At the recent North American Wholesale Lumber Association’s regional meeting in Birmingham, AL, that was held at the Avondale, Brewing Co., there were just under 100 individuals that attended this event on a Wednesday evening. At the meeting there was a cocktail party, and part of the time a two-man band entertained the attendees.
Later, there were welcoming remarks made by several individuals with some naming and thanking all the sponsors of the meeting, while others thanked the NAWLA staff members that were at the Birmingham meeting.
Bill Price of All Star Forest Products, Inc., headquartered in Jackson, MS was one of the speakers who told the crowd: “Thank everyone here for coming out tonight. Our regional meetings are very important. The support of everybody is what makes NAWLA tick, and please come to the 2023 Traders Market that will be held on November 8-10 in Columbus, OH. We’re going to have a great Traders Market and I look forward to seeing you there.”
Another speaker, Jim McGinnis of The McGinnis Lumber Company, Inc., located in Meridian, MS said: “One of the things NAWLA does best is to have meetings like this. That is where the value is in this association because through our meetings it’s the partnerships that we make in business and the friendships that we make; and, when you can combine business and friendship, that’s when you really get involved and it’s a lot of fun. You know we have two big signature meetings every year which are the Traders Market and the Leadership Summit.” He concluded his comments by saying: “There is always transition in business and life and trade associations. We are in the middle of one now. I know our association presently has the right person in Steve Rustja of Weston Forest Products, Inc., located in Mississauga, Ontario who serves as the Chairman of our organization. I have known Steve for a long time, and he is a close friend of mine.”
Steve Rustja was also one of the speakers and some of his comments are as follows: “I want to thank everyone for coming out here. As your Chairman, I’m going to attend every regional NAWLA meeting this year. I’ve been looking forward to attending this meeting because Jim McGinnis has, for many years, invited me to visit his place.”
Lastly, Rustja said, “I want to thank Bill Price, Jim McGinnis and Doyal Marks for all they’ve done for this association in the past.”
At the Birmingham meeting there was plenty of time for networking, and there was a panel presentation. The moderator was Dale Bracken of the National Assessment located in Athens, GA and the panel that answered questions pertaining to locating and hiring the right people for their firms included: Barry Bauman of Interfor located in Peachtree City, GA; Bill Fisher of Stringfellow Lumber Company LLC, Birmingham, AL; Kevin Clonch, Ryder System, Inc., Fort Worth, TX; and Robert McManus, Birmingham International Forest Products, Birmingham, AL. The individuals on the panel were confident about finding and hiring the right people to help their organizations to grow and prosper. Some of the panelists mentioned they went to various colleges to successfully recruit perspective employees for their firms. However, in the discussion it was not directly mentioned that most people in the lumber industry know that it is very difficult to find and keep people working at their companies that must physically handle lumber in a sawmill, lumber remanufacturing firm, wholesale distribution lumber yard, etc.
The panelist generally agreed that, in most cases, it is better for their salespeople to work in an office environment than working from their homes. The sales managers on the panel believe that developing personal relationships with customers in person or on the phone is much better than just texting and/or emailing customers and potential customers to make a sale, although all these methods of communications are important. The panelist also discussed some of the differences when trying to hire individuals that were born between 1997 and 2012, called Generation Z, and those that were born between 1981 and 1996, called Millenials.
Visit www.nawla.org for upcoming regional meetings, such as the one scheduled for August 17 in Minneapolis.
