At the 2011 Woodworking Industry

Conference in Marco Island, Fla., there

was a smooth transition between outgoing

president, David Rothwell of Stiles, and

incoming president, John B. Henderson of

John Henderson & Co. LLC. The conference

was a successful event that showed that our

industry is slowly but surely coming out of

the worse recession any of us have ever seen.

In late August, the Woodworking Machinery

Industry Association headquarters, which had

been located on the outskirts of Baltimore for

more than 20 years, was relocated to New

Milford, Conn. The office is staffed by WMIA

executive vice president Riccardo Azzoni,

who brings almost 30 years of woodworking

machinery industry knowledge and more

than 20 years volunteer work with WMIA,

and member services manager Linda Nicklos.

This new team has been working together

with the WMIA executive committee, board

of directors and individual members to provide

the best possible service our association

can provide. At the same time as John

Henderson became president, John Park of

SCM Group America was named vice president

and Scott Mueller of E.B. Mueller Co.

became treasurer/secretary

John Henderson has had two primary

goals and commitments since taking office:

to increase association membership and to

expand WMIA’s contact with other like associations

in the woodworking field by attending

meetings, seminars and events throughout

the country.

As for John’s first goal, which he worked tirelessly

towards, WMIA has added 14 new members

to our roster since Jan. 1. Considering the

state of our industry, that is not a small feat.

Henderson and Azzoni were invited to

and attended the North American Building

Material Distribution Association’s annual fall

meeting last October in Nashville, Tenn., the

Closets Conference & Expo in Austin, Texas,

and the Industry Leadership Forum gathering

in February in Tampa, Fla. The WMIA was also

recently invited to the Dubai International

Wood Show 2012 where it was represented

by Henderson, increasing the international

exposure of our association.

A clear indication that our industry is improving

is the fact that the five largest exhibitors

have decided to return to the 2012 IWF. SCM,

Stiles, Weinig, Holz-Her and Biesse, all absent

at the 2010 event, have signed up for this

year’s show, bringing many other companies

with them back to Atlanta. The booth space

assignment is already ahead of 2010 and

there are still four months to go before this

important industry event.

Another way we can judge the economic

improvement is the registration for WIC

2012, which took place the first week of May

in Delray Beach, Fla. WMIA member registration

is far ahead of last year’s and our historically

most important event, the contact table

session, has already far exceeded last year’s

number with 36 companies (importers, manufacturers

and distributors) signed up so far.

The WMIA is still focused and dedicated

to the education side of our industry and it

has contributed to WoodLINKS USA since its

inception in the late 1990s. This support continues

today, both at the association level and

as part owner of the IWF.

In addition, the WMIA supports young people

that are interested in a career in the

woodworking industry through its education

foundation, which has donated tens of thousands

of dollars in scholarships through the

years, through colleges and schools that support

woodworking programs.

On the technology side, David Rakauskas of

Colonial Saw has brought our association into

the social media age with LinkedIn, Twitter

and Facebook accounts, while our marketing

committee, headed by David Ortmayer, has

been very busy with our advertising campaign

and bestowing our annual awards for Partner

of the Year, Educator of the Year, Excellence

Through Technology, and Innovator of the

Year. These awards were created several

years ago to recognize WMIA member companies

and non-members alike that have

excelled in the area of service and relationship

with distributors, educational matters

both within and outside their business, utilization

of member companies technology, and

innovation in the woodworking field.

The latest awards were presented at the

2012 Woodworking Industry Conference.