November 2020
WMIA Board of Directors Candidates wanted
WMIA will be conducting its annual elections at the 2021 Woodworking Industry Conference (WIC) in Coronado, CA, April 20-23, 2021, at the Hotel Del Coronado.
In 2021, the positions of Chairman of the Board, Vice-Chairman of the Board, and Secretary/Treasurer will be up for election. The open position of Chairman of the Board shall be filled by an Importer member; the position of Vice-Chairman of the Board shall be filled by a Distributor member; and the position of Secretary/Treasurer shall be filled by an Importer member. Additionally, there are three Board seats—one Importer, one Distributor, and one Associate—up for election, with the possibility of another Importer seat needing to be filled as well. The three seats up for election each carry three-year terms.
If you are interested in becoming more active in WMIA and would like to serve on its Board and would like further information, please contact Donte Shannon, WMIA’s President and CEO, at [email protected].
Training and education adjust during pandemic
“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought many day-to-day activities to a halt, but woodworking and technical training is continuing, both in person and online.
Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, is currently offering hybrid instruction. Students attend lab every other day. On their off days, students access videos and other learning resources online. When in class, students are required to wear masks and practice social distancing, said Patrick Molzahn, Cabinetmaking & Millwork program director. He has actually seen an increase in enrollment, and 80 percent of their students who had to delay graduation this past spring have returned and planned to finish by the end of October.
‘Over the summer, we created over three dozen videos of our demonstrations to replace face to face instruction,’ Molzahn said. ‘Contrary to previous productions which were highly edited, these are longer in length, but have been extremely effective at conveying the concepts and processes for specific machine operation. After four weeks, students are on par with previous groups.’
The hybrid schedule has allowed several students to obtain part-time work with area shops. They are getting paid and gathering experience, while obtaining the theoretical component from the school, much like a traditional apprenticeship would function.”
To read the full article, visit Woodworking Network.
Virginia Tech Housing Report – September 2020
Virginia Tech – U.S. Forest Service has published its housing market commentaries for September 2020. These commentaries contain in-depth data and comments on the U.S. housing market.
The housing report is a free service of Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the U.S. Forest Service. The reports are intended to help you gauge future business activity. All past housing reports are archived here.
To read past housing reports, click here.
Where Are They Now? Requests
To date, WMIA has awarded over $480,000 in financial support to students looking to continue their education in the wood industry. But once these scholarship recipients graduate, what happens to them? Do they stay in the industry or do they pursue another path? WMIA has recently begun profiling past scholarship recipients. We’re looking for more past recipients, so if you received a scholarship or know someone who has, please contact Olivia Mueting at [email protected].
Learn more about some of our past recipients by visiting here.
