Doug Gorman, owner and president of Tulsa's Home-Mart Inc., has been appointed by Mel Martinez, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to serve on the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act Consensus Committee. Gorman is the only committee member from Oklahoma and will serve with 20 other nationally appointed members.

Gorman, the sole appointed manufactured housing retailer on the Consensus Committee, will serve with industry representatives, consumers, and other parties with a general interest nature.

"To be directly appointed by Secretary Martinez himself is such an honor, and I plan to uphold my duties by adequately representing manufactured housing as a respected and cost efficient way for families to own their own home," said Gorman.

The Consensus Committee consists of three interest categories - producers, users and general interest / public officials. Seven committee members will represent each interest category for a total of 21 committee members.

These committee members will be required under the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act to consider proposed manufactured housing standards and the effects of those standards when compared to the cost of producing such manufactured homes. They will then make appropriate recommendations to the secretary of HUD, who has the final authority regarding the revisions to the HUD code. Gorman will serve as one of seven under the producer category. To ensure a balanced committee, all producers have an interest in the manufactured housing industry, while none of the users and no more than three of the general interest / Public Officials have any ties, interests or connections to this specific industry.

"The participants of all three categories bring creativity to the table, especially those who don't work with manufactured housing on a daily basis," said Gorman. Gorman and his wife, Millie, started Home-Mart in 1988 in Coweta and then a year later moved the company to Tulsa. Gorman has been awarded Small Business Person of the Year in 2000 by the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce and Retailer of the Year in 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 and 1998 by the industry's national trade association, Manufactured Housing Institute.

For more information on Home-Mart or the Consensus Committee, contact Gorman at 918-835-0500.