otion news

Southern Building

Material Association named Ron Brown. Brown's Builders Supply Inc., Rose Hill, N.C., as chairman during its annual summer conference. He succeeds Bill Stewart, Stewart Lumber Co., Brentwood, Tn.

Other new officers: Mac Lawton, Dixie Lumber Co., Easley, S.C., lst vice chairman; Jim Duggan, Robinson Building Center, Cleveland, Tn., 2nd vice chairman; James Van Landingham, Builders Supply Co., Petersburg, Va., 3rd vice chairman, and Larry W. Adams, SBMA, president.

SBMA will hold area meetings on "Analyzing Your Contractor Customers' Profitability and How to Improve It" Sept. 5-7 in Williamsburg, Richmond and Roanoke, Va.; Sept. 2O-21 in WinstonSalem and Greenville, N.C.; Oct. l0-11 in Camden and Summerville. S.C.l Oct. 12 in Fayetteville, N.C.; Oct. l6-17 in Cleveland and Murfreesboro, Tn.t Oct.24 in Jackson. Tn., and Nov. 8 in Asheville, N.C. Trainers are Frank Chamberlain, III, Resource Technologies, Inc., and Larry Adams.

Mid-America Lumbermens Association will join SBMA traveling through Alexandria, New Orleans and Shreveport during a Louisiana mill tour Sept. 30-Oct. 6. Co-sponsors include the Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin dealer associations.

Kentucky Lumber & Building

Material Dealers Association will sponsor a surplus material auction Oct. 14 at Best Auctions, Louisville.

The board elected Bill Kronauer, Falls City Lumber, as associate director, succeeding Carl Grimm, Walker Williams Lumber, who moved from the area.

KLBMDA's annual convention will be held jointly with West Virginia and Ohio Feb. 18-20 in Northern Kentucky. The headquarters hotel will be the Marriott River Center. which overlooks the Ohio River and downtown Cincinnati, while the buying show and educational sessions will take place in the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

The association's education foundation awarded scholarships to Mac Alexander Cherry, son of Mac Cherry, Adam Wholesalers; Regina A. Deitriech, granddaughter of Barb Phillips, Big 4 Lumber, Morehead; Kathryn J. Herschede, daughter of Ed Herschede, Pilot Lumber Do it Center, Bellevue; Dustin M. Hammons, son of Mark Hammons, Dry Ridge

Lumber Co., Dry Ridge; Candice Elaine Whittington, daughter of Tom Whittington, Square Deal Lumber Co., Cave City, and Brooke Elaine Cowles, Mid-South Lumber & Supply, Bowling Green.

Terms Of The Trade Available

The updated fourth edition of Random Lengths' Terms of the Trade is now available.

The 426-p., illustrated book includes more than 10,000 definitions, abbreviations and terminologies used in the lumber, construction, futures trading, pulp and paper industries.

Terms o.f the Trade, edited by David S. Evans, associate editor of Random Lengths, is $49.95 from Random Lengths Publications, Inc., (800\ 874-7979.

Do it Best Taps New Garrier

Do it Best Corp. has named Tacoma, Wa.-based Interstate Distributor as its new dedicated canier out of the co-op's Waco, Tx., retail service center.

Interstate Distributor, which has handled routes for Do it Best out of its Woodburn, Or., RSC since 1991, succeeds former carrier Ryder Logistics.

The switch is effective Sept. 17.

House Probes Maxxam Deal

A House Resources Committee task force is investigating possible banking regulatory improprieties regarding an $821 million federal claim against Pacific Lumber parent Maxxam Corp., Houston, Tx.

Under particular scrutiny is a 1995 plan by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of Thrift Supervision to pressure the federal government into taking ownership of roughly 63,000 acres of Northern California timberland in lieu of claims against Maxxam and its chairman, Charles Hurwitz, pertaining to a failed thrift.

"They could gobble up companies like Potlatch with the snap of their fingers, as recent history has shown."

- Paul Ehinger, Eugene, Or.-based consultant on industry giants IP, Weyerhaeuser, G-P and Kimberly Clarke