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WTCA Update: Stress in the Workplace

  • Stress in the workplace can negatively impact productivity and cause burnout. 
  • Become familiar with the common symptoms of burnout to address it before it spreads to other employees. 
  • Burnout can be prevented by varying tasks, keeping a sense of humor and tackling one thing at a time.

Builder Banter

Success Is What You Make It

Readers Respond

In Memoriam

Reducing Risk with Automation

  • Almost without exception, each of these automated devices or improvements have been designed to make the truss or wall building process more convenient, faster, more productive, more accurate, of better quality, and less costly. 
  • One of the virtues of automated saws is their ability to set themselves up without intervention by the operator. 
  • Is your insurance provider aware of the improved safety that certain types of automation brings to your plant? If he isn’t, you should be leaning on him to give you a break! It could be significant.

Urban Rehabilitation: More than Meets the Eye

  • ISUS is an charter high school for troubled teens in Dayton, OH. 
  • The students learn traditional subjects as well as career skills they can use when they graduate. 
  • ISUS students are taught how to design and build wall panels, and also participate in on-site construction.

OSHA: A Welcome Visitor

  • In May 2004, Northeast Panel & Truss was in danger of being placed on OSHA’s Site Specific Targeting (SST) List. 
  • With the help of Ron Coons, the company pursued SHARP certification to clean up its safety record. 
  • Coons doesn’t believe there are any drawbacks to participating in SHARP. 
  • In May 2006, the company achieved SHARP certification and rewarded employees with a picnic.

One Tour at a Time: Carter-Lee Opens Plant to Jumpstart Chapter

  • Carter-Lee Building Components hosted WTCA-IN for a plant tour, showing them that joining forces is in everyone’s best interest. 
  • Steve Stroder thinks the downturn in 2006 woke some people up to the value of chapter participation. 
  • The chapter plans to focus on marketing their products and clarifying design responsibilities to building inspectors.

Publisher's Message: Grassroots: Our Past, Present & Future

  • This issue of SBC includes articles about grassroots activities around the industry. 
  • Features include the education efforts of the Iowa Truss Manufacturers Association and the Mid Atlantic chapter. 
  • Component manufacturers in Florida are helping an organization called Give Kids The World. 
  • Find out how the WTCA Board of Directors provides invaluable direction and strategic counsel to the staff of WTCA.

BCMC 2007: The Most Bang for Your Buck: Using BCMC to Make Purchasing Decisions

  • Smart shoppers compare products, quality and pricing in order to make an educated decision on their purchase. 
  • Smart shoppers know that BCMC is the most efficient place to get answers to all their questions in the same place. 
  • You will save time and possibly money if you purchase equipment at the show.

Build Strong Relationships: Tag, You're It!

  • Dean DeHoog recently welcomed Con-gressman Pete Hoekstra to tour Trussway’s Grand Rapids facility. 
  • The visit gave Dean an opportunity to show his lawmaker the importance of immigration reform. 
  • Thanks to their relationship, Hoekstra accepted an invitation to speak to SBC Legislative Conference attendees in Washington, DC.

WTCA Update: #1 CFSC Membership Recruiter

  • WTCA created a new competition to see who could earn the title of the #1 CFSC Membership Recruiter. 
  • With 17 new recruitments, Joe Odgers beat everyone’s best expectations. 
  • Joe’s appreciation of the values WTCA provides for its membership is what enables him to persuade new members to join. 
  • If you believe in WTCA and CFSC, now is the perfect time for YOU to get involved!

Builder Banter

A Senator, Firefighters & a Chapter: The ITMA Mission

  • The Iowa Truss Manufacturers Associa-tion (ITMA) is dedicated to teaching groups within its marketplace about components. 
  • Over several years, ITMA has exercised its networking capabilities by reaching out to the framing community and local fire service. 
  • By putting competitive issues aside and working together, ITMA has spread a positive message about building components.

Mid Atlantic Wood Truss Council: United to Break Down Barriers

  • The Mid Atlantic Chapter of WTCA is using education to make a difference in the industry. 
  • Between presentations and plant tours, this chapter stays active year-round. 
  • Each attendee at the Atlantic Builders Convention received a copy of BCSI.

Florida Component Manufacturers Help Expand Give Kids The World Village

  • The Give Kids The World Village is the destination that many kids with life-threatening illnesses dream of. 
  • In 1998, component manufacturers from all over Florida donated 21 sets of roof trusses for an expansion. 
  • The Village will be undergoing another expansion, and members of the WFTA (WTCA’s West Florida Chapter) and FBMA are joining forces to help with the expansion by donating products and materials.

Standing Up & Being Heard

  • Bryan Hill stood before the California Building Standards Commission to defeat an amendment requiring truss placement diagrams to be sealed. 
  • WTCA staff realized that the Department of State Architects did not understand the professional liability that truss design engineers face when they seal layouts. 
  • In the end, Hill was successful in getting the requirement removed from the 2006 California Building Code.