I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to be president of your Home Builders Association. I would especially like to thank the many before me who have left a trail for me to follow. The past two years, under the leadership of Brad Ropp, has seen this organization go from a renter to a ‘homeowner’. We all need to thank him for his hard work and dedication to our organization. I would also like to thank the board members for their commitment of both time and talents to promote this organization. Our Executive Officer, Lisa Kohn, does the day to day hard work of keeping the office running and keeping all the board members on the right track. And last and not least, I thank all the members for their commitment to the Home Builders for without you, there is no organization.

As the new decade arrives we find our industry being challenged from all sides. New and costly energy/insulation building requirements and pending life/safety issues with residential sprinklers have our costs skyrocketing. If we couple this with fewer home buyers being able to qualify for a home mortgage and now a slight upward tick in interest rates, 2010 could be another year to hang on and reach deep to not lose any more ground.

In the coming year I can see our organization with a few directions to follow. Some of these will be to gain membership by encouraging more general programs to keep us informed of new code demands within our industry, to continue promoting community activities to better our community, to work more closely with the Realtor community to promote our businesses, and finally as this will be our last year for the Home Show at the Interstate Center, to find a new location for the 2011 show. I look forward to working with you to keep our organization moving forward.

Guy DiCiaula, Kaisner Homes