SFBA NARI

NARI's Mission,

 Core Purpose,

and Big Audacious Goal 

NARI Membership,

News and

2012 Leadership

The Value of Membership

For those of you who were fortunate enough to attend last month's Chapter

Mark Calender

meeting, we had very interactive networking sessions where those in attendance became more familiar with NARI members and walked away with some great pointers on how to improve their business.  Many thanks to Dave Freer for putting together this Membership event.  Thank you to member co-host Wooden Window and to co-host Restoration Timber for allowing us toconduct our meeting at their showroom.  This is another example of how our Chapter provides an excellent return on your investment of time in attending our meetings.

  

Our Chapter has been successful over the past four months in increasing Membership.  What is equally important to getting new members is providing a proper orientation and continuous benefits so that each and ev

Matt Podesta

ery member can easily justify their commitment to renew.  We have and will place a continuous effort to ensure that our members stress the importance of working together with other members.  These opportunities are primarily generated at our monthly meetings.  We have placed an emphasis on getting to know Chapter members and to also recognize areas where our members can contribute to improvements as to how our Chapter operates.  There are many committees in the Chapter that could benefit from the knowledge and expertise of our members.  Thesecommittees are the foundation of how our Chapter can continue to provide exceptional meetings, government influence, award recognition, educational opportunities and most important an increase in business.  Please feel free to contact either of us if you are interested in getting involved further. 

  

We have another great Chapter meeting planned for June.  Chapter member MB Jessee will be hosting our meeting.  We are fortunate enough to have as our featured speaker, Paul Goetz, RWC, of Aquatech Consultancy, Inc., one of the key local leaders in the water intrusion and construction defect industry.  This will be a beneficial meeting for all of those who have some interest in the integrity of the building envelope and could be a key seminar in educating you on how to avoid future construction defects.

  

We look forward to seeing all of you there.  

 

 

 

Mark

Mark Calender

2012 Chapter Co-President

 

Matt 

Matt Podesta 

2012 Chapter Co-President 

"Getting to Know NARI and Other Remodeling Professionals"

HOUSEworks, Inc. is in The Big 50 Class of 2012

For the Class of 2012, selections were made after a rigorous selection process that considers hundreds of candidates and culminated in an induction ceremony at the Remodeling Leadership Conference held on May 10-12, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Ready, Set, Grow Your Business - Special Training Program

Proceeds Go To Rotary International's Polio Eradication Program 

Early Registration Cost of $199 Extended to June 2, 2012

Exclusively for NARI Members

Sponsorships and Avertising  Now Available

Market Your Business to NARI Members and Guests

San Francisco Bay Area NARI offers a variety of advertising and sponsorship packages for you to market your business.   We offer you the following advertising and sponsorship packages  to provide information and market your products or services:  

• REMMIES/Leadership Dinner Sponsorships
• Golf Tournament Sponsorships
• Chapter Meeting Sponsorships
• Advertising Sponsorships in Monthly Newsletter
• Advertising Sponsorships on SFBA NARI Website
• Education / Certification Sponsorships
• Co-sponsorships are available; Partner with Another Member
• Full Year Sponsorship Packages  

For more information about the our sponsorship and advertising programs, please contact one of the Chairs of our Business Development Committee, David Ostrom (david@collier-ostrom.com) or Marc Lindsell (marc@2marchitecture).  You may also contact Judy Tufo, Executive Director by phone at (415) 391-2886 or by email (judy@sfbanari.org).   

We Welcome the Newest SFBA NARI Member:

 Doug Coe, Architect

Berkeley, CA

Welcome to the SFBA NARI Family!

By Treve Johnson

Treve Johnson Photography

SFBA NARI Board Member

Is there a contractor or an architect out there, or a related building professional that doesn't have photos? The question on my mind is this: Do you have an efficient way of organizing your photos? Can you find that photo your project manager took of the rough in on the Dobson kitchen three years ago? Here are some tips you might use for organizing your photos.

1.      Use your computer's file system to organized your photos.  You might have a folder for the year, 2012, and under that, the project; I use job numbers, so it the folder might be 995_Dobson, and under that you have stages, for example, before, rough in, and finished. This works if you have a small number of projects and you don't need to share the photos with many parties.

2.      Put your photos in the cloud.  If you need to share photos with your crew in the field, consider using a web-based photo sharing service. You'll need to have Internet access in the field, but with your photos in the cloud, you can share those photos with your crew, or with sub-contractors or others with whom you communicate during the course of a project. Check out FilesAnywhere.com, or Box.net for a couple of file sharing sites. 

3.      Combine your photos with the plans. The future of photo organization, when it comes to construction, is to organize your photos with the plans and attribute that make sense to you and the people you work with. You might want to give a photo an attribute such as plumbing, or electrical, I've been watching one of these services, Thresholdcm.com, and I think this is something you will want to check out. This gives you cloud-based photo organization with a system designed for builders. 

4.      Make use of the information contained in the photo files.  If you think of the photo file as a container, that container has information that is not normally visible. You can use that information, called metadata, to store information about the photo. This might be project hame, location, or other keywords. I use a program called IDImager, which gives me quick access to all the photos I've taken. I can do a quick search for a particular client, or for a particular image, for example kitchens with granite counters. I also use Photoshop Lightroom which provides additional processing functions. This can be useful, if you want to have one "master" file, from which you can create variations and don't want to have to keep track of all the files that result from various uses of the image.

It may be time to give some thought to how you manage your photos. The solution you pick will depend on a number of factors, including how many people are taking them, how many people will be sharing them, and how important having quick access. 

Advertisers and Sponsors Corner

Thank You to Our Generous Sponsors and Advertisers:

In last month's article,  I discussed the importance of succession planning and being prepared for the unexpected.  (If you missed the article, please visit SFBA NARI's website and click on the link "In the News/Newsletter" under "For the Trade.")  What follows is a different discussion.  It regards the practical points of keeping the business running if you are unexpectedly unable to personally continue your involvement due to disability or death.

Keeping The Business Going.  Whether you have a living trust or even a buy sell agreement, questions which arise immediately upon your absence include the following:

Administering Your Business

Key employee? Do you haveBuy-Sell Agreement with a key employee?

Another licensed contractor? Do you have an Agreement with another licensed
contractor to run business upon your inability to do so?
 

Nominating another contractor? Have you nominated in your trust another contractor to manage your business and describing such person's authority?  (However, this is usually not binding on the person nominated).

Running the Ongoing Jobs

Are there presently people capable of running ongoing jobs?  Who are they? 

Finances and Accounting

Records. Is there someone in place now in the business to continue

collection of receivables and payment of payables?  If not, are there

current records which can be readily accessed and acted upon by a

person administering your business?

Are the business records in good shape?  Is information readily accessible and understandable by a successor in order to determine what work is in progress?  Files with contracts, progress reports, and information as to receivables and payables?

Banking. Who - if anyone - has present access to your general bank account? Who would you wish to have access to your general account should you be unable to utilize it? Is anyone else an authorized signer on the bank account(s)?

Are there adequate funds on hand to continue the business?

Insurance. Is information readily accessible regarding any insurance coverage applicable to either you or your business?

Sale.  Can your business be sold?  If there is a Buy-Sell Agreement in place, is there adequate information readily available for your business to be valued?

Key Documents and Information

 Creation of the "Black Box."  This might be a note book or file kept in a secure location but accessible to persons who might continue your business.  It would contain the information necessary to run the business.  That information should include:

Customer lists

Office and business leases

Billing and accounts receivable information

Accounts payable information

Passwords for computer, accounting information, banking, email,

   voicemail, etc.

Employee records

Bank records

Buy-Sell or Business Continuation Agreements

 Life Insurance Policies

Business insurance policies

Powers of Attorney

Other estate planning documents

Your spouse/children, your CPA, and your attorney should know of the existence and location of this Black Box -and is in it.
  

Conclusion.  This is a pain to do, but it must be done.  And it can be done in incremental pieces - starting now. 

NARI National Online Courses, Webinars and Social Media 

Webinars and On-Demand Video 

 

Participate in live webinars, or watch on-demand from NARI's growing library.

NARI Radio provides on-the-go education and information, 

and is also available on iTunes.

Explore All NARI Programs, Blogs, YouTube and

 NARI on Facebook and Twitter! 

Click Here for All NARI Education Programs 
 

BuilderLink Webinars

Click Here For A Complete List of Webinars

Build it Green and SFBA NARI Partnership

Build It Green Upcoming Training and Events

SFBA NARI and Build it Green have entered into a partnership for 2012-2013. 
 As part of this partnership,

SFBA NARI will provide:

• A 10% discount on SFBA NARI memberships for Build It Green Members who wish to become NARI members.  This discount applies to the first year of membership only.
•  Build It Green's Logo to appear on SFBA NARI website and marketing materials as a NARI partner

Thank You to Our 6th Annual Golf Tournament Sponsor:

Club Pro Sponsor