There Comes A Time

Ed Castelhano, Becklin Construction

Over the last two months, I have spent a fair amount of time reading periodicals, articles and letters from several other associations and organizations that I belong to. Two things consistently stand out in BIG BOLD letters to me. This is the year to be INVOLVED and ENGAGED.

SAHBA has developed a reputation of being a leader in the community, from advocacy for the building industry to charity for those in need. It is with this heritage and culture in mind that I come to you this month. SAHBA needs your active involvement in three areas to strengthen our role in the community.

Membership: To help identify potential members, the Membership Committee has created a “Who Do You Know” program. You fill out a form of who you know that is not already a member and give it to the Membership Committee. Then, they will contact them and extol the benefits of membership, in the hopes of helping increase our membership. As a member yourself, are you taking advantage of all the benefits that SAHBA offers you? I suggest you see what you might be missing by going to www.sahba.org or contact Dennis Merideth or Larry Gibbons, your Membership Co-Chairs, and have them refresh your memory on the benefits of SAHBA membership.

Events: There are many ways to get involved at SAHBA, and your association has a couple specific areas where your participation is needed. As always, we have the Spring Home Show coming in April. Much of the success of SAHBA Home Shows is a result of the tremendous volunteer effort. Please volunteer to help and volunteer early. Contact Lizzette Felix, Home Show Director (lizzette@sahba.org), for more information. Coming in May, we have Carnival de Golfe, which this year is a benefit for both SAHBA and The Hearth Foundation. We need sponsors and a sellout crowd of golfers. Let’s get in there and help out. Call Brigid Gannon, our committee chair, for more information.

Political Action Committee: You will soon be seeing information coming to you from PAC as 2010 is our year to renew our Super PAC status. This requires us to get 500 individual $10 contributions and increases SAHBA’s ability to support those candidates who also support the building industry. Also, may I suggest a $250 individual contribution to become a PAC Trustee? You will see the PAC out asking for additional contributions during the year. As I said earlier, this is the year for ALL of US to be involved in the political process.

It is very clear from all the information and data I have seen or read that the American people from both sides of the aisle are unhappy with their elected officials. So expect it to be an active and contentious election cycle. I fully expect our PAC committee to be very involved in vetting out the issues with potential candidates. We can be confident those candidates our PAC endorses are committed completely to protecting our constitution and the ideals our forefathers set forth, as well as support home building industry and small business if elected.

Yes, I fully understand that this is the worst possible time from a business standpoint to ask for more involvement and contributions from our membership. But, this is also the most important time in our country’s recent history and we have an opportunity to shape the future. There Comes A Time in every generation’s life when they are asked to go above and beyond the call of duty. This is our Call To Action!