As the new chair of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, I am excited to have another opportunity to serve the associations that put me where I am today. I believe in LBM associations because I remember how valuable they were to my industry education. When I took over a one-acre, $300,000-a-year lumberyard in 1976, I didn't have the luxury of a lifetime's worth of family knowledge of the industry. But through my involvement in Mid-America Lumbermens Association and NLBMDA, I formed essential professional relationships and friendships with dealers and suppliers nationwide who gave me business insight into industry affairs. Thirty years later, that one-acre lumberyard has expanded to 10 acres over two locations, and $300,000 in annual revenue has increased approximately 100-fold. I owe a large part of that success to my involvement in MLA and NLBMDA.