by David Chapman
Staff Writer
New Northeast Florida Builders Association Membership Director Ashley Bizzarri can’t exactly remember how many times she’s moved. The 28-year-old and newest face at NEFBA grew up in a military family and married a man in the Navy.
“Let me think for a second,” said Bizzarri, when asked how many times she’s moved in her lifetime. “I think it’s been eight or nine times.”
She’s been in Jacksonville for two years with her husband, David, a helicopter pilot instructor at Mayport, and the two recently purchased their first home. Before coming to NEFBA, she worked for the American Cancer Society as a community representative in fundraising and also for the Sulzbacher Center.
She isn’t new to the to the homebuilding industry, though. Before moving to Jacksonville, she lived in Charleston, S.C. and was the membership and special events coordinator for the Charlotte Trident Homebuilders Association.
The difference between the two, she said, is the amount of members and her role within the organization. The CHTBA had around 600 members while she was there, she said, and NEFBA has 2,100. It’s that gap in numbers that has led to her biggest obstacle.
“Remembering everybody’s name,” she said, laughing, when asked about the most difficult part of the job so far. “There are a lot of them to remember.”
In her position with the CHTBA, Bizzari said she wore many hats, often having a hand in not only membership but in special events. The Prism Awards, much like Northeast Florida’s Laurel Awards, and Charleston’s Parade of Homes were two of the events she put a lot of effort into.
As membership director of NEFBA, she’ll be concentrating on recruiting new members, maintaining relationships and resigning current members and attempting to renew members who have dropped out. She’ll still assist other NEFBA members in their event planning, though.
How she acquired the position was actually a stroke of luck. She and her huband lived in a condominium above NEFBA Sales and Marketing Director Amanda Randolph. When the position opened following Portland Stuart’s departure, Randolph passed the word to Bizzarri and she immediately applied.
“I sent in my resume and it happened pretty quick, just like that,” she said.
Her strong desire for the industry, she said, comes from her love of HGTV programs and a life of moving from home to home.
She is been in charge of NEFBA’s membership blitz that will run through the next few months in an attempt to maintain’s NEFBA’s status as tops in the state and among the nation’s leaders.
Bizzarri is also looking to increase membership events and one of her favorite stories was an event in Charleston that involved smooching a farm animal.
“It was a ‘Kiss the Pig’ contest,” said Bizzarri, laughing. “It wasn’t one of those cute cuddly pot belly pigs, either. It was a slaughterhouse one.”
Bizzarri had to pick the pig up to transport it to the event.
“I had to put it in the back of my Jeep and it squealed loudly all the way back,” she said. “I felt bad for it but it was a lot of fun.”
Membership events like “Kiss the Pig” are fun and a great way for members to get to know one another, she said. She doesn’t know yet if there will be any pig-related events anytime soon.
Bizzarri is very happy with her new home at NEFBA and encourages anyone who hasn’t yet to join.
“We’ve got to stick together in the good times and bad,” she said. “It’s like school. Whatever you put into it, you’ll get out of it.”
Most of all, Bizzarri’s happy to be back working with builders.
“I am really glad to here,” she said. “It feels like home again.”