• You will get the results of the U.S. Lumberyard Cost of Doing Business survey of the “typical” U.S. yard.

• You and others in the room will quickly brainstorm practical ways to improve a few key items on your financial statement by small amounts.
• You will be staggered by the impact of these improvements on your BOTTOM LINE.

This is not an accounting mumbo-jumbo program. If you understand the terms “sales, gross margin, inventory turns and collection days,” you won’t have any trouble staying up with the instructor. But, because of time restriction, you’ll need to buckle your seat belts. It’s lean meat only .. no time for soup or salad. 

Noon – Meeting adjourns – But … you can stay to enjoy beautiful Branson. Start your Christmas shopping, play golf (weather permitting) and enjoy the last of the fall foliage. Make it a great get-away for you and your family (or leave the kids at home)! 

Registration Information 

To attend, all you need to do is register. Complete the registration form and return by Friday, October 30. Let us know who is coming and we’ll do all the rest.

This meeting is sponsored by Federated Insurance, your suppliers and your Association. This will be a fun get-together and a way to thank you for your support and membership. The cost to you is your time and your travel expense. We’ll cover all the meeting expenses. 

Cost: No charge for the meeting. 

To get a registration form, just contact the MLA Office at 800-747-6529. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR 

Note these important dates and events on your calendar and make plans to attend. Details will be forthcoming: 

September 23-25 – NLBMDA Industry Summit, The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida. A complete brochure is available from MLA – just hit reply to request. Hotel reservation deadline is August 31. 

November 18-19 – MLA Fall Fling, Chateau on the Lake, Branson, Mo. Plans are nearly complete. You’ll learn important concepts at a half-day seminar, enjoy deluxe accommodations and catch up on important industry issues. Watch for the next MLA “News You Can Use” for complete information and registration form.  

2005 Education Programs – Dates are set for MLA’s most popular education programs. Mark your calendar and start planning for these sessions. Registration forms will be available this fall. 

Feb. 14-15 – Basic Estimating, Wichita, Kan. 

Feb. 16-17 – Basic Estimating, Kansas City, Mo. 

Feb. 17 – Yard Foreman School, Columbia, Mo. 

Feb. 18 – Advanced Estimating, Kansas City, Mo. 

Feb. 24 – Yard Foreman School, Oklahoma City, Okla. 

March 10-11 – Basic Estimating, Tulsa, Okla. 

If you need this training and none of these dates or locations are convenient, please notify Olivia at MLA to discuss the possibility of scheduling another session. We appreciate your input. 

NLBMDA REgulatory news 

DOL Overtime Regulation Update... The new changes to U.S. Department of Labor overtime rules officially went into effect on August 23, 2004. The new rule changes and clarifies which employees are exempt from the requirement to be paid wages for overtime work. There is currently language in a Senate bill that would retroactively reverse the new overtime rules. However, the same language is not included in a companion House bill and the passage of a repeal is uncertain due to the sensitive nature of the labor related issue just before an election. If there are changes or a full repeal of the overtime regulation, NLBMDA will report it. An executive summary of the new regulation is available at http://www.dealer.org/nlbmda/issue%20papers/OvertimeRegs5-04.htm 

Your Latest Resource to Manage Risk… If you didn’t get the first edition of NLBMDA’s Risk Management Newsletter, then you missed some of the best tips and information available. The August 2004 edition covered topics including ways to enhance your company’s insurability, making sure your drivers aren’t putting your business in danger, resolving contract disputes, terrorism insurance, contract exclusions, and installed sales liabilities. To be placed on the distribution list, send an email to tj@dealer.org. 

OSHA and Safety Liabilities for Installed Sales… Do you know all of your additional OSHA responsibilities when doing installed sales? Are you sure? Make sure you have all your bases covered by participating in the NLBMDA’s Training Without Travel teleconference, “Reducing OSHA and Safety Liabilities for Installed Sales.” Registration forms for the teleconference scheduled for September 30 at 1 p.m. EDT are available by calling 800-634-8645 or going to http://www.dealer.org/nlbmda/train_wo_trav.htm  

LUMBER NEWS – QUICK GLIMPSES 

Trade Associations Protest Softwood & Furniture Tariffs… The Furniture Retailers of America (FRA) and the American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH) announced Monday they are joining together to "fight against onerous trade duties."  

The purchasing power behind ACAH is unparalleled: 95% of the lumber sold in the US is consumed by ACAH members. Among those organizations that can claim ACAH membership are various trade associations, such as the National Homebuilders Association and the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, as well as large retailers, like Home Depot.  

Source: LBM Daily, August 31, 2004

Source: Home Channel News, August 31, 2004 

NAFTA Decision on Softwood Lumber Dispute Is In… NAFTA's five-member panel (on which three Americans sit), rejected the American position that subsidized Canadian lumber represents a threat of injury to American producers. The vote was unanimous. Soon thereafter, members of the Canadian timber industry began to call for the US federal government to repeal tariffs on Canadian softwood timber. 

Source: LBM Daily, September 1, 2004 

NAFTA Ruling Already Having an Effect in Canadian Timber Industry… While Canadian lumber companies are celebrating yesterday's NAFTA ruling against U.S. duties, investors are in a positive mood as well. Many of the largest companies in the industry saw their shares rise today. The boost affected not only Canadian companies but also a couple of U.S. companies that do business north of the border.  

Though the U.S. is likely not finished with its fight against the decision, repeated rulings on the issue have favored Canada. Once the smoke has cleared, the affected companies hope not only to be spared pricey levies but also to be refunded millions of dollars they have paid since the U.S. first began charging the duties in question. 

Source: LBM Daily, September 2, 2004 

California's New Timber Bill Doesn't Do Enough for Struggling Industry… California's newest proposed legislation involving the state's timber industry requires state-funded jobs to purchase local lumber. California timber companies applaud the new measure, though it may not go far enough even for them since the state generally doesn't purchase that much wood. Furthermore, the measure has loopholes that allow some state contractors to continue buying imported timber. Add to that the natural grumbling about the high price of environmentally friendly California wood, and the new bill already is facing a host of complaints. 

Source: LBM Daily, September 7, 2004 

Georgia-Pacific Announces Sale of Three Mills to Allegheny… Georgia-Pacific Corp. announced Tuesday that a deal was struck with Allegheny Wood Products of Petersburg, W.Va. for the sale of three of their hardwood lumber mills. While the cost of the mills to Allegheny is unknown, the locations of the mills have been released: Enfield, N.C.; Green Valley, W.Va.; and Marble, Pa. Between them, these mills employ approximately 250 workers, producing lumber for use in furniture, flooring and cabinet manufacturing. 

Source: LBM Daily, September 8, 2004 

Presidential Election Impacts Logging & US/Canadian Softwood Agreements… The upcoming US Presidential election will decide the fate of a proposed plan that ends prohibitions on building and logging in 'pristine' forestlands, or those areas that have not yet been touched by human development. Wednesday, the Bush administration announced that it will wait until after the election in November to comment on the proposal. Democratic nominee John Kerry has indicated support for Clinton's 2001 executive order, which prohibited construction on one-third of federal forestland.  

The election could also be delaying discussions between Canada and the US on the softwood lumber trade dispute. The Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson commented Thursday, "I'm hoping we can continue that process in spite of the election. If we have to wait until after the election, we will do it." 

Source: LBM Daily, September 10, 2004 

Changing Habits to Master Your Time
Change bad work-related habits in 21 days (or less) 

"Busy" is the enemy of a controlled life. The key to being more productive on the job is to master time, not increased activity. Your greatest enemy in mastering your time is the desire to be busy. The old saying "work smarter, not harder" rings true. External forces constantly encroach on our lives to distract us from achieving our objectives. We feel we must stay active to produce results and impress the boss. Your job, though, is to be more motivated by your internal forces than the external ones. The more you believe you CAN control, the more you will TRY to control, and the more you WILL control. It is entirely up to you. You CAN master your time and take control of your life. After all, you can't change your past, but you can always change your future. Your time is your life. And as you master your time, you create a better life for yourself.

There is another saying that makes an important point: "The more you do of what you're doing, the more you will get of what you've got." In order to change old work habits, you have to WANT to change. Desire is the key to success or failure in changing any behavior. Old work habits are hard to break but many time-management experts tell us that in three to twenty-one days you can change your work-related habits. If you consistently practice the new time-management behavior for three weeks, it will become the predominant response behavior. At that point you will have replaced the old habit with the new one. But where do you start to replace self-defeating habits with self-reinforcing ones?

1. To begin taking back control of your life, you must identify the habit you want to change. The more you know about what you do, when you do it and why, the easier it will be to identify habits that are hurtful or detrimental to your work life. This means you need to analyze most of your work-related behaviors and the situations where they occur. Then identify the precise behaviors you with to change. You also need to examine your assumptions to see if any of them are holding you back from achieving the change you desire. Are you consistently late for work or meeting deadlines? Examine the behaviors that lead to your not being on time. Maybe you like to stay up late and don't get up in time to get ready. Perhaps you allow outside (external) forces to control your time, causing you to not meet deadlines. Often our habits have been with us for many years. It might even take a review of your earlier years...what were your study habits like in school? Did you have difficulty turning in assignments or starting them on time?

2. Carefully define the new habit you wish to develop. You might admire someone else who has mastered this habit and want to counsel with him or her about how they developed this behavior. They might possess a habit you have been wanting to adopt for some time, but you have been putting the change off. Now is the time to act! Procrastination will be your worst enemy at this stage of the process. Begin by recording what you want to change on paper. This is the first step in "journaling" your changes. A word on Journaling: Journaling is a great way to keep track of not only your time, but your progress as well. The best time masters chronicle their schedules, plans and goals to check on their own progress to see where they have come from, and where they are going. Learn to keep track of your time in a Day-Timer, Outlook or ACT Calendar, Personal Data Assistant (PDA) or similar method for recording your steps. You will improve your time-management habits only if you are honest with yourself and develop a realistic, doable action plan.

3. Begin the new behavior as purposefully as possible. Every journey starts with the first step. Make yours a step in the right direction. Once you have identified the new habit you want to develop, it is a good idea to tell people about it. This way you won't be tempted to fall back into your old behavior. You should establish new routines associated with your new habit. Put up signs on your workstation, in your car, or bathroom mirror (at home) to remind you of your new behavior. It is important that you do everything possible to alter your environment to give the new habit a fertile place to take root and grow. Listen to motivational tapes that both encourage and inspire you to change and stay with it. Associate songs or poems with the new habit that you can repeat to yourself or remember in your head as you stay with the new behavior. Also, it is very important to set a date that you are aiming for you to have the new habit established as your regular behavior. Since this is about managing your time better, establish a deadline. Remember: people who don't set goals rarely ever attain them.

4. Never deviate from the behavior until the new habit is firmly established. Keep the pressure on! My friend Joe Bonura tells about a young man who was working on a marketing campaign. He had some successes and failures. The successes did more harm, though than the failures. Once he succeeded. he decided he didn't have to work as hard the next day. Sure enough, each day thereafter, he worked less and less on his plan. After just one week, he had lost his rhythm and motivation for his marketing campaign. Eliminate the phrase, "Just this once won't matter" from your vocabulary. It will matter. In my Keynote on the Seven Dwarfs of Change I talk about Sneezy. Remember Sneezy? He would sneeze constantly, but when a finger would be put under his nose the convulsions would cease. The minute, though the finger was removed...BOOM! He'd sneeze stronger than before. Don't let take the pressure off, or you'll explode back onto your old habits worse than ever.

5. Ask other people to help you change. Find someone to hold you accountable. Rarely do we make significant changes in our behavior without the support of others. Family, friends and co-workers are usually great sources of support because they typically have a vested interest in your welfare. Think carefully about who might be able to help you. Ask yourself who has supported you in the past and who truly believes in you. Go to the person (or people) that think you can do it. Seek out those who you have trust in and whose advice you value. Choose members of your support team wisely. How could they help you best? What responsibilities will you put on them to help you out? If you build a strong support team around you, new habits are much easier to master.

6. Reward yourself for attaining your goal of adopting a new habit. What gets rewarded gets done. It's that simple. Find some luxury or special treat that you value highly to reward yourself with when you know you have completed your change of habit. It might be a meal out at your favorite restaurant, a movie you treat yourself to, or a trip to a place that is enticing enough to help you stay with your plan to change that old habit. Make a reservation in advance (good Time Masters schedule everything) if that helps you stay focused, but DON'T treat yourself until you have made the new habit your standard behavior. Celebrate with your support team. Bring those along who helped you get there. It will make the party that much richer and more memorable for you.

Now that you've changed one time-management behavior, you can see how easy it is to change others. You now have a road map, a process in place that, hopefully you wrote down in your journal by which you can work on other old habits and forms of detrimental behavior. Best of all, you can now encourage others (just as others helped you) in their efforts to change their behavior for the better. Take what they did for you and pass it forward. "And," as the song says, "the world will be a better place..." 

JIM MATHIS is a national speaking professional and trainer. To subscribe to his FREE personal and professional development newsletter, please send an email to subscribe@jimmathis.com with the word SUBSCRIBE. An electronic copy will be sent out to you every month. For more information on how JIM and his programs can benefit your organization or group, please call 888-688-0220, or visit his website: www.jimmathis.com 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?" – Lee Iacocca