Never do tomorrow what you can do today

Now is the best time to register for AWFS 2019, one of the year’s biggest industry trade shows, scheduled for July 17-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And it’s pretty easy to do. Just visit awfsfair.org and click the Registration button. A four-day ticket to the exhibit hall costs $30 before June 30. You can also book hotel and airfare through the site at discounted prices.

In my experience, it’s a bad idea to wait until the last minute because you’ll end up on a flight making multiple stops or at hotels farther away from the convention center. Trust me, a long commute in the middle of a Las Vegas summer is to be avoided.

The deadlines for the students competitions at AWFS – Fresh Wood and Turning to the Future – are May 1.

Fresh Wood is an industry-sponsored competition intended for the next generation of serious woodworking students who are anticipating a career in the wood and related industries.

Turning to the Future is presented by the American Association of Woodturners. There are two divisions, High School and Post-Secondary, with three categories each: Functional, Small Turnings and Open. For more, visit the AAW site at

www.woodturner.org.

For those who really want to plan ahead, the Cabinet Makers Association has scheduled its second national conference for March 4-6 in 2020 at the Q Center in St. Charles, Ill.

“The CMA’s first-ever national conference, held in March 2018, was a great experience for all attendees, so we decided to continue providing this additional benefit to our members,” the trade group said in a statement.

The theme will be “2020 Vision: A Clear View of the Woodworking Industry.” For more, visit www.cabinetmakers.org/2020.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes posted a yearly gain of 1.5 percent in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The slight gain for 2018 new home sales reflects solid underlying demand for homeownership,” Greg Ugalde, NAHB chairman, said in a statement. “Housing affordability remains a challenge across the country, but conditions have improved in early 2019, as illustrated by the recent uptick in builder confidence.”

The NAHB expects lower mortgage rates in the early months of 2019 will lead to additional new home demand.

Regionally, on a total year basis for 2018, new home sales declined 16 percent in the Northeast and one percent in the West. Sales rose four percent in the South and six percent in the Midwest.

The Hardwood Forest Foundation, established in 1989, has a new name and an updated mission. Now called the North American Forest Foundation, its goal is to support the forest products industry through education, promotion, and advocacy of science-based facts about sustainable forestry.

“As an organization, we’ve been focused on education at the elementary level. That certainly remains an important part of what we do, but in realigning ourselves as the NAFF, we’ve expanded our mission to have a greater impact on more areas – allowing us to be better collaborative partners with other organizations that exist,” Jeff Durst, NAFF president, said in a statement.

For more, visit www.northamericanforestfoundation.org.

This article originally appeared in the April 2019 issue.