently. They also offer Leader-ship Training Conferences for local officers.

You and your business can benefit from your membership in NAHB by taking advantage of the services, discounts and training that they offer. Every business uses computers, payroll and delivery services and office supplies. Many use storage facilities at times. And there is always that $500 GM discount. Take advantage of these deals to make your membership dollars pay off.

RSVPS COSTING US MONEY

RSVPs for our meetings and event have always been a sensitive issue. Every month we deal with a poor response rate, and we have to email and call peo-ple to find out who is coming to each meeting. It is not uncommon for the restaurant to have to scramble to set up more seating at some of our meetings, and other times we end up paying for dinners we didn’t use, because people told us they would be there, and then don’t show up.

We realize that you sometimes have to wait until the last minute to confirm your attendance, but we want everybody to be aware of the difficulty that poor head counts can cause for us.

Our board may soon have to consider re-quiring members who reserve and then don’t attend a meeting to pay for their dinner. Many other organizations have already instituted this policy.

Please make it your policy to call us every month and tell us whether you will be at-tending our meeting. It’s a courtesy that will be much appreciated.

This is YOUR newsletter

This is our first newslet-ter that was produced entirely in-house. A huge THANK YOU to Skip Mazenauer and Carl and Marilynn from his staff for all of their help with our newsletter over the past 2 years, and with our transition. While we don’t have the professional abilities of Skip’s shop, we feel that we have put together a solid, informational letter in a pleasant format.

We welcome your input on ways we can make the newsletter better for you. Are there certain topics that you would like to see in the newsletter? More or fewer articles? Is our use of photos appropriate? Any other suggestions?

The primary benefit of doing the newsletter in-house is that our association retains the advertising revenue. There are still a few more ad spots left. If you want your ad to appear here in the future, call Cathy or Jerry at 693-5736.