The Grassroots Report

by L. A. 'Tony' Kovach

The factory-built housing Grassroots Report is starting to take shape. It is well enough underway for us to share with you and give it some attention. The essence of the idea is a tip of the hat to the Manufactured Home Merchandiser Magazine, of happy memory (sad that so many print pubs like that one, Don Carlson's Automated Builder, MHI's fine Modern Homes or others have vanished from the scene). Let's take a quick look at the ideas behind the Grassroots Report.

First, the idea is simple enough. There are news topics that uniquely impacts or occurs in your American state or Canadian province. You will find those on the respective state or Canadian province that the news occurs in.

Think of this as something similar to our wildly popular Daily Business News department, with this key difference. When it is an article online, we will hot-link you to that entire article, and you can read as little or much from that source as you'd like. Our reporter will do the research or gather news items – including those from participating associations - all you have to do is logon and see your state or provincial news in one convenient online stop.

Next, let me share how you can find these Grassroots Reports right now. Please see the graphic below.

We will – in time – experiment with creating links to the various American states and Canadian provinces directly from the home page. But this navigation process only takes a few moments, and you should learn it anyway so that you can discover all of the resources found on MHProNews.com (MHMSM.com). Let me encourage you to “Take the Tour” of the site if you haven't lately.

Don't be the last one on your block in the business to know!

There are multiple reasons for doing these Grassroots Reports. Let me mention a few:

• Not all of these stories would be relevant to 'national' readers, so it keeps the Daily Business News focused on broader, national or international factory-built housing issues.

• The above said, these Grassroots Report news stories may prove very important to you or your peers in your state or province. Those not in associations – and in these challenging times you should be an association member if you are not already – may be particularly in need of these Grassroots Reports.

• Associations, let's be candid. You may not want the ne'er do wells as your members. But most business people today are good people trying to make an honest living. Some – for whatever reason – are not currently in your association, and they should be. I've heard non-association members say, “I don't know what the association does.” Well, here is your association's chance to show prospective members exactly what you do and what they miss out on by not being a member.

• Many associations already send us their news, and those that are locally focused, we will begin posting those on these respective state or provincial blogs. Some that don't share their news have used this reasoning, 'we don't want non-members to know what we share with our members.' Hmmm, okay, to a point. But as one state executive told me, 'How hard is it for one member to push 'send' and forward on an emailed news item?' Good point. In an electronic world, I'm not sure there is a good reason not to share your news.

• As traffic on these state or provincial blogs grow, regional advertisers will have a unique opportunity to focus on a specific market vs. a national or international one, and do it for much less.

In short, everyone involved can benefit from the Grassroots Reports. Feedback is encouraged, and please do check them out. Also, keep in mind and use our This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for sharing stories that we may have missed. With everyone doing just a little, we can create an ever stronger resource for everyone in manufactured, panelized and modular housing industry. ##

(Editor's Note: L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach is a member of MHSpeakerTrainer.org)

L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach is the publisher, marketing and sales consultant and business development director of MHMSM.com and MHProNews.com. Tony does contract marketing, sales and management, turn around and growth services for MH industry professionals and companies. We are almost ready with our new website at MHC-MD.com, your feedback is welcome. Tony's LinkedIn profile is at: linkedin.com/in/latonykovach. Contact Tony at 815-270-0500 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Tony is a popular speaker at Association and other manufactured housing Industry events.