Activities of National Retail Lumber Dealers Association

Address bv F. Dean Prescott, Valley Lumber Company, Fresno, the National's California Representotive, ot the Annual Convention of the Calilornia Retail Lumbermen's Association, Santa Borbara, November 7-8.

It is indeed pleasing to relax here today in this alluring environment and enter into serious consideration of the problems of the industry which takes a definite and essential part in the development of this great Commonwealth -thC State of California. We may well diverge from the topic assigned to your speaker to offer an expression,of approval tb the committee in selecting Santa Barbara for thirty-two divisions of the National, as it would require the sending of sixteen thousand individual letters from the National office in order to convey to each subscribing member the information which our National office deems valuable for the members. this meeting and the Biltmore Hotel with all of its distinctive charm as the ideal place for holding this, the twentyfirst Annual Convention of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association.

Each letter costs at first class postage rates including paper and envelope, over four cents. A bit of arithmetic indicates this cost as over six hundred dollars per letter. As the National sends out more than an average of one information letter per week for the whole year, thg actual cost of this proceeding would be over $30,000.00. The National has been aiming to keep their annual budget under $22,000.00 so here you have the reason stated why you, as individual members do not receive direct correspondence from our Washington office. In this division, the National deoends on the secretaries of the Northern and Southern gtbrpr in California to send out the bulletins containing such information as will be of interest and value to you, the members.

The organization of the National consists of thirty-two divisions. The State of California is one of these divisions. The membership in California now is nearing the 600 mark. For further illustration the State of Texas with nearlv 2000 vards is a division. The States of Montana, Washington,'C)regon, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah with about 85O members is another division. This latter division is the territory covered by the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association. This illustrates that the divisions are composed of the existing regional associations.

The committee requested your speaker to lay before you here today some of the outstanding features of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association of which this State Association is an accredited member. According to the bylaws of the National, all of the members of each acr:redited association are the subscribing members of the National, and you, as members of the National, are entitled to all the benefits of its work. The correspondence to you individually, must necessarily come through your secretary. In explanation of this matter of conveying to you indivr4ually the information coming from the National office at Washington, it is perhaps pertinent to state that this information must come through each one of the group offices of the

It is quite appropriate here to mention the National budget. Eaih year at the annual meeting in Washington, a budget committee is appointed and the assessments are allocated in an equitable manner. The assessment for California for 194O was $1,300.0O, which amount has been fully paid. This costs less than one cent per day for each yard member's share in the program of the National.

The budget is far too small to permit the National to do a real; full and complete job. Think of it ! One cent per day ! At this rate it means only one five cent cool summer drink in five days. Let me say here, that your speaker as the California representative on the National has advocated a National budget of $50,000.00 annually. This could, and should be raised easily as it u'ould mean but $3.00 per yard per.year for all of the member yards of the regional assoc1at10ns.

The president of the National is Roger S. Finkbine of Des Moines, Iowa. Why is not our National president here today? The ansr,r'er is the National has nothing set up in