IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES— SHOWCASE RECAP

Masthead

Liz Kovach

WRLA PRESIDENT

Chris Allinotte

DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Rebekah Doerksen

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Carolynne Jansen

DIRECTOR, MEMBERSHIP AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Alisa Luo

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Travis Waite

DIRECTOR, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Martine Yzerman

DIRECTOR, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

For Advertising Inquires

Carolynne Jansen

DIRECTOR, MEMBERSHIP AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

204-953-1698 cjansen@wrla.org

Published March 2023

The WRLA Yardstick is the official publication of the WRLA and is published four times per year. It is mailed to all retail and associate members of the WRLA, to retail lumber dealers and others in the building supply industry in Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and to selected dealers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Views expressed in the Yardstick are not necessarily official WRLA policy, nor does the publication of product information or any advertisement imply recommendation by the WRLA. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the WRLA.

Subscription rates in Canada: $12 per year, plus applicable taxes. Outside Canada: $15 per year, no tax. Rates quoted are for non-members only.

Canadian publication mail agreement #43754013. Postmaster send change of Canadian address to:

WESTERN RETAIL LUMBER ASSOCIATION

300-95 Cole Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba R2L 1J3

Phone: 204-953-1698

Toll Free: 1-800-661-0253

Fax: 204-947-5195 wrla.org has started off quite busy— trade show season and business travel is in high gear and of course depending on how your business year runs you’re also looking ahead, doing some planning, and maybe even revisiting what some of your key areas of focus will be for the coming year or two. You might even be taking in the odd conference or speaker to keep the idea pool and inspiration to succeed alive and well.

I recently attended a conference in Winnipeg. It was a great opportunity to listen to some amazing entrepreneurs, and community leaders share their stories, journeys of hardships and how they learned through their failures and persevered as a result. One of my favourite quotes which I adopted during the pandemic is “everything is figureoutable”. These ladies left us feeling very inspired at the end of the conference with tips that we can apply in our day to day.

While I left feeling incredibly inspired, there was one little piece of that day left me a little bit annoyed if you will. One moment that stuck out for me was, during one of the excellent keynotes speeches, the speaker touched on her family and how her child was accepted into an MBA program and the other was in a third year apprenticeship program. Very different receptions from the crowd. The MBA news was received with hoots and hollers, while the third year electrician apprentice was received with dead silence. Now, it might have been the gender piece as we were at a Women’s Conference but still I thought to myself, why do we celebrate academics so highly yet look down on so many other professions and industries— especially when you are well aware that a lot of the successful people in that room didn’t necessarily have a law degree or an MBA, in fact many of them have not utilized their degree how it was originally intended?