ST]UltutCDNS

LfllA Gonvention

(Continueil trom Page 8) and improvement market all important, and possibly salvation of the retail lumber industry . providing dealer controls the sale and sells the package.

Guest speaker for the after lunch program was the Rev. Jim W. Blougher, Jt., ol the First Baptist Church, Glendale, who combined sharp wit with some good honest soul searching on the topii "Boy, am I confused". (we're still confused, so that must mean we understand the problem.)

A'final business session in the Indian Room by Eldon Carl, general manager of the California Association o{

Employers, completed the first day's program. Carl's subiect. "\Mhere does The Wholesaler. Distributor and Re- the the ject, "Where does Wholesaler, tailer Stand Under the Wage Hour Law" received close attention from the group.

Business for the day completed, conventioneers boarded buses for the big LMA "Snofari" at nearby Badger Pass Ski Lodge wherl they enjoyed "weasel" rides over the beautiful Badger Pa.ss slopes, cocktails on the lodge's sundeck, slalom races by Yosemite ski professionals, dinner and the famous downhill ski torch parade. A fine outing rvith just the right change of pace, the Snofari was the hit of the convention.

"How to Maintain a Satisfactory Profit?"

The grand ma.ster of building materials retailing, Art Hood, former editor of American Lumberman, opened up the final day's program. On an outline handed out before his talk, Art introduced his subject, "How To Maintain a Sustained Satisfactory Profit", with the following paragraph which we take the liberty of reprinting here.

"It is an inexorable fact of business life that the production of a sustained satisfactory profit year after year is both the No. I obligation of a manager and the supreme. test of his efficiency. In the final analysis, failure to make a profit is failure of management."

- Covering the wide range of everyday profit leaks,,Hood, like the sptakers befo,re him, stressed the package sale as a means to combat ever increasing competition from many quarters.

- One of the more recent sources of competition, one relatively new to the California scene, is the cash & _carry operation, Hood noted. It is significant, he pointed -out, tiat during late Spring of this year, four large cash & carry opeiations will bpen their doors for business in northern California. Volume potential of these four outlets is estimated at approximately $12,000,000. annually. Be_cause of its nervness in the area, the subject of cash & carry received considerable attention during the morning session and several workable ideas were advanced on the right way to compete with these big building-matelials celnters. it was g6nerally agreed that the Package Sale

HARDWOOD LUIABER contractor relations, (made possible through- hiJ more diversified -invent-ory, iontractbr relations. fixibititv of services, credit and fi- ty and fi-