November 2008 President's Message

Change is coming! Only it is not the change that you have been hearing over the last year and half…thank goodness! This change is in the form of fall turning to winter and with that we all start to hunker down for the onslaught of holidays: Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas and eventually New Years (if I left your favorite out it is not intentional).

With all that business closing in, I want to take a moment to thank a team of people that have worked extremely hard to help make our association one of the most successful in the state. In short, I would like to get a jump on Thanksgiving this year and focus in on the following “Champions Chairs” of our association who work tirelessly to help serve you, our trade partners. They deserve a great big “Thank You” from all of us for giving of their time and talents to help all of us succeed in a great industry:

* Build Wisconsin: Ron Derrick, Derrick Homes, LLC
* Golf: Grant Dockendorf, Cameron Homes, Inc. and Eric Pederson, AnchorBank
* Home Show: Cheryl Ross, Amazing Space, Inc.
* Member Services: Josh Keeney, Lindus Construction, Inc. & Tera Snyder, Pahl’s Premier Lighting
* Public Policy: Scott Counter, Home Tec Designers & Builders and Bill Berndt, Consultant
* Sales/Marketing/PR: Angie Bendt, Wize Dezigns
* Tour of Homes: Mike Dockendorf, Cameron Homes
* And last, but certainly not least, is our EO, Jill Larson. Jill is at the heart of our association and works tirelessly to support the success of our industry our builders and associates. But if you notice, for all that responsibility her name is not mentioned once in our newsletter. So Jill, a great big thank you too!

You read this list of names every month in this newsletter, but that list does not call these individuals out for the great work and sacrificial service they provide to our association and its members. This year more than others, we owe these individuals great debts of gratitude and “Thanks” for helping our association thrive in tough economic times. I am truly thankful for having the great privilege of working along side them all this past year.