Addie Walters, director of Member Services, Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield

I am in charge of our member services, which entails coming up with new programs to help our members. New activities, association events, that sort of thing. I’m also in charge of the training side. We do Occupational Safety and Health Administration training. We have a lot of professional seminars – how to be a better businessperson, how to promote your company. I also do all our publications. I do all our newsletters, our directory, our show magazines. I do some of the smaller events. Charlyce Ruth does the major ones.

How did you get started at HBA?

That’s a funny story. I was getting ready to graduate from (Southwest Baptist University) and didn’t have a job. So I started putting my resume out all over the place and (HBA Executive Officer) Matt Morrow’s mother got ahold of my resume at the hospital at Bolivar … and gave him my resume. I was an English major. I was just looking for something, and I didn’t want to teach. Being able to do the publications here and write and edit and do layout, that’s right up my alley. This month marks two and a half years (with the HBA).

Tell us about HBA’s membership.

We currently have 395 members – a mix of builders and individuals. We have, officially, 81 builder members – and that includes remodelers – and 314 associate members. For the builders and remodelers, they have to have been building or remodeling in the area for at least two years (to be considered for membership), and have five homes, or in the case of remodelers, five projects completed. They also have to carry workers’ compensation and general liability insurance, no matter how big or small they are, and that also goes for associate members. Our associate members are basically anyone associated with the construction industry that is not a builder or remodeler. Associates have to have been in business for at least one year. We also do credit checks, reference checks, that sort of thing.

Prospective members must be approved by the board of directors. We try to make it a pretty water-tight policy just so the consumers who call in looking to use some of these companies know that they’re getting a good, quality, reliable company.

Do you get a lot of calls from consumers looking for help with a project?

A majority of our calls are people looking to build our remodel. We send out our builder and remodeler list at least a couple times a day. That is free of charge to the public, and as a member, that’s one of the benefits … and (members) are also listed on our Web site, www.springfieldhba.com. Since everyone pays dues and has the same requirements for membership, we do not pick and choose. We leave that up to the homeowner.

What are some programs or activities you’ve added since joining HBA?

I started our new member orientation, and we got the board to pass it so that it is mandatory for all of our new members. We’ve never done that before. The orientation is basically a quarterly luncheon that we have for all our new members. They have to go to at least one within the first year of their membership. It’s basically just a presentation of our association. We go through several different sections of our association, things that they might be interested in knowing. Some of our past members have come to the orientation and have walked away thinking, “I didn’t know that about the HBA, and I’ve been a member for 15 years.”

We’ve also changed some of our dinner meetings so that we’re not just having sit-down dinner meetings anymore. We’re doing a tabletop night in August, where some of our companies … who sell directly to builders and remodelers rather than the general public can come show off their product at our dinner meeting in August.

We’ve started some builder-only events … where builders and remodelers can get together and discuss local codes and building issues.

Do you find that members aren’t aware of all the options available to them through HBA?

I think that a lot of them just think that we’re a social group. They don’t realize all of the opportunities that we offer, especially since HBA just recently started offering education opportunities where they (can) get professionally certified in several different areas of their trade. Through the National Association of Home Builders, there are professional designations where they can get certified to show that they’re a professional in their field, whether they’re an associate, builder or remodeler. They’ll work on (certification) through the (NAHB), but the local office can help them schedule their classes.

Tell us about your family and spare-time interests.

I’ve been married almost two years to Matt Walters. He is a teacher out at Miller High School, and he’s also their baseball coach, softball coach and assistant basketball coach. Then in the summer, he’s JV American Legion coach for Hillcrest. Every week, we’re gone on tournaments. I go to his baseball games. We have two dogs that we take to the Three Dog Bakery. I’m working on my Master of Business Administration. Also, we are members at Ridgecrest Baptist Church.

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