48 Business View - March 2015
speak, you can find it – whether it be charitable activi-
ties, education, political involvement, government re-
lations, there’s committees to do those sorts of things.
BUSINESS VIEW: I guess the reasons why people
join a group don’t always match or run in tandem
with the values of the group assumes to provide. Is
there one particular service that the group plants
its flag in the ground and says this is what we do
particularly well – is it legislative issues, network-
ing, providing education, what do you guys try to sell
yourself with?
NORMAN:
On the state level, and again, most join on
the local level, so most aren’t joining first and fore-
most because of what we’re doing on the state level.
Although, there’s obviously benefits to members and
to non-members as well that are in the industry. But, I
would say on the state level, obviously, our reason for
being is for advocacy, dealing with the state legislature
and agencies, and those sorts of things. That is our
number one mission. Other things that we do include
that we have a Builders Foundation that does chari-
table and education work, we have a Sunbelt Builders
show, which is a large trade show that we have every
summer around the state. And so, we have many other
activities that occur, but obviously our first on the state
level is advocacy.
BUSINESS VIEW: Are there any common issues that
a good cross-section of the membership is talking
about these days? Is there something specific that
they’re worried about or that they’re talking to you
about?
NORMAN:
Well, I think one thing that weaves its way
through everything we do at the capital and other plac-
es is to try to remind our decision makers, as well as
they do in Washington DC and that they do at the lo-
cal level in cities, counties, what have you, is try to re-
mind decision makers or officials or whoever they may
be of the impact their decisions have on housing af-
fordability. National Association of Homebuilders has
conducted numerous studies and established that
25 percent of the cost of a new home can be attrib-
uted to government regulations on a local, state, and
national level. And so, that obviously dramatically im-
pacts homebuyers, especially as you go down market,
or down income levels, it affects them more so. So, we
try to remind legislators and decision makers of that,
because obviously, the more expensive homes are,
the less homes we can sell as an industry, but also the
less folks that can afford to buy them. It impairs home
ownership, which we think is a good thing and most
people concede is a good thing.
BUSINESS VIEW: What ways have you had the most
success in engaging your membership? Is it the
events? The publications? The online stuff? What
sorts of things have resonated the most?
NORMAN:
I think it’s all of the above. What we’ve
learned with these new stages of media is that dif-
ferent people get their information in different ways,
so you just have to put it out there as many ways as
you can. It’s harder these days to get people’s atten-
tion. We have a magazine; we have a web presence on
