Year in Review 2021: Resolve & Resilience
By Phil Crone, JD, CGP, GSP, Executive Officer 
The first thing I do before writing this column every year is go back and read the ones from prior years. I take inventory of the problems we solved and see if my premonitions of the ones ahead came true or not. Suffice it to say, I missed the mark from 2019 to 2020, failing to anticipate that months later we’d be fighting for the very existence of our industry while supplying our members with gallons of hand sanitizer, masks and gloves.
Last year, I anticipated 2021’s defining challenges to include permit delays in Dallas, the state legislative session and safely restarting our events as we passed the acute phase of the pandemic. While those certainly came to fruition, I had no idea that another crisis was lurking right around the corner.
Sure enough, in the span of less than 12 months, we went from confronting a global pandemic to seeing our office on The Weather Channel. Despite our preparation, February’s winter freeze and the state’s subsequent inability to supply power proved too much for our fire sprinkler system. A broken pipe ejected more than 150,000 gallons of water into our office, inundating everything within a foot of the floor and much more near the scene of the break. Our resolve and resilience were going to be tested again.
Past President Michael Turner was one of the first on the scene at the office and it feels like he’s barely left since. Michael is one of the most technically proficient builders in the area, and it was a great relief when he stepped up to captain the extensive rebuild of our office.
There’s so much to this project— from drying out and taking inventory of the damage, redesigning the space, procuring materials and scheduling trades in a difficult market and extracting insurance proceeds. On the latter issue, I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Hotchkiss Insurance and Property Loss Associates for their advocacy on our behalf.
Our headquarters is more than 20 years old, so this challenge also presented an opportunity to make the office more compatible with how we operate today and a better place for our staff and members to do business. This is only possible with the donations we’ve received from generous members.
A complete list is on DallasBuilders.org, but I wanted to specifically thank our three largest ones. Past President George Lewis, Highland Homes and the National Association of Home Builders each contributed at least $25,000 of the $162,000+ we have raised to date.
There’s so much more detail I am leaving out of this story, but odds are pretty good you have been following our journey. Thanks for that goes to Barcie Vilches, Misty Varsalone and Holly Pemberton on our staff for establishing our Rebuilding #BetterTogether campaign.
That effort included creating a web page to chronicle our progress supported by digital ads. Those ads generated more than 50,000 views. In addition, Tom Sadler & Associates worked with Michael Turner on an educational video series focused on various aspects of the extensive project. To date, they’ve created more than 40 videos with more to come as we approach completion in the coming months.
Following the flood, our most immediate task was dealing with the disruption to our operations. Computers needed to be replaced and servers and office equipment relocated among other things. Sheena Beaver was tremendously helpful here, working tirelessly with our IT company and vendors. Thanks to her and the perseverance of our staff, we were able to keep moving forward. I also want to thank Burgess Construction Consultants for taking us into their Plano offices, providing space for our equipment, staff and smaller in-person meetings to continue.
As they say, the show must go on and sure enough it did. One of the biggest unknowns going into the year was when to time the restart of our in-person meetings and events. With vaccines available to all who wanted them, we moved ahead in late spring and quickly realized there was a massive appetite for the industry to reconnect.
The McSAM Awards featured more than 500 entries, and Olympian Johnny Quinn served as the master of ceremonies for a sold out event. 2021 also saw the return of the ARC Awards after a three-year hiatus. It was a solid restart for ARC with 160 entries and 170 attendees. The Dallas BA Open, one of the few events we were able to pull off in 2020, was once again sold out with nearly 300 golfers hitting the links at Brookhaven Country Club.
Golf remained a popular pastime for our Multifamily Builders Council, too. Their sold-out tournament raised $5,000 for the Samaritan Inn in addition to $3,600 the council donated throughout the year. The council’s charitable efforts continued into the holiday season. They collected nearly 200 toys, including 17 bikes from Builders First Source, for local children in need. Also, at that event Juan Ramirez of Trinsic Residential received the Superintendent of the Year award, and the group celebrated the retirement of long-serving board member Kenny Duckworth.
The Association also wrapped up the year with a successful return of Casino Christmas. More than 150 attended the event at FACETS and made quick work of what we thought was an ample margarita supply. Speaking of FACETS, I’m deeply appreciative of Associate VP Phil Smith and showroom manager Guy Minnix, not only for hosting Casino Christmas in December and After Hours in May, but also for providing a temporary home for our Board of Directors meetings. These efforts earned them the Clyde Anderson Associate of the Year Award at the Installation of Officers event.
Staff Director of Meetings and Events Misty Varsalone has done an incredible job navigating the uncertainty of event planning and execution in the COVID era. Her expertise enabled the aforementioned events to succeed and kept the Dallas and Metro East Divisions on track as they restarted their in-person programming. All told we finished 2021 with 173 companies partnering with us in some way, shape or form.
Staying engaged with our membership and being a relevant and trustworthy resource for the public remain important priorities in the midst of an unpredictable market. During my 15 years with the Dallas BA, I cannot recall us receiving as many media and consumer inquiries as we did this year.
Skyrocketing lumber costs, permitting challenges in Dallas, contract escalation clauses and supply chain snags were all common themes for us to speak on. Many years ago we started down the path of trying to become the go-to source. A few times during the year, it felt like the phone was ringing too much. When I mentioned that to Barcie Vilches, our Director of Communication, she was always quick to say, “Remember, we asked for this.”
Barcie’s experience and intellect continue to allow our public relations and communication efforts to reach new heights. Especially with the help of Creative and Marketing Coordinator Holly Pemberton, who brings our vision to life in so many ways.
Monthly traffic on our consumer site DallasBuilders.com increased 6% and the member-centric site, DallasBuilders.org was a 13% increase. This is especially impressive because the site was heavily trafficked in 2020 as we tried to keep up with ever-changing pandemic-induced regulations. Our cumulative social media following also increased to around 14,600.
We also made significant improvements to our website ads and upgraded our directory listings as a free perk for Dallas BA members to receive more exposure online. Members can now add their logo, photos and link to the website along with a business description in our upgraded online portal. I have several instances firsthand of this generating business for members.
The Home of the Week program with The Dallas Morning News is another impactful free benefit for members. The program saved builders that used it more than $100,000 in marketing costs this year.
I continue to be impressed with Holly’s creative abilities and initiatives that lead to a better experience for our members. Some of her best work can be seen in the online flipbooks for McSAM and the ARC Awards. Check them out if you haven’t already.
Our Director of Membership Coleman Yates is also very passionate about enhancing the experience of our members and recruiting them to become a part of our organization. His efforts, along with those of our membership committee and yearlong recruitment partner StrucSure Home Warranty allowed the Dallas BA to grow significantly in 2021.
Our membership and retention numbers are now as high as they have been in the last five years. I feel this speaks to the value you derive from being a part of this Association and the trust you have in us to help you transcend today’s challenges. We value your trust and always strive to do whatever we can to continue earning it.
Another reason for our growth is the individual effort of our members to recruit their peers to be a part of our organization. Membership Committee Vice Chairman Chris Clay is the embodiment of this. He not only earned the Shorty Howard Award for recruiting the most members, he also earned the highest overall retention points among committee members. Even more impressive is that Chris edged out perennial top recruiter Donnie Evans and his giant Rolodex for the award.
I also want to thank all Facets, Starpower, MStone, Lee Lighting and Corradi for hosting our popular After Hours events throughout the year. We just completed our drawing for the first quarter of 2022 and look forward to another successful slate of fun events.
While we love for our events to be fun and to reconnect the industry, there is also the critical task of educating it. Luckily for us, we have the best program in the country to accomplish that task right here at the Dallas BA.
The Education Committee and staff Operations Officer and Education Director Sheena Beaver are on the forefront of delivering hybrid and on-demand classes that respond to our changing market. This year they launched an all-access pass to allow members an easy path to register, enjoy networking opportunities and review recordings of past courses.
Thanks to a large, local stable of talented instructors they were able to hold more than 40 diverse classes and sessions totaling 116 hours. More than half of those classes are available on-demand in an online library. In total, the program educated nearly 500 industry professionals in 2021.
Sheena, along with Accounting Manager Becky Warner were essential in ensuring the Association was able to procure a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program and ensure we met the requirements to have it fully forgiven. Becky is also playing a key role keeping our rebuilding project on track, financially managing the funds needed to pay trades and suppliers above and beyond her normal duties.
Director of Government Affairs David Lehde is another member of our team who goes above and beyond for our members. His role and that of our advocacy efforts is always important, but never more so than in recent months.
Addressing the need for certainty, expediency and cost-efficiency were the underlying objectives for each and every issue we encountered on the local, state and national levels. Locally, we continue to reckon with delays to the development and construction plan review process. The most notorious of these struggles continues to be with the City of Dallas, who remains unable to get its act together on construction permitting.
We feared all along that progress would be slow, and that has proven to be the case. Despite that, we were able to help dozens of members get their projects back on track. We made this issue a top priority for the council and heavily featured in the media including several hard-hitting stories in D Magazine regarding the negative impact on businesses. In December, we were successful in getting the council to lay the groundwork for a private provider program and other key administrative improvements.
We were able to defeat a proposed development moratorium in Forney and improve slow permitting times that were occurring in one of our region’s new hot spots for growth. We also mitigated the impact of a multifamily development moratorium in Grand Prairie that the council pushed through in the midst of the winter storm.
The Dallas BA also weighed in on countless impact, park and development fee issues including proposals in Prosper, Celina, Flower Mound and other places. David’s efforts and those members who weighed in on these issues saved builders and homeowners many thousands of dollars.
David was also actively involved in the regional amendments to the 2021 building codes, which cities will begin to adopt in early 2022. His efforts removed and averted numerous cost and administrative burdens.
Codes took center stage during the legislative session as well. Despite a tumultuous end to the regular session, we were able to pass HB 3215 which provides a new flexible and verifiable compliance pathway for the state energy code. The new law will provide much needed certainty and clarity for builders over the next decade. A lot of credit here goes to James Rodriguez with Fox Energy Specialists for helping Dallas BA and Texas Association of Builders (TAB) staff ensure the bill hit the mark.
In April, James and several Dallas BA members went down to Austin to advocate for HB 3215 and many other TAB legislative priorities for Rally Day. Despite complications and confusion due to COVID protocols, we were able to reach most of our area legislators either that day in person or in subsequent virtual meetings.
At the federal level, we remained engaged with our Congressional delegation, holding numerous meetings on costly lumber tariffs, supply chain challenges and proposed regulatory intrusion into the code making process. We also met with Senator Cornyn to discuss the soaring price of lumber.
While we gained much in 2021, the year also included a really big loss. Longtime member and fixture on the membership committee, Marty Brady passed away in November. Marty was one of the most steadfast and enthusiastic supporters of the Dallas BA, volunteering numerous hours with us and serving as a mentor to new associate members.
Marty rarely missed a new member welcome breakfast. Every time he had the opportunity to speak he would say, “This is the finest organization that I’ve ever belonged to.” Members such as Marty make the Association into how he described us. His legacy and examples live on and will continue to enrich our organizational culture in the years ahead. I am happy to have counted Marty as a friend and I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to work with him for several years.
The spirit of service is also embodied in our Association’s top honor, the Hugh Prather Trophy. Named for our first President and an icon of our region’s formative years, the award goes to the builder or developer who has contributed the most to our region. Past President Frank Murphy was this year’s well-deserved nominee. Frank has been the catalyst for several of our most significant legislative accomplishments including substantial reductions on roll back taxes for developable land. Frank never backs down from the hard challenges and tough problems in the policy arena or when it comes to improving our own operations. His diligence and willingness to share his expertise has made me better at my job.
I think the same can be said for 2020-21 President Matt Mitchell. I feel bad that Matt didn’t get the full experience of the office, leading meetings in person or a proper installation. However, like everything else, Matt took all of the year’s challenges in stride and with good humor. He contributed to many of our education program’s accomplishments and represented us well in key discussions with members of Congress on lumber and supply chain issues.
We were at least able to give Matt a proper and appreciative send off at our installation in September. Current President Andrew Pieper has already hit the ground running, working to grow our Volume Builder Developer Committee, support a Professional Women in Building group and establish a new land development program at Collin College. I’m looking forward to taking these ideas to the next level in 2022 and opening new doors with Andrew and the rest of our leadership team.
I never cease to be impressed with the generosity of our members and their willingness to contribute to the community. In addition to the charitable partnerships with our divisions and council mentioned above, our partnership with Operation Finally Home moved forward with the start of our eighth project for a deserving veteran.
During a very touching ceremony back in November, U.S. Navy Corpsman Luisa Velez and her son learned they would receive a mortgage-free home in recognition of her sacrifice made in service to our nation. This is the second project led by Winston Custom Homes and builder Matt Walls. The first was completed just blocks away in 2019. Matt is the only builder to step up a second time to lead an OFH project.
Coming full circle on this recap of the year gone by, I am amazed at how resilient our members, staff, leadership and this entire industry continue to be in an otherwise chaotic world.
Looking ahead to 2022, I know it will test our resolve as we cope with shortages of labor, materials and lots, along with rising costs fueled by inflation and higher interest rates. We have also learned, the hard way in some cases, that we have to expect the unexpected. When those challenges come, we will need to rely on our collective resolve to see us through.
Now, just as it has for more than 75 years, that collective resolve is embodied in the Dallas Builders Association. Thank you to all who made the accomplishments of 2021 possible including our Industry Investors: Hotchkiss Insurance Agency, StrucSure Home Warranty, BGE, Fox Energy Specialists, DuPont, FACETS Appliances, Kitchens & Baths, Atmos Energy and James Hardie Building Products.
