EDITORIAL

Why Not You?

I N OUR current period of iffy business lurks I great opportunity for those who will prepare for better times.

One of the positive features of a slow business period for retailers, wholesalers and distributors is the time to do all those things one never has the time to do. Wiser heads know that this gift of time should not be wasted on idle talk, standing around, pointless conversations about how bad business is, the manufacture of paper airplanes, complaints about the bumps and thumps of life and like topics. Now is the time to prepare for the inevitable coming of better times.

Preparation can take many forms, great and small, weighty and trivial. All can help to get an organization and its people ready to effectively serve the customer. lt can be clerical: cleaning up a drawer in your desk, discarding a system no longer needed, updating a computer file or the like. Small things to some, but still obstacles to good customer service. lt can be operations: deferred maintenance undeferred, inventories streamlined and purged of unprofitable items, spit and polish housekeeping for showrooms and warehouses. lt can involve personnel: ensuring the right people are in the right jobs, taking the tough steps to prune your organizational tree of deadwood, investing in education and training for your people at all levels, especially the best and brightest.

For management this also can be an occasion for constructive reflection. While no amount of plans can ensure a company's profitability, conversely, no firm can long prosper without a sense of direction, without a strategy for the future.

Much preparation is simply common sense. Strategy and tactics can border on the philosophical, but still merit hard thought. Make no mistake, better times are ahead. Someone will earn that business. Why not you?

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Pine Boords (Potlerns)

2x4 thru 2x12 #1. #Z #3 S4S

Yellow Pine

1",2", 4",6" Yellow Pine Wolmonized

'1" Ponderoso Pine Boords'C', 'D', #2. #3

2" Doug Fit #2 &. Better, Utility

2" Spruce Pine Fir #2 & Better, Ufility

Redwood & CedorInvenlory

3200 Troup Hwy., Sfe. 242TyletlK7570/l

Yellow Pine CDX & Sturdifloor

Yellow Pine BC Sonded

Yellow Pine Premium & Decorotive Sidings

Woferboords

Fir Sonded & Fir Sidings

Hordwood Plywoods

Hordboord Sidings

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Temple & Mosonile #1& #2

Treoted Plryoods Avoiloble

New Fiberboard Association

The newly formed American Fiberboard Association elected G. D. Landes, Georgia-Pacific Corp., as president, Lin Keesey, Celotex Corp., sec./treas., and Craig McDonald, Wood Fiber Industries, v.p.

Directors are Gerald Huebert, Huebert Fiberboard, Inc., Fran Eck, Temple-lnland Forest Products Corp., and Al Turenne, International Buildrite, Inc. C. Curtis Peterson and Louis E. Wagner of the American Hardboard Association staff the new association which shares olfices with AHA in Palatine. Il.

Gulf Reservists Law

With reserves being called for service in the Persian Gulf, employers need to be informed on reemployment rights.

Governed by the Veteran's Reemployment Rights Act, certain specific statutory rights are granted to reservists who enter active duty either voluntarily or involuntarily.

A returning reservist has a right to his former position with the same seniority, status and pay if he is still qualified to do it and applies for reemployment within 90 days after being discharged or within 31 days after training of l2 weeks or more or active duty of no more than 90 days.

If he is unable to perform his former duties because of a disability sustained during service, but is qualified to perform the duties of another position, he must be reemployed.

To be eligible for reemployment, a reservist called up for less than 12 weeks must report to work on the first work day after the last day needed to travel from the training place to the employment place or within a reasonable time if the delay is beyond his control.

Returning reservists are to be treated as if they have been on leave of absence. If the employer does not maintain health insurance coverage for those on leave of absence, he is not required to do so for a reservist on active duty. However, since it is possible that the employee will have difficulty reinstating company provided health insurance, it is recommended that if the employer does not pay for it, he strongly suggest that the reservist continue to pay the premium.

If an employer generally does not pay those on extended leaves of absence, he is not required to do so for the reservist on active duty. A returning reservist who has been on duty for l2 weeks or more cannot be discharged except for cause for six months after his return.

Lumber Demand 2OOO

Despite jolts to timber supply, demand for forest products is expected to be much more stable, with falling housing starts offset by rising repair, remodeling and industrial usage.

Resource Information Systems, Inc., also foresees that Chile and New Zealand timbers will compete with North American wood in several major markets in the late 1990s due to U.S. environmental restraints.

After the year 2000, the private U.S. timber supply is forecast to expand as secondary stands mature in the West. Meantime, Southern lumber producers should see their U.S. market share grow from250/o to 300/0.