Town Hall Meetings Summary
Green Bay:
Use a variety of communications methods to reach members (email, U.S. Mail, social media, text)
Keep Badger Builder as a quarterly publication but look to revamp look and content
Concern over multiple memberships “fallen on deaf ears for 15 years”
Builder members need to insist that the subs they use are members
WBA should again purchase an updated DSPS list, take out active members, post via county/zip code for locals to use to recruit members (these lists are currently available on the WBA website for download)
NAHB was asked to create a universal database that all locals/states can pay to use
Use Brown County and NAHB’s “Do Business with a Member” materials as a guide to create templates for all locals to use (post on EO Resource website)
Create a 5-question survey for all members to learn more about the membership. Post those answers on social media and other WBA publications.
Eau Claire:
The group agreed with keeping the printed version of the Badger Builder magazine, mailing it four times a year, and refurbishing the content
Adam Wehling of CVTC stated that builders and local HBAs must be more aggressive to reach out to middle and high schools to promote the industry and encourage students to consider the trades as an occupation
Programs mentioned to promote the trades to students:
Tools for Schools (La Crosse Area BA)
Skills USA
Career Day (Metropolitan BA)
Women in Construction outreach efforts to students (Metropolitan BA and Madison Area BA)
Student built homes (South Central HBA)
Build My Future program in Iowa (“Build My Future is an immersive hand on event that allows participants to see multiple career paths available in Iowa. Participants will be able to get their hands-on carpentry, welding, plumbing, electric, roofing, masonry, advanced manufacturing, CAD, Commercial & Residential Building Design, Architecture Modeling with Virtual & Augmented Reality, Heavy Equipment Operator, & much more.”, iowaskilledtrades.com). St. Croix Valley HBA mentioned they may start this program in 2020
Discussion of Home Shows:
La Crosse Area BA recently made several changes to their home show and had the highest attendance ever in 2019. Some of those changes included selling alcohol on Friday and Saturday (2 drinks included with each ticket); a Friday night date night, demonstrations on Saturday, and a family day on Sunday (no alcohol sold). In addition to the new marketing ideas the turn around can also be credited with a very engaged and active member committee.
Discussion of Parade of Homes:
Chippewa Valley HBA added remodeled homes to their parade this year. They are exploring technology upgrades to improve things like ticketing in the future and may be sharing the cost of this with other local HBAs
La Crosse Area BA mentioned a challenge to get newer builders to participate in the parade
Wausau Area BA has a cooking presentation as part of their parade
Discussion of membership efforts:
La Crosse Area BA has encouraged their builders to again reach out to all subcontractors to join as members (one builder brought in an additional 5 members in early 2019)
Madison Area BA members receive points when recruiting members that can be used for advertising and merchandise
Chippewa Valley HBA has a member referral rewards program to incentivize members recruiting members and is also planning a membership drive for the first time in several years in 2019
Waukesha:
Consensus was in support of keeping the Badger Builder magazine with additional content and less pictures in addition to a section for local HBAs to be highlighted
An option for the magazine was to sell space as an “advertorial” to supplier members
It was suggested that we ask legislators to write columns for the Badger Builder on housing related issues
Email was the preferred line of communication and the group agreed that the current volume of messages pers week was the right amount
Discussion of Parade of Homes:
MABA has a veteran’s appreciation component to their parade, they had a “Taste of Stoughton” event to attract additional people to that neighborhood which was the furthest away form the majority of neighborhoods in the parade
Metro is looking at eliminating or revamping their “realtor day” during the parade. MABA stated that adding a free lunch to their realtor day increased attendance
For the first time this year Lakeland, RKBA, and South Central offered those that purchased a ticket from any of the three parades the opportunity to attend the other two locations at no additional cost
Programs mentioned to promote the trades to students:
Metro holds a student career day that had 650 students attend this year and offers students tickets to attend the parade. Subcontractors are invited to attend the event to recruit students as employees.
Metro is looking at more effort to target adults into the trades
Members need to actively lobby school boards and schools in order to make sure classes that are relevant to the trades are offered
RKBA is working with local school districts on a “tiny home” type build to show the stages of the construction process with subcontractors working on the stages
It was suggested that locals that take on a student build project “start small” or the project can become overwhelming
A granddaughter’s Girl Scout project to construct a bird house lead to three mothers asking for additional information on how they could get into the trades. This is proof that the membership must look to nontraditional workers and always be on the lookout for those that may have an interest in the trades as a new career.
A newly formed “Women in Construction” group with members from both Metro and MABA could be a key to recruiting more women to the trades
The membership needs to look to veterans and those formerly incarcerated as options for workforce shortages
MABA has several programs to increase workforce options including a program with the Boys and Girls Club of Madison, a website for schools to promote the trades, and a visa program to bring in people from Southeast Asia to work in the trades
Discussion of local advocacy issues:
Metro discussed the City of Waukesha’s efforts to not allow home occupancy until a home has finished landscaping and a finished (paved) driveway. Robert Procter has been navigating the issue as a violation of the UDC and working with members and the city staff to help address this issue but not be in violation of the UDC and increase the cost of housing in the process.
MABA mentioned that they have had some similar issues in their area with one municipality (Town of Windsor) requiring a $1000 deposit that is returned once the landscaping is competed
DeForest is requiring additional stairs on decks that are not required per the UDC. WBA staff asked to receive the language to push back on the requirement because it is in violation of the UDC and therefore not permitted.