Photos by Terry Miller
The 87th Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA) was recently held as a virtual event.
“Remaining Essential in the New Normal” was the focus of the oneday presentation program that mixed association and business essentials with light entertainment sessions. The virtual event began with the Annual Membership Business Meeting led by NELMA’s Chairman, Alden Robbins of Robbins Lumber. Nominations to the Board of Directors and At-Large Representation to the Advisory Committee was the item of business to discuss. By unanimous vote, Rick Wilson of Pukall Lumber was elected to service a second 3-year term, and Robert “Bob” Moses of Britton Lumber was elected to serve a one-year term on the Advisory Committee in the At-Large position. NELMA’s current officers were elected to serve the second year of their term: Alden Robbins of Robbins Lumber as Chairman, Chris Brochu of Pleasant River Lumber as 1st Vice Chairman, Susan Coulombe of Irving Forest Products as 2nd Vice-Chairman, and B Manning of Durgin & Crowell as Treasurer.
The morning session participants next heard the status of the Association and the latest marketing successes, followed by a trio of presentations in the afternoon beginning with a casual conversation with the Maine Cabin Masters, the wildly popular television personalities and a NELMA marketing partner. Relearning “Communication Etiquette and Protocol Intelligence in the Next Normal” with Jackie Dudley, and the “2021 Economic Forecast” by Paul Jannke rounded out the program. Virtual exhibits by providers of forest products equipment and services were available to participants at designated times during the day to compliment the offerings.
The annual NELMA Golf Scramble was held the day before at the Ledges Golf Club in York, Maine. The winning team for Gross score was Toby Pineo (Irving Forest Products), John Cole (Irving Forest Products), and Christian Smith (Wipfli). The Net score winning team was Matt Duprey, Kevin Hynes, Aaron Schulte, and Dan Wetmore all from Hancock Lumber. Individual contest winners: The longest drive at Hole 4 and Hole 12 was Toby Pineo and Paul Lennon respectively. Closest to Pin: John Cole (Hole 14) and Christian Smith (Hole 8).
“We were excited to partner with 526 Media to use such a well-rounded, simple yet intuitive virtual meeting format for this year’s meeting,” stated Jeff Easterling, President of NELMA. “The platform gave us a professional online venue that allowed us to provide most of the signature services our members have come to expect in an annual meeting.”
NELMA would like to thank the generosity of its record number of event sponsors: Diorio Forest Products, Durgin & Crowell, Fontaine Lumber, Gateway Graphics, Hancock Lumber, Linck, H.E. Smith, Irving Forest Products, Lucidyne, Robbins Lumber, Sandy Neck Traders, SII Dry Kilns, Seaboard International, TS Manufacturing, USNR, Wipfli, and 526 Media Group.
The 88th Annual Meeting of the Association is scheduled for September 15-17, 2021, at the Omni Mt. Washington Resort, Bretton Woods, NH. Learn more at www.nelma.org.
