ALL PARKS ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE

National Leaders Converge in Minnesota

This year’s Manufactured Homeowners Association of America (MHOAA) national convention was a fantastic success! With over 100 participants, the 2008 convention was the best attended MHOAA event to date– an increase of over 30% from last year and up 60% from the year before. Residents from 25 different homeowner groups and representatives from 24 allied organizations came together in Bloomington, Minnesota, from over 25 states to exchange expertise, ideas, history, energy, and new friendships for two days during the weekend of October 3rd and 4th.

Previous | Image 1 of 20 | Next

Newly Elected MHOAA Board of Directors

We conducted in-depth surveys with homeowners from across the nation to determine what they hoped to gain from a national meeting of the minds; and this year’s list of topics was challenging, broad, and invigorating! We benefited from homeowner and ally expertise across the nation to develop workshops, panels, and motivational speakers around issues of:

• Building Multi-Racial Alliances – The Path to Power
• Park preservation strategies – including: the Federal Fair Housing Act (FFHA), zoning, resident owned communities, and more.
• Members – how to maintain, increase, and activate!
• Fear factor – stories & methods of dealing with intimidation, harassment, & retaliation
• Organizing in Latino communities
• Legislation – sharing from other states, passing your own, analysis of national possibilities
• MHOAA as a strong national organization
• Developing regional working groups
• Money – grant writing, fundraisers, member dues, and more
• Organizing tools – power analysis, leadership styles, etc.
• Law enforcement & compliance
• Media strategies
• State homeowners association development

  Find a full agenda and list of speakers in the attachment below.

  Generous funding from CFED provided full and partial scholarships to over 40 homeowners – granting the means by which many participants were able to attend, including dozens of new voices. A particularly key point of growth at this convention was the presence of out of state resident leaders and allies with whom, until now, APAC leadership and staff have had limited or no interactions.

  The convention wouldn’t have been the same without their input and presence, and we thank both the homeowners for taking the time and CFED for recognizing that homeowners are the key voice in the mobile justice movement.

  The following are links to the session notes and handouts. However, this year's convention did not produce a high volume of notes. If you have questions about a particular workshop, please contact one of the panelists as listed on the "Notes, Simplified Agenda, PDF" attachment below.

  • 2008 MHOAA Convention Book
  • Event Based Fundraising Session Notes
  • Media Session Resources: Notes, Sample Press Release version 1, Sample Press Release version 2, Media Influence & Issue Framing Handout, & Issue Framing Worksheet.

  Attachment	Size
  Notes, Simplified Agenda.pdf	22.08 KB

  • 2008 MHOAA National Convention Scholarship
  ‹ 2009 MHOAA National Conventionup2008 MHOAA National Convention Scholarship ›