Game Plan for 2012

Clear goals and a specific plan of action are what’s needed in 2012 if we are going to be successful in improving our bottom line in these challenging times. Increased revenue for 2012 for ASHI inspectors and ASHI is important. How are we going to best accomplish these goals?

First, the ASHI Board approved 2012 committee chairs and Board liaisons at the October Board meeting and they have been working hard ever since implementing specific plans to make these goals a reality. Based on our strategic plan, each committee chair came up with a set of recommended goals. These goals have been discussed, modified, revised and resharpened during several group conference calls with the committee chairs, Board liaisons and staff liaisons and many emails. This was followed up in December at headquarters in a meeting with Executive Director Jeff Arnold and our professional ASHI staff, who provided additional valuable suggestions and input.

The goals were then tweaked and another conference call was held with the 2012 committee chairs and Board and staff liaisons, and the goals were unanimously passed on to the Board for final review and prioritization. They were approved by the ASHI Board at the January 4 meeting at IW at the Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.

The goals for our new Member Value Committee are listed here and the goals for four more standing committees can be found in this issue.

I am excited to give you a sneak preview of these goals, so you have an opportunity to let me, the committee chairs and Board liaisons know how you feel about them, any suggestions you have, and to let us know if you are willing to volunteer to make these goals a reality. (Send an email to volunteer@ashi.org.)

To be continued, hopefully with your input, and you agreeing to volunteer to help make one or more of these goals a reality — in next month’s edition of the ASHI Reporter.

The goals for the new Member Value Committee

The primary objective of the Member Value Committee (these objectives need to be seamlessly incorporated in all related committee plans) is to draw up a pre-approved message that ASHI staff, officers, directors and ASHI member volunteers can personally deliver to chapter leaders and ASHI members across the country. For example:

1. Work cooperatively with ASHI staff to get a uniform message out from staff, officers, directors and volunteers to the membership, other organizations and the public as to the value of ASHI inspectors.

2. Make “Find an Inspector” more user-friendly for searches and better utilized by ASHI members and the public, by …

a. Members registering all their specialty inspections and categorizing inspectors accordingly, for optimum searchability.
b. ASHI enabling more specialty inspection categories to be listed on ASHI’s chapter and national websites.
c. Encouraging ASHI chapters to expand their websites to include specialty inspections.
d. Encouraging chapters to have members announce at monthly meetings the ancillary inspections they offer and their willingness to work with fellow ASHI inspectors to provide these services to their clients.
e. Members registering their geographic availability for inspections on the ASHI chapter and national websites.

3. Help chapters with their websites by providing a list of vendors to assist in developing and maintaining chapter websites, improve their SEO through their websites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

4. Encourage the Public Relations Committee (and direct G & S) to get the word out that ASHI inspectors do more than just homebuyer inspections. ASHI inspectors do all kinds of specialty inspections involving the home to the highest standards and can easily be located through “Find an
Inspector.”.

5. Getting the word to all members that there are many different specialty inspections they can diversify into, providing more value to their clients. For example: energy inspections, home energy score inspections, radon, lead-based paint, FEMA, capital needs, mold, termites, foreclosed homes, pre-purchase, etc. If every chapter had at least one member offering a specialty inspection, all chapter members could use that expertise and improve the profitability of both. The members of chapters can be supported by education through The ASHI School.

6. Getting national news TV excerpts available for ASHI’s, chapters’, and members’ websites.