In a bid to ensure its financial future, the Victoria chapter of the Canadian Homebuilder’s Association is breaking from the national and provincial bodies and will go it alone.
A special meeting of the association’s membership has voted to establish an independent association. A memo circulated to members from executive director Casey Edge indicated the vote was won handily by a ratio of two to one.
The local association could revert to its original name — the Victoria Homebuilders Association which was established in 1940 — or establish a new name. It hopes to be fully independent of the CHBA by July 1.
“Basically the numbers just did not add up,” Edge said Monday.
He said the $1,135 in annual dues paid by each members went to fund the local, provincial and national CHBA bodies. It meant $650 per member was being shipped out of the local budget, leaving the association to focus on fundraising to maintain operations.
“In challenging economic times, we had to shift,” said Edge. “Our events require disposable income and there is less of that around. If 72 per cent of your revenue is dependent on fundraising you will face a challenge. This is discretionary spending by members and consumers and, therefore, unreliable in challenging economic times.
“We voted to shift our revenue from event management or fundraising to membership fees.”
Members were given the option of voting to leave CHBA and having their fees reduced, or staying with CHBA and facing a significant increase in their annual dues. Under the new association, annual membership fees will be reduced to $1,000.
It is expected that the new fiscal arrangement will mean a membership dues-based funding mechanism of about $200,000 with additional revenue of around $50,000 from the organization’s annual fundraising events.
“That’s sustainable,” said Edge, adding the key events they run such as the Care Awards, Home Show, Crystal Ball and regular meetings will continue.
Edge said they do not expect this will weaken the association’s ability to act as an advocate for the homebuilding industry, noting it was local associations like Victoria and Vancouver that played the most vocal role in taking the B.C. government to task over the harmonized sales tax’s impact on the industry.
Edge also said the door has been left open to work with the national body.
“We are open to discussing the structure of CHBA and the dependence of local associations on fundraising activities. We would be happy to discuss how that structure can be changed to create a stronger organization around the country,” he said.
