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California Hardwoods is pleased to announce our move into expanded new quarters at 332O7 Paseo Cerveza in San Juan Capistrano, Ca.

Our product line includes all domestic and imported hardwood lumber and hardwood plywood.

Species we can provide you include: red and white oak (Northern, Appalachian and Southern) plus rift sawn white oak, walnut, ash, birch, maple, teak and mahogany. We're proud to be a major supplier of koa from Hawaii.

Our new location means easy access to Los Angeles and San Diego ports. We ofler delivery, direct rnill shipments to the entire U.S., will call, and on-site milling.

One thing that we haven't changed is our top quality, prompt service and low prices.

Galifornia Wholesale

A Division of Cossbal Lumber Company presenfs

3'Nothing But The Begttt in

Appalachian, Northern, and Southern

Fcd Oak Whitc Oak Aeh Poplar

Hardwoods

Sycamore Basswood

Tupelo Gherry

Hackbemy Hickory

CoGtonwood Hard I9oft

Maple

Also lmported Handwoods

Gum and Oak veneers and Oak Plywood cut-to-size

Shipments by Direct Carload, Direct from our own Handwood Mills

Truck & r.SL. from our Los Angeles DisFibution Yard

Our office is located at: S99 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 314 ElSegundo, Ca. 90245 o [213].640-2548

Russ Swlft

Donna Hammond

Ed Cordova

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I SUeeoSe that now business has lshown a moderate increase and smiles cross the faces of lumber and building material dealers once again we figure we are returning to normal.

WRONG!

First: business still has a long way to go to be average for the previous years, Remember we were in a boom from 1974 to 1979.Inflation was causing a growth rate of l5 9o to250/o per year. Constant increases in goods ordered were eating away at profits. Annual employee salary and benefit increases took more profits away. At the present most dealers report good cash sales. The average purchase per customer is slowly increasing and most charges are being paid on time. At the present it is a little different in the business community.

Second: We can never go back to the good old days simply because this recession has made good managers of those skating on thin ice during the good periods. Those that could not learn to manage effectively are no longer in business. The remaining dealers are battle wise and want the competitive edge and will go after it. In addition the mass merchandisers in the national chains have refined their operations and know what they want and how to get it. They are becoming an element of concern, especially in metropolitan areas where knowing each of their customers is not paramount.

Third: Great efforts are being made to educate employees. After this past recession, dealers realized quickly that the employees retained could be effective and carry an assigned duty with effectiveness. Dealers found that training the employees, making them feel a part of the organization and being interested in what they had to say about the operation of the company, paid dividends through increased employee productivity.

Dealers are now eager to take advantage of training courses and seminars for their employees. They know that a day spent attending a seminar is going to pay dividends for the company and the employee. At one time nearly every employer felt he could not do without an employee for a day of training. Too many orders; too many on vacation; a dozen other reasons. But the picture has changed to one of deep concern to insure that a professional and efficient company team is developed.

The result is more production from fewer employees. Employees are more satisfied with their jobs and the way in which they produce. Employees who want to be productive are no longer discouraged by the non-productive since they have been weeded out.

Management, once a good team has been developed, finds it much easier to manage since the team works together and eliminates many problems by themselves.

Management must continue to be concerned about the professionalism of employees. The competition is just starting among managers for the best team to give them the competitive edge. Only through employee training to develop skills and self confidence can management insure they will remain in the new competitive arena.

FRED CARUSO executive secretary

lJow the MSLBMDA can improve I lits service to its members in Utah was the subject of a recent informal breakfast meeting in Salt Lake City.

MSLBMDA President Jack Davis called the meeting during a visit to the area to get ideas from local dealer and supplier members.

Salt Lake area retailers joining in were Dave Stringham, Stringham Lumber Co.; Dan Burton, Burton Lumber and Hardware Co., and Larry Green, Cook Lumber Co. Providing the supplier's perspective were Terry Deihl and Richard Brenchley, Deihl Lumber Co., Richard Barlow, Management Advisors, and Steve Littlefield, Computer Advisors.

A major topic of discussion was the MSLBMDA annual convention. It was generally agreed that it was difficult to move the convention around the region and that alternative programs should be held on a regional basis to give the more remote dealers an opportunity to gain knowledge and share ideas at a minimal cost.

In another session six Colorado lumber dealers and leaders of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association exchanged ideas on current and proposed association programs in Denver.

Leading the Mountain States delegation was Dave Stookesberry, Economy Lumber and Hardware, Greeley, MSLBMDA's president-elect.

Dean Leaman, Home Building & Lumber Co., Rosenberg, Tx., James Gross Jr., The Gross Lumber Co., Carlisle, Oh., and John Martin, executive vice president of NLBMDA, represented the national point of view. Leaman is NLBMDA's second vice president and will become president in 1984. Gross is a member of the board of directors.

Joining the discussion were Bob Hutchison, Pine Junction Lumber Co., Pine, Co.; and Mike Cundiff, ABZ Lumber Co., Walter Kellogg III, Kellogg Lumber Co., Herb Hast Jr., Hast Lumber Co., and Anson Gamsey, Stark Lumber Co., all of Denver.

Two summers ago, Harold Gray logged some 8,000 miles and made 238 personal visits with non-members in five states in an intensive 45-dav blitz on behalf of MSLBMDA.

This summer, the 75-year-young veteran of 35 years of professional field services work nearly beat his record, except that his assignment had changed. He called on members as well as nonmembers and concentrated his efforts on the front-range region of Colorado and the entire state of New Mexico.

Gray was retained by the association's board for the second round of field calls in order to fill in a void created as association staff focused on developing other programs and services. The MSLBMDA region covers more than 450,000 square miles, with only about one lumber yard per each 560 square miles, presenting a nearly impossible challenge to cover with the regular staff.

West's Oldest in Hardwood

Founded in 1872. White Brothers in Oakland, C8., is currently celebrating its I l2th year in business. It is widely believed to be the oldest hardwood company West of the Mississippi still operating. Its San Francisco Bay area neighbor, the J.E. Higgins Lumber Company, is celebrating its centennial this year, being founded in 1883.

In the early 1860s, Asa White went into partnership, founding Straut & White. Later in the decade he bought out his partner and brought in his brother Peter. In 1872 the two men established White Brothers. Subse- quently Jacob White, the greatgrandfather of the present head of the firm, Don F. White, Jr., joined the cornpany. dustrial Arts Department at Memphis State University a course in wood technology was established.

As the fourth generation of his family to operate White Brothers, the current White takes a keen interest in the firm's long history. He points out that White Brothers was the only lumber company that didn't burn in the terrible fires following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The office is hung with old photographs from their long history and company records going back to the earliest days are tucked away in the company safe.

Southwestern University and are involved with the Goldsmith Civic Garden Center. A conservation committee works with public and private agencies to improve forest practices and replace the "cut-out-get-out" syndrome with a striving for "sustained yield."

The Goodwyn Institute Library has worked with the club to organize its records into a collection of history and anecdotes. The Memphis Public Library now houses this memorabilia.

Ball. A Lumber's Lady Fair is selected each year to represent the industry as an ambassador of goodwill.

An Education and Wood Technology Committee was established in 1966 to promote education and training in the lumber industry. With the cooperation of the In-

The club maintains the hardwood panel display in the Memphis International Airport and sponsors the "Trees-Our Renewable Resource" exhibit at the Memphis Pink Palace Museum. Members have donated more than 9,000 sq. ft. of oak paneling to Theatre Memphis. They also established the arboretum at