Dealers OK Oklahoma

CITATELY palm trees and the Nlsparkling blue Pacific backdropped the 78th annual convention of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association. Held at Kaanapali, Maui, Hi., the meeting drew nearly 150 delegates from all over the U.S. Total attendance was close to 250, including suppliers and vendors.

For the first time in decades, the association has admitted a fonnerly independent state group into its federated structure of dealer organizations. The Oklahoma Lumbermens Association was admitted to full membership after successfully completing a formal petitioning process of approximately 18 months.

B. Harold Smick, Jr. was elected president, succeeding Ray Nunn, who moves up to chairman of the board. First v.p. is Carl Tindell. The 2nd v.p. slot has been dropped. Treasurer is Jim Wiswell and Gary W. Donnelly remains exec. v.p./secretary.

Dealers were urged to offer their customers Positively outrageous Service by T. Scott Gross, author of a book by the same name. He said customers should be made to feel involved. They want an experience as much or more than products. The best service was something unexpected and out of proportion o the anticipated. Help the customers have fun and, whenever possible, create events that are newsworthy, he counseled.

The future of engineered wood was forecast by Tom Williamson, APAthe Engineered Wood Association; Tom Comery, Georgia-Pacific, and Bob Revell, Weyerhaeuser Co. Engineered wood products were seen as the future due to a constrained timber supply. They described various products, their perfomnnce and the costs for dealers to establish their own profitable EWPprogram.

Nextday Dr. Cheryl Bann, University of St. Thomas management cen- ter, described the Retailing 2000 program. The outgrowth of a study of successful dealers in various parts of the U.S., the program tells dealers what works, what doesn't and how dealers can adopt proven ways to profit.

Australian John Bagley then presented a comprehensive rundown on the timber industry in his country. Don Moody, Westem Metal Co., gave the steel industry side of steel studs versus wood studs. A surprisingly

Story at a Glance Nation's dealers meet in Hawaii admit Oklahoma Lumbermens Association

B. Harold Smick, Jr., elected pres. 1995: Minnesota.

large number of dealers present currently sell both types of products. Peter Stone and Mark Sherno, Cigna Financial Advisors, followed with a workshop on succession planning for independent businesses.

Final speaker Jim Petersen, Evergreen Foundation, said that forest policy must be based on science, not politics as at presenl "We need millions more acres of managed forests every year to meet the population's demand for forest products." Through an impresssive collection of statistics, he laid to rest any ideas that the U.S. is running out of wood. Petersen said proper management will allow us to continue to grow more wood fiber than we harvest.

The 78th annual was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sept. 21-25. Next year's convention will be Sept. 28-30 in Minneapolis, Mn.

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