The Texas Association of Builders (TAB) recently received an Association of Excellence Award in the following categories from the Executive Officers Council (EOC) of the National Association of Home Builders: Best Web 2.0 Program; Best Revenue Effort - Non Parade, Tour or Show; Best HBA Partnership/Coalition; Best Membership Recruitment/Retention Plan Implemented; and Best Numerical & Percentage Increase in Membership. Awards were presented during the annual National Association of Home Builders’ 2018 Association Management Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

The Best Web 2.0 Program was created out of necessity and is a one of a kind program. Before Hurricane Harvey, Texas was and continues to experience a critical shortage of trades professionals. To expedite the matching of builders, developers and remodelers to skilled tradespeople, TAB launched Builders2Trades (B2T). TAB collaborated with a long-time business partner, MultiView, to produce a search engine for the membership at no cost to the association, builders or trades professionals. With this platform, members search for craftsmen by trade who already work in or are willing to relocate to the builder's area of Texas. The TAB membership now has access to over 25,000 trades professionals and suppliers in the B2T database.

 

The Best Revenue Effort - Non Parade, Tour or Show award was the result of a fundraiser for the Texas Builders Foundation, the charitable arm of TAB. The Texas Association of Builders Young Professionals Council’s mission behind Builders' Bash was to bring awareness to the Foundation while hosting a fun networking event during the Sunbelt Builders Show™. The goal was to provide all Sunbelt attendees with another mix and mingle activity off the trade show floor and to raise a sizable contribution for the Foundation. The event was a huge success and the YP Council was able to proudly donate $35,000 to the Texas Builders Foundation, the largest donation to date from the YP Council to the Foundation.

 

"America's Front Porch" was born during a keynote address at the 2018 Sunbelt Builders Show ™ and as a result was the winner of the Best HBA Partnership/Coalition award. The premise of "America's Front Porch," through TAB's partnership with The Promiseland Project, is to bring back the feeling of community when neighbors sat on their front porches to watch their children play; where they had a place to gather and get to know one another. The Project's mission is to end the current destructive and divisive culture in America - the "us versus them" mentality - and instead create and build a purpose­driven, inclusive culture of "us" as in USA. By being a part of the Project's overall mission that any American can build a purpose-driven life, TAB and the Texas Builders Foundation can continue to spread their message that a career in the construction trades can be fulfilling, purposeful and well-paying.

 

The final two awards, Best Membership Recruitment/Retention Plan Implemented and Best Numerical & Percentage Increase in Membership, was the result of the Texas Association of Builders membership coming together to grow each local home builders association (HBA). TAB secured the Oliver Group to teach our members across the state the DIRECT Drive System. HBAs co-located their trainings, which nurtured friendly membership competition. In the end, Texas recruited 1,525 new members. In 2018, 40 percent of all new members that NAHB acquired came from our great state. This initiative positively impacted TAB financially and provides the association with a stronger voice when advocating for pro-housing issues at the Texas Capitol and before state regulatory agencies. By being taught this proven system, our members and executive officers were able to host successful local association membership drives. This was a collaborative effort between NAHB, TAB and the HBAs. TAB was this year’s NAHB Grand Award winner with the highest numerical increase, percentage growth, retention rate and numerical increase in affiliate membership.

 

The Association Excellence Awards is an annual program designed to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of state and local home builders associations and executive officers in the field of association management. The council's membership consists of the staff executives who manage the more than 700 state and local home builders associations that comprise the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

 

The winning entries will be added to a searchable directory of AEA winning entries, so that other HBA executives and home builders associations across the country can access and learn from them to provide better service to their members and communities.