At this past week’s Illinois Manufactured Housing Association (IMHA) meeting in Springfield-IL, Hometown America’s Greg O’Berry gave what I believe is a memorable phrase regarding the role of associations.  

‘The mission of an association is to protect and promote its members and their industry.’ 

Wow!  What a powerful one liner!  To protect and promote its members and their industry.

In these challenging times, as an Industry we manufactured housing professionals need all the protection and promotion we can get. 

Ken Rishel in part of his comments before his talk on captive finance and its critical role for Manufactured Housing Communities today, made the following important point.  Ken stated that he presents at numerous state association meetings in various parts of the U.S..  He commended the IMHA for organizing a very fine event.  He also challenged the attendees and members of the IMHA with this remark, why are other associations able to organize meeting where 200-400 attendees come to hear the speakers, and the IMHA only managed about 40 attendees for this incredibly useful cross section of speakers and topics?

George Allen balanced Ken’s remark by saying that the NY association meeting was a multi-state event, as was the 5 state meeting in Deadwood-WY. 

Rishel’s question raises an issue that all associations need to consider. Time and effort go into planning these events.  Such events often provide training and insights that could not be found elsewhere and certainly not for the low cost that these events often charge.  The IMHA Finance Seminar, for instance, had a $75 fee for association members and $100 for non-association members.  For the cost of a good meal in a nice restaurant, attendees were exposed to business building and money saving ideas that when put to work could be worth many, many times all the costs of attending this type of event.

As an observation, in sales and marketing, the wise professional learns ALL of the objections and challenges that their product or service faces.  The same must be true for Associations.  What are the reasons someone doesn’t attend? What are the reasons people don’t join?  True, there are some who an association may not want to have as a member, because of questionable business practices or poor reputation.  But for the most part, are the people most in need of such meetings failing to attend for some reason that could be and should be understood and addressed?

When even an national association such as MHI is challenged to get 100 people from across the country into a single meeting of importance, isn’t their reason to understand ‘why’ the attendance isn’t better?

The networking, business building and other bottom line benefits of association membership can not be over stated.  In these days of heady challenges, we need to think about Greg O’Berry’s words often:

“The mission of an association is to protect and promote its members and their industry.” 

Each of us as Industry pros must allocate the time and resources to attend a function that can benefit our bottom line.  If there is something that you think that an association isn’t doing, there are two answers to that:

Get involved.

Be a part of the solution.

When problems or concerns go unaddressed, the net result is no change.

When challenges face us, there is nothing more important than facing up to those challenges and dealing with them in the best possible way for all involved.

“The mission of an association is to protect and promote its members and their industry.” 

Perhaps a fitting complementary remark to this Greg O’Berry gem is this:

“If your association isn’t doing what you want it to do, then get involved and be a part of the solution. Working together, listening and learning from one another, we are stronger and can best protect and promote association members and our industry.” # #