In another thread Frank suggested that many people could save money by reading his newsletter rather than attending the MHI NCC Leadership Forum in Chicago. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
While The Journal is the only print magazine left in our industry, it is free, and often contains important information. George Allen also has both a blog and a print newsletter that often contains information and ideas worth considering. While neither the Allen Newsletter not the Allen Confidential are free, many community owners choose to pay the freight and subscribe.
Frank and George report mostly information of interest to community owners. The Journal is a little more general in nature. Most state associations have newsletters for their members, some very good and some are pretty so-so. My company through the efforts of Julie Anderson puts out a monthly newsletter via email, The Chattel Finance Newsletter that is mostly focused on news and ideas relating to chattel finance and various forms of seller finance.
Joanne Stevens also puts out a monthly newsletter via email, but also posted on her website each month. Since she is a community broker, her material is aimed primarily at community owners as well.
To Frank’s original point. Attending MHI meetings is expensive, made more expensive if you are not a MHI direct member. To attend all of their meetings would run at least $25,000 per year unless, you were driving to each of them and sleeping in your car as Frank suggested tongue in cheek. In addition, unless you are in the “good graces” of the political forces in charge, you, as Frank suggested in an interview elsewhere, won’t feel very welcome.
Frank attends some of the meetings. George attends some of the meetings. Joanne attends some of the meetings. Some state executives attend some of the meetings. While Julie Anderson does not attend, I also attend many of the meetings. All of us write about them from our particular perspective. You can, as Frank suggested, save yourself a lot of money and just read what we write if you don’t see yourself getting heavily involved in the politics of MHI.
Good suggestion Frank.