Too Late or Not Too Late, Part I & more…

Too Late or Not Too Late?

Meeting Hell (October 2011) Heats Up Even More!

Paper & Print versus Computers & Floppy Discs…

I.

Too Late or Not Too Late?

It’s too late for you to sign – up to attend this week’s (7/20) Manufactured Housing Manager® or MHM® class in Horsehead, New York.

It’s not too late for you, however, to participate in MHM® Classes being formed in Indianapolis, IN., and Chicago, IL. during the next few months.

&

It’s too late to Save the Manufactured Housing Industry!’ if you believe what’s been penned and published by more than one columnist, in one or another of the few remaining manufactured housing trade publications during July 2010.

But it’s not too late, however, to be part of an emerging grass roots national effort to ‘Save the Manufactured Housing Industry!’ How? For starters, read next week’s blog on the subject. Frankly, it’s taken extra time to sort through and organize the heavy, positive response to last week’s blog posting, introducing this very topic in the final paragraphs….

II.

Meeting Hell (October 2011) Heats Up Even More!

In the June 26th blog posting at this website, we described four national meetings scheduled to occur simultaneously throughout the month of October 2011. Well, during the past three weeks we’ve learned of no fewer than five more meetings, one national and four at the state level, also occurring during October 2011. Ready for this?

• October 2 – 4: MHI’s annual meeting in Phoenix, AZ. (703) 558-0678
• October 11 – 13: WMA’s (CA) annual meeting, Las Vegas, NV. ((916) 448-7002
• October 11 – 15: IREM’s Leadership Conference in Las Vegas. (312) 329-6000
• October 12 – 13: New York Housing Association’s meeting. (800) 721-4663
• October 16 – 18: London Computer’s ‘Rent Manager’ meeting. (513) 583-1482
• October 20: Massachusetts MHAssociation’s annual meeting.
• October 20, 2011. MHIS Fall meeting in Charleston, SC. (803) 771-9046X5
• October 25 – 28: Urban Land Institute & MHCC Meeting in CA. (727) 826-8868
• October 27 – 28: Arizona Housing Association’s convention. (480) 456-6530

Look for this already crowded meeting list to be lengthened during the next few weeks.

III.

Paper & Print versus Computers & Floppy discs…

The first book ever published was the Gutenberg Bible. Printed in the 1940s, 21 complete copies exist today; that’s 550 years after they were first published!

Are you or your firm into digital archiving, transferring records to digital storage? While a practice offering many benefits, and prevention of service setbacks like loss of records, know digital media will not last as long as printed matter. We’re already seeing the truth of that statement.

Think about it. Remember when floppy discs were new, indeed ‘floppy’ (Succeeded by rigid 3 ¾ X 3 ¾ plastic ones) and all the rage? Now you never see the truly floppy ones, and the rigid black-clear-white ones are rapidly disappearing from view, as more and more contemporary PCs appear on the market, without ports for them.

Gotta be asking yourself, ‘What’s to succeed CDs, DVDs, and flash and thumb drives during the next three to five year marketing cycle? What will you and your firm do with your digitized records then? Architects, doctors and hospitals (medical records repositories), law offices, financial firms, and government agencies are all asking this heady question – with no answers in sight! Already ‘historical records stored digitally, including recordings and documents relating to 9/11, have been ‘lost’ to this obsolescence creep.” Quoted from ‘Paper Never Forgets’, in Quick Printing magazine, 11/2010, p.13.

So, what’s a responsible businessman or woman to do? Until a ‘better answer’, long lasting solution comes along, we’re archiving these blog postings, short stories, newsletters, standard property management forms, and books, on ‘hard (print) copies’, to be stored in archival boxes. How ‘bout you?

*****

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master
Consultant to the Factory – built Housing Industry &
The Landlease Community Real Estate Asset Class
Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156

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