NRLDA Regionql Associqtion Xlonogers Will Rein 1958 Erposition Progroms

Eight critical areas of dealer interest are slated for discussion at the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association's 1958 Building Products Exposition to be held in Chicago, November 22-25.

"Every session of the program will be sharpened to point directly at the heart of the problem under attack," Program Chairman Deyo W. Johnson announced following a meeting of the 1958 Exposition Committee in Chicago. Setting the theme for the four-day program at the traditional "Kick-off Breakfast" on Saturday, November 22, opening day of the Exposition, an address by one of the industry's topJevel executives will emphasize today's need for more aggressive merchandising by the retailer to expand and strengthen building material markets.. Other sessions following the same vein will cover the "howto" of better creative salesmanship, merchandising kitchens and related items, how to sell more home improvements with the accent on positive selling points to keep this business from being pirated by fly-by-night applicators, case histories of successful competition against prefabs, and how to step up sales to farmers.

A new method of program development is also being utilized in the organization of dealer meetings of the 1958 Exposition, Chairman Johnson revealed. At the invitation.of the Eiposition committee, executive secretaries of eight state and iegional associations are assisting the committee as program managers of the various sessions.

"Our Federated Assn. managers constitute a tremendous resource for efrective organization and management of dealer meetings," Mr. Johnson said. "It has been our feeling for some time that this wealth of experience and knowhow should be put to work for the benefit of all our members throueh the programs of our National Exposition

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"In past meetings dealer chairmen have willingly shouldered the burden of program management along with the demands of chairmanship, often at the expense of their responsibilities to their own businesses. Benefits of the new svstem are alreadv in evidence because Program l\{anagers, woiking with NRLDA headquarters, have been able to relieve Dealer Chairmen of many problems by resolving in advance details of organizing and coordinating Exposition programs."

Jack Pomeroy, executive vice-president of the Lumber Merchants Association of Northern California, San Francisco, will handle program arrangements for a Sunday "family brunch" which will feature one of the nation's most dynamic speakers on creative salesmanship.

Charged with setting up the program on kitchen merchandising is Edwin F. Sembell, secretary of the Illinois Lumber and Material Dealers Association. The session dealing with how to sell more home improvements is under the management of Horace G. Pierce, managing director of the Northeastirn Retail Lumbermen's Association, Rochester, N. Y. The program based on case histories of successful competition against prefabs is being developed by Charles E,. Benson, executive vice-president of the Ohio Association of Retail Lumber Dealers. Robert L. Craft, executive secretary of the Indiana Lumber and Builders Supply Association, is developing a new and effective format for the program on personnel management. Donald J. Moe, secretary of the Michigan Retail Lumber Dealers Association, is setting up the session on the outlook for the building materials industry, and a sales-centered program to take advan-age of the present strong farm market is under development by G. Kenneth Milliken, executive vice-president of the Southwestern Lumbermen's Association, Kansas City, Missouri. 'fheodore I. Hunsaker, executive secretary of the Lumber Trade Association of Cook County, Chicago, is progra- manager for the Saturday rnorning Kick-off Breakfast.