D istributons Gonvention biggest ever

Attendance records by both distributors and manufacturers of building materials were broken at the 23rd annual convention of the National Building Material Distributors Assn. at their recent Los Angeles gathering. Nearly 1200 attended.

A number of prominent speakers were on the program, including famed economist Dr. Ezra Solomon who said we face about 9 more months of recession and that "what's ahead will be rough." He feels the housing industry has bottomed out. C.B. Mahin reviewed labor developments and told the audience that planning and preparation are valuable weapons in fighting strikes and other labor discord. Consumerism is here to stay, M.H. Broffman, American Biltrite, Inc. pre- sident, declared. So far consumerism has been beneficial to American business as it has forced better quality control and re-invisorated business in

Story at a Glance

Record attendance, a tour of three local home centers, VIP speakers, convention exhibits "better than ever" highlight distributor's annual .... Richard E. Freeman elected new president.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD (l) new president Dick Freeman (lefl) and outgoing president Frank E. O'Dowd. (2) Fred Thomson, Ted Russell. (3) Bill Grieve, Michael Treichak. (4) Dean Catlelt, Bill Roberts. (5) Jack Volker, Bob Babicky, John Glover. (6) Clay Blackstock, M.L. McCreery. (7) Bob Mullen, Zack Brandon. (8) Terry Case, Alberl Koop. (9) Jerry Conrad, Mark Mendenhall, Paul Simon. (10) Sol Kaplan, Clyde Kane. (11) Ralph Tranlow, Joe Murphy, Hal Huff, (12) Dave and Del Earton.

many other areas, he averred.

Richard E. Freeman, director of marketing for So-Cal Commercial and president of So-Cal Building Materials Co., Los Angeles, was elected the new president. Roger L. Hancock, Arizona Millwork. Phoenix. was chosen lst v.p.

Westerners on the board of directors are Fred S. Thomson,lnland Lumber Co., Colton, Ca.; Clark R. Gittings, Gittings Lumber Co., Denver; Peter J. Hall, Lumber Products, Portland; and Donald K. Irvine, Utah Lumber Co., Salt Lake City.

NBMDA distributor and manufacturer members in the U.S. and Canada represent companies with over 1,200 warehouse locations in North America and abroad.

Pressure-Treated Lumber

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T\ URING 1974, American ForLl est Products Corp. initiated an on-going program of Ampine particleboard seminars.

Designed to provide their sales representatives with an intimate knowledge of manufacturing and plant capabilities, as well as product characteristics and the end uses, this was accomplished through the step-by-step presentation of the new Ampine sales manual, which was drafted by key production and sales personnel.

Seminars were held at AFPC's largest wood conversion facility, located at Martell, Ca., and convened every other Thursday at 8:30 a.m.

Sales people attended from the company's building products distribution centers located all over the United States. Seminar groups were purposely kept small (no more than six) to assure that each person present would have ample opportunity to become well acquainted both with the manufacturing process and with the key people in production.

Larry Brown, particleboard plant technical director opened the Thursday morning sessions by explaining the steps in manufacturing particleboard beginning with the raw material and its preparation, including milling, drying and blending, through the actual mat forming process, weighing the mat, pressing to form the board and finally, sawing to width and length each board preparatory to sanding.

The group then toured that portion of the facility dealing with the basic production and manufacture of particleboard. Here, often, for the first time, sales people saw the particleboard manufactured.