The Masthead

Our theme today will be: “Burping Against SAFE.”

Let’s keep this message clear, like a brilliantly told Dr. Seuss children’s story, Yertle the Tertle. A vote for a candidate who voted for the SAFE Act is, for most in the Industry, a vote for regulations that harm honest business men and women. Regulations like this one may help a minority, but they arguably don’t help the American people as a whole.

A leading retailer called me this week, to share one of the ‘unintended consequences’ of the SAFE Act.

While this certainly applies to manufactured housing community operators, please keep in mind that this gent retails homes from a ‘street dealership.’ And a very sharp retail center at that! But this retailer’s point was this. In the past, if he wanted to make a loan on say a used home, he could do so. He might use land equity, or down payment or some other form of collateral to make that loan. Today, due to the SAFE Act, he no longer can afford to do that.

So he reasoned that the presence of the SAFE Act now denies credit and denies a business transaction that would otherwise have taken place. This is a negative impact indeed.

He went on to say that the SAFE Act drives up the cost of money, because it drives up the lender’s costs of compliance. SAFE also marginalizes smaller lenders, or those manufactured home community operators or manufactured housing retailers who, like himself, may have in the past made the loans directly themselves.

While some may like the SAFE Act for their own reasons, as a whole, the costs of compliance and the dampening effect this has on manufactured housing lending is considerable.

If you feel the same way, this Tuesday, why not “Burp Against SAFE!”

In the fabled Dr. Seuss children’s story, Yertle the Turtle was a king who wanted to lord it over others by piling up more and more turtles, one on another. King Yertle, of course, was on the top of this throne of turtles. Down at the bottom of the pile was a turtle named Mack. Mack moaned and groaned because of the weight of all the turtles piled above him.

Now think: weight of regulation, weight of taxation, weight of intrusion, economic weight, etc. King Yertle would silence Mack’s complaints, but Mack would moan and groan again. Finally, with thousands of turtles piled on his back, Mack had enough. “Plain little Mack did a plain little thing. He burped!” Mack’s burp toppled this unruly and unhappy pile above him! Mack burped, and King Yertle the Turtle tumbled down and ended up in the mud!

Tuesday is Election Day. Think of your vote as a burp against regulations like the SAFE Act. It doesn’t matter if those regulations were well intended or not. What matters as that retailer explained to me, is that those regulations are harmful to the very people they were intended to serve. They harm some in the home-buying public. Those regulations are harmful to businesses. Those in the Congress, House or Senate who voted for those regulations like SAFE should have taken the time to think through the consequence of their vote. Those who supported that vote should be dethroned next Tuesday. Think of your vote as a burp.

Remember to “Burp Against SAFE” on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. A list of key details on HERA, which included the SAFE Act, is at this website and link: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3221. For the list of who voted how, please see the list supplied below.

Between elections, we can complain like Mack did. But on Tuesday, please take action and Burp against SAFE. # #

From: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-832

House Vote Details:

Red Voted No, Blue Voted Yes, light blue, not voting.

 

Senate votes on HERA which contains the SAFE Act:

From: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2008-35

Senate Vote Details:

Red Voted No, Blue Voted Yes, light blue, not voting.

Editorial Note: Readers are always welcome and encouraged to sound off on industry relevant topics, either by posting appropriate comments via our Disqus system, or by submitting their own article, which can be posted on the Industry Voices Guest Blog. Please see the About Us page for article submission details.

Your calls and emails are always welcome too.

In his article “Hoping for Change Doesn’t Cut It”,  Ross Kinzler from the Wisconsin Housing Alliance (WHA) used a term I would like to paraphrase, “partnering with government.”

Specifically, here is what Ross said:

“2. There will be no progress without agreement on an action plan to press the solutions with our government partners in the U.S. Congress and the various agencies. We can’t go to D.C. without a plan.

Some might shudder at my use of the term “government partners,” but you can’t participate in a federally-regulated industry and then declare war on your regulator. We need to develop a partnership with our regulator or don’t be surprised if they continue to take a hard line against us.”

You can see the entire article and the comment in context at this link:
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/featured-articles/october-2010/1071-hoping-for-change-doesnt-cut-it 

There is pain aplenty out in the country, in our Industry and beyond. Physical pain is a signal from the body that something is wrong. Emotional or economic pain is also a signal that something has gone awry. Ross and scores of others are correct: restricted access to financing is part of that painful picture for our Industry. Regulatory and other log-jammed issues are part of that pain as well.

I can think of numerous state and other association executives that I admire – women and men – who know how to mix with public officials and legislators to get things done for their members.

Why should MHARR or MHI leaders mind if an ad hoc group of state association execs met with officials from HUD or other agencies? Not to get a third voice in DC, but to facilitate the communications and the efforts we as an Industry all want and need? This could be done by conference call; it can have a very low cost and essentially no risk other than time.

Most investors don’t put all their eggs in one basket, or even two. If the pitcher isn’t getting the job done, it doesn’t mean he is a bad pitcher, it just means today or this team may not be his best game. Why not send in a relief pitcher? Others can coach or share talking points. All analogies limp at some point, but you get the point. Let’s not sit on our hands, or merely decide to spend money, when another option or approach is available.

We have months between now and when the new Congress is seated. Why not use some of that time to set the stage for a productive effort? State execs… national execs, government regulators, why not a try a different approach to the dialogue? Why not sit down – by phone – and schedule a series of talks?

Who will pick up the phone or send out the email that can get that common sense effort started? # #

Business growth is often very much dependent on government activity. The right, or wrong, actions or inaction on the part of government can help or harm the business environment. We all know that fact. We know, too, that organization and concerted effort can pay off; this is true of the winner of each and every political campaign. The one better organized, the one that creates the most appeal and gets out the most votes, wins.

“What sort of government have you given us?” It is said that this was the question asked by a woman as Ben Franklin and others finished their work on the U.S. Constitution. Ben Franklin replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it!”

When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we pledge our allegiance to the Republic, not to the democracy. We are a representative republic. On the national level, our laws are passed by representatives of the people. Our representatives in turn need to know what we the people want, in order for them to deliver it to us via the mechanism of law.

I can look you in the proverbial eye, and ask you to contact your U.S. Representative and Senators. I can do so because I’ve done so this past week; I did it, then turned to my colleagues and teammates and asked them to do the same! We can advance the cause of manufactured housing and modular home construction if we each do our part. That part can be done in just minutes.

Those timely contacts of our elected officials can lead you to the business growth you are investing your time, talent and treasure in!

If a dozen or two of us sound off, oh well! But when hundreds or thousands of Industry professionals like you, your associates and ours sound off, then WOW is the impact on Congress! From there, we can foresee how Congress can move to pass legislation or muster its weight to move regulators on issues that need to be addressed.

Manufactured and modular housing builders need to learn from and support each other. I will simply draw your attention to this article, Builders of Mods and HUDs, can they get along?

Then, I will say, we can and should be learning from each other and working together! We are stronger together – politically and economically – than apart.

Modular and prefab builders have an agenda that could be aided by HUD Code manufacturers, and vice versa. “Factory built housing” is a broad umbrella, one well worth each segment mutually supporting the other!

The summer break for Congress is over, and they are going back to work in Washington. 2010 is a key midterm election year and we are going into the final weeks of an election. There is no better time to get rapid results than NOW!

I am asking YOU to write. Please see the list of issues on my previous blog post; add some of your own if you like. Or do a personal intro of yourself and your company, and then attach all or those parts of the message we sent that you like. (The links for contacting your Reps and Senators are given in that previous blog post, too.) But please, I am asking YOU to do it! Because if YOU do it, you can rightly ask others to do it, too!

Then, I hope some of you will have the oomph to inspire others by posting a copy of the letter, fax or email you send to your Congress person and Senators below, or on LinkedIn. Or share the message you send to your Congress person and Senators with others you know in the Industry. This is a great time for concerted action!

You and your company are in business to make money. Congressional action can help that cause. There are far more reasons to act than not to act. Action ALWAYS trumps in-action! Thanks for all that you and others like you, in associations or businesses do to promote and advance the cause of manufactured housing today.

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, MHM – publisher, editor and The Masthead blogger at
Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal at
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com aka www.MHMSM.com
tony@mhmsm.com
847-730-3692

And remember! Tony also does contract marketing and coaching for industry clients. Marketing that doesn’t ‘cost;’ it pays off on your bottom line. Enough said! # #

Warning: This blog post is not for the faint of heart or for those who think they can skim and get it all.  As an Industry Pro, directly or indirectly, this impacts YOU every day.

In a recent conversation with George F. Allen, I mentioned a discussion topic that Finmark’s Dick Ernst and I shared in preparation for our INdustry in Focus interview with Dick about manufactured home financing.  During that conversation, Mr. Ernst used the memorable phrase, “elephants in the room.” Specifically, we spoke about the challenges that lenders and home owners face when resale time comes.  “That’s the elephant in the room, Tony, that we as an industry need to deal with.” was the gist of Dick’s revealing statement.

The president of a manufactured housing finance company and the senior VP of yet another lender I’ve recently spoken with concur.

As George and I spoke, he commented on the customer or secondary (resale) market side with, “I was going to say, you’re right, that is the second elephant in the room.  This is an important topic, Tony. Maybe you should consider doing a Linkedin or blog post on it.” GFA being correct, I agreed.  As a result of that advice, a lively Linkedin MHC group discussion has begun…

So here I am suggesting to an Industry pro like yourself that we need to take a long, hard look at how to change this avoidable and troubling dynamic.  We need a process that allows an MH customer or finance company to exit at least as easily from their manufactured home asset as someone might from a conventional stick built house.

Why?

Because as long as we have elephants in the room, those pachyderms will be pushing out of the room customers, investors, lenders, public officials and a whole host of opportunities that we otherwise would deserve!  We can be:

• Selling more homes.
• Have happier manufactured home owners.
• Get more MH referrals.
• Enjoy more, better, happier…these are some of the rewards for solving the ‘problem pachyderms’ issue!

The bottom line is you can make more money long term, and so can the Industry, once we face and fix this plaguing problem.

Yet some – perhaps many – who will read this may knee jerk in opposition.  Why?

Let’s take a look…

VMF and 21st stated in the MHI Summer Meeting with FHA officials that when they take in a repossession, they wholesale that repo 65% of the time.  Other lenders in the room were nodding or made sounds that indicated that Berkshire Hathaway affiliates are not alone.  Now they may make this ‘work,’ but at what cost? Higher rates on manufactured homes than conventional housing are certainly among the sad consequences.

Less lending availability is another avoidable consequence!

Why has the FHA set such a high bar on finance companies who will be doing FHA Title I loans?  Because of past industry losses in financing.

Why do the GSEs hesitate to lend on MH chattel, in spite of the Duty to Serve mandate from Congress?  Because of past industry losses in financing.

Why are so many MH communities doing in house financing?  To the tune of billions of dollars?  Because it is almost a necessity, due to past industry losses in financing.

Why does Ken Rishel and company teach community operators and retailers how to raise the capital and do legally compliant ‘captive chattel financing?’  Because there aren’t enough MH chattel lenders available without doing it in house.  I’d bet that Ken would also ad that because doing it in house is a profit center of it’s own…when it is done right!

Now, please don’t shoot the messenger for reporting what you already know.

The only way to deal with the elephant in the room that no one wants to touch is to look closely at the various dynamics and then do what it takes. If we as a manufactured housing professional, company or as an Industry want to climb out of the Industry’s financing limiting doldrums, we better deal with the issues head on!

When a MHIndustry lender is wholesaling off repo inventory 2 times out of 3, that means that some out there are ‘getting a good deal.’  But the ‘good deal’ to a community, retailer or wholesaler means a lender took a beating.  When the lender takes enough beatings, they may say, ENOUGH!  That leads to the skittish behavior of FHA and The GSEs on this subject.  Those losses on repos cause other financial institutions and potential lenders to look warily at the manufactured housing product, because Conseco/Greentree is not ancient history to them.

Now please don’t misread this.

For example, the government agencies have Congressional mandates.  They should serve manufactured housing as the law requires, period, end of story!  In my world and yours, if Congress passes a law, we obey. If you don’t like it, you work to change it. But if you and I simply fail to obey a law, then we get fined, prosecuted, jailed, or strung up.  I say, the GSEs and FHA should do as Congress mandated.  They should do so broadly, rapidly and effectively.   These agencies should find the solution to the elephants in the room issue as part of the implementation of the legislation that Congress created and the president signed into law.

This means that the FHA and the GSEs should find a way to make the programs sustainable and work long term.

We in the Industry, if we are smart, should help them.

That is what MHI and those Industry leaders were trying to do in DC a few weeks ago, trying to shed light with Vicki Bott and other FHA and HUD officials on ways to make their program work.  Because a sustainable program is a win for everyone!

But let’s go back to those who can’t resist doing that wholesale deal on a repo.

And let’s go back to those lenders who shed their inventory at bargain basement rates.

Knowingly or not, each are contributing to the long term history in the financing/resale realm that has plagued our Industry, those elephants in the room.

Before writing this, I also spoke with a wholesale repo buyer, who effectively said:

“If they are going to sell me a home at these prices, why would I say no?”

I admit, that has to be tempting.  But a number of points come up in analyzing this long term, and you can think of them as well or better than I.

Now, please note, the wholesale buyer has learned how to move that inventory.  So why can’t the lender do the same?

I spoke with a long term MH lender, who effectively said:

“I have x homes and x millions tied up in inventory in just the x market.  The regulators are checking our files right now.  We want to continue to do MH lending.  But every time a ‘park’ (his term) bills me for lot rent, every time a park fails to help resell a home at retail, every time a home sits and sits instead of resells for a good price, every time I have to move a home in order to get it sold, it puts that much more pressure on our manufactured home financing program.”

Do we need to lose another lender(s) before we learn our lesson?  Hello?  If we are the ‘survivors’ of the Great MH Lending Meltdown that started around the turn of the century, who needs coffee?

Now all of these are actual or paraphrased comments from real people who didn’t ask to be named for obvious reasons, and each one is revealing.

To the future potential of the MHIndustry, these viewpoints and their implications are chilling.

Let’s imagine for a moment, that FHFA, in the aftermath of the tidal wave of comments they received last month, relented.  Let’s say they put a program in place that really met the intent of Congress in the Duty to Serve legislative provisions.  Let’s further imagine that FHA modified their threshold for Title I lenders, lowering the amount and making more capital thereby available to the Industry.

Then let’s image that nothing has changed about the resale/remarketing issue.  What would eventually happen?

They’d take their lumps for a while, then go back to Congress and understandably say, “we told you so!”

So now ladies and gents, we better tackle this once and for all.  We should not only work on Congress and these agencies to get the financing we need, but also work with them to make sure that repos don’t result in big losses.

That is just long term, common sense.

That said, one gent told me recently that in our Industry long term may be 10 minutes to 10 days.  “I’ve got the end of the month coming up, and have to get this deal done!”  Oye, vez.  We have to think 10 weeks, 10 months and 10 years ahead too.  A dozen years have gone by since we sank from nearly 373,000 shipments to under 50,000 last year.  We are inching up this year, and that is good.  It reminds us that we can grow again.  But if we don’t buckle down and do ALL that it takes, we will have a shorter and shallower bubble than we had in the roaring 90s.

Or, we can have the best years the Industry has ever had.  The choice is in our hands.

Let us shift gears and briefly look at an example that may lead to a solution.

Back in the late 80s (and again in the early 2000s), I was in a leadership role of  a successful resale programs for various manufactured housing lenders.  We:

• set up a structured approach that reduced their losses, accelerated their resale time line and got assets back on the books at prices that were close to new ‘repo fighter’ home prices then.
• There were legal and systemic limits that kept us from selling repos for even more, but I am here to say, we could have sold those homes for more money had the financing system allowed for it.
• We didn’t buy repos ourselves, meaning we didn’t compete against the lenders repos with our own inventory, as to me that seemed like a conflict of interest.
• Our team did repo sales for lenders, period!  We got paid commissions, and we earned a lot of those.  We also received got paid some spiffs and other incentives, all above board, that were part of our agreement.
• We looked at issues and we dealt with them in the best fashion possible to control costs for lenders and limit their losses.

It wasn’t perfect, but it worked a lot better for those MH lender clients than they had elsewhere in that state.  We know this because they said so, and backed it up by bringing us ever increasing levels of inventory, and then asked us to expand into different markets in other states.

That was then.  Maybe there are similar efforts out there now, but:

• where are they now?
• If they are out there, why are key MHIndustry lenders still wholesaling 65% of the time?
• If they aren’t out there, why aren’t MHIndustry lenders creating a program that works for all long term?

Ladies and gents, this isn’t rocket science. This is about discipline, solution orientation and will power.  Other industries face this issue and make it work.

We…

Can…

Too!

I don’t quote sources unless they wish or agree to be quoted or have spoken in public.  So  privately to me or via posted comments, I am hereby inviting industry members to comment on the elephants in the room.

Please share your experiences and viewpoints.  Please agree or disagree.

Heck, let’s have a debate here if you want to, that is what posted comments are for too.

We as MH professionals, companies and as an Industry have to move the resale/re-marketing subject ahead.

We don’t need endless meetings and another task force that later disbands, for whatever reasons.  I am not criticizing anyone, but I am challenging every stake holder to think this through and resolve it for the long term benefit of all involved.

Some MHCommunity operators do a good job at this.  If they can, others can too.

How do you solve a big problem?  You face it squarely and deal with it honestly.

How do you eat an elephant?  One proverbial bite at a time. # #

_________

End Note:

A few The Masthead blog posts ago, I touched on this topic lightly.  It was part of the broader subject of what are our Industry’s strengths and weaknesses are.  That post referenced how we could be doing 200,000 to 800,000+ new annual manufactured home shipments a year!  Not someday, right now. If you missed that prior post due to vacations or whatever, you might want to read or re-read it.

I was thinking back to the repo glut of the late 90′s and early 2000′s.

• Do we miss selling 372,000+ homes a year?
• Do we miss having full communities?
• Do we miss building new MHCs or fee simple developments?
• Do we want factories that are at or near capacity?
• Do we miss having more retailers?
• Do we miss more lenders, vendors…

Please read, or re-read this blog post linked below.  It outlines the path for MHIndustry  business growth today.

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/tonykovach/manufactured-housing-industry-growth-potential/ # #

_________

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, MHM

Publisher, MH Marketer and The Masthead blogger

Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com aka www.MHMSM.com

tony@mhmsm.com

847-730-3692

“Manufactured Housing Still Rocks!” with those words, Teresa Payne addressed the crowd at the busy L’Enfant Hotel solarium this morning, July 15th, an apt summation of this important MHI Summer Session meeting.

This will be the first of a series of reports you will find exclusively here on the Masthead blog, in articles by our MHMSM.com Industry In Focus Reporter Eric Miller’s articles and on our Factory Built Housing News at Noon podcasts by Erin Patla.

We want to start by taking hats off to Thayer Long and the rest of the dedicated MHI staff who worked hard to make this a productive and informative series of meetings. Much more on those staff members and committee leaders work in future reports.

Some of the items you will see in the days ahead will include details on::

• Over 80 visits by Industry professionals with Congressional members took place during the afternoon on Capitol Hill Wednesday, July 14.
• A reception held on July 14 with Congressional members and staff present, to informally meet with MHI members. We plan a series of exclusive follow ups with various members of Congress here on our pages (see sample photo below).
• Discussions on key topics such as financing, the SAFE Act, regulatory issues and strategy sessions took place. MHMSM.com plans to ask industry experts for their input on the technical topics, as part of our post-meeting coverage.
• Meetings with FEMA officials, as a prelude for what can result in new business for manufactured housing and park model home builders took place.
• Meetings and presentations with HUD and DOE officials took place. Individual reports will be found on our media site in the days ahead.
• A meeting with federal Rural Housing officials took place, to brief MHI industry members on how more retailers can tap into zero down payment financing on manufactured homes, not ‘someday,’ but right now!
• Systems Building Research Alliance report on a cost effective frost free foundation system approved for Manufactured Housing.
• SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Yes, there are opportunities, as a good look at this flash report suggests.
• MHI PAC and other MHI division reports.
• MHEI’s plans to collaborate with Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management.com (aka MHMSM.com) trade journal to sell book, videos and possible other cross marketing and cross promotional efforts.
• HUD’s MH Program Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Regulatory Affairs and Manufactured Housing, Teresa Payne comments at the meeting, as well as those of Elizabeth Coche and other officials associated with HUD and the new office for consumer financial protection.
• Past and present Congressmen who addressed the Industry personally at this meeting and who attended the Industry reception.

…and much more as well!

In short, this was a busy, busy 3 day session indeed! Among the items we plan to look at in more depth:

• The proposal by an association leader that the industry consider putting all of the current issues pending before the government into a new single piece of legislation, which this member proposed as the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2010 (or 2011, etc.). The concept – suggested in one of the meetings – would be designed to take a more pro-active approach on Industry issues, and to combine efforts into one bill rather than take an issue by issue approach.
• Discussion on the proposal by a state association leader on a recent conference call, to create a focused lobbying presence on some key issues relating to regulatory agencies or Congress. The suggestion included the hope that MHARR and MHI could collaborate on this effort. While no commitments were made either way on this topic, MHI officials said they were open to ‘anything’ that would advance the cause of the Industry at large. There was also a statement and some concerned discussion that such a move not result in a ‘third voice’ for the Industry being created, if this proposal were to come to fruition.

A key feature of the meeting wasn’t even on the main agenda. This was a meeting after the meeting with key federal officials to discuss how the Title 1 and other government involved lending programs could be made successful through careful, collaborative input by experienced Industry lenders and other stakeholders, such as manufactured home community operators, manufacturers, retailers and others. This was apparently the direct result of efforts at and immediately after the Congressman Joe Donnelly lead meeting in Elkhart in early June, 2010.

As is our custom, in an effort for balance in our reporting, we contacted MHARR in advance of this trip and during my stay in DC as well, to see if we could meet for comments and discussions on key issues facing the Industry. Scheduling conflicts on both ends kept that meeting with MHARR officials Danny Ghorbani and M. Mark Weiss from taking place.

On another meeting related note, the release of the new book The Manufactured Housing Revolution was met with considerable interest and praise. The vast majority of meeting attendees took a copy. HUD’s Commissioner Stevens, Teresa Payne and Liz Coche all wanted autographed copies, we look forward to their private (or public!) feedback, along with comments from others connected with our Industry.

Speaking of others, George Allen plans to do a book review of MHMSM.com’s popular new The Manufactured Housing Revolution soon on his blog, We have already had some early and positive comments, and anticipate other reviews and comments on this timely volume.

It is also worth noting that the Consortium of Industry publishers had their second meeting on July 13th. More on that discussion with George Allen, Ken Rishel and the planned follow up with come soon.

When the bullet points of a two and a half days of meetings takes some 2.5 pages to outline, that gives you a small sense of how busy and varied the topics were! Again, congratulation to Thayer Long and the MHI team for making this happen. I’d also like to underscore the positive facts that Congressmen, HUD officials, FEMA officials, Rural Housing program officials and numerous staff for the proceeding made this a rich series of opportunities for Industry professionals.

This would be a good time to note that membership in MHI brings value to those who participate and attend such functions. Access to this level of Congressional and government officials is enhanced by participation and engagement via MHI.

We will strive to bring you reporting in the days ahead that will capture the keys to all that took place. For those sitting in those meeting rooms with an open and attentive mind, you would have to walk away with the impression that the Industry is trying to come to grips with challenging issues in a very direct and positive fashion.

If you haven’t already done so, please check out Hometown America’s Greg O’Berry’s post on a time sensitive topic, submitted yesterday evening and that went live the same day. Greg’s comments were a direct result of discussion during the National Communities Council (NCC) meeting. This would be an appropriate time for me to personally invite meeting attendees, public officials and MHI staff to consider sharing their perspectives publicly via our Industry Voices Guest Blog.

My personal thanks to all who took the time to share a few minutes with me, to the many who had positive or encouraging words to share about our MHMSM.com trade journal. In turn, I want to thank the dedicated writers and team members at MHMSM.com who made this trip for me possible, because good people kept the wheels of our electronic platform ever moving ahead! The reality of a solid team doing their respective functions well made my trip to Washington with family for this timely event a reality.

Hats off and our thanks to one and all involved! # #