Mar^h 25, 1922 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



35 



Veneer and Plywood Merger Effected 



Members of Industry Meeting at Chicago Select H. Brooke Sale as President; 



M. Wulpi Will Be Commissioner of Reorganized National Body; 



Reorganization Is Expected to Bring About Greater 



Efficiency in Handling National Problems 



The proposed merger of the National Veneer and Panel Manu- 

 facturers Association and the Plywood Manufacturers Associa- 

 tion was consummated at special meetings of the two associations 

 held March 1 4 and 1 5 respectively. The former association met 

 on March 1 4 and adopted a constitution and elected officers for 

 the merged association. This action w^as confirmed by the latter 

 association at a meeting on March 15. The meetings were held in 

 the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago. 



H. Brooke Sale of the Hoffman Bros., 

 Co., Fort Wayne, Ind., president of the Na- 

 tional Veneer and Panel Manufacturers 

 Association since the last December meet- 

 ing, was elected president of the new na- 

 tional association, w^hile H. E. Kline of the 

 Louisville Veneer Mills, Louisville, Ky., 

 was elected treasurer. 



According to the constitution and by- 

 laws of the merged associations, the other 

 officers w^il! consist of vice-presidents who 

 are heads of the various groups amalga- 

 mated in the national and a "Commission- 

 er," paid by the national, whose function 

 it will be to direct activities peculiar to 

 the national. 



The executive committee w^ill consist of 

 the president and treasurer of the na- 

 tional body, together w^ith the vice-presi- 

 dents, or, in other words, the presidents of 

 the member associations. Thus the first 

 executive committee will comprise Mr. 

 Sale, Mr. Kline, H. J. Barnard of the Cen- 

 tral Veneer Company, Indianapolis, Ind., 

 president of the Quartered Oak Veneer 



Manufacturers Association, and F. B. Ward of the Hanson-Ward 

 Veneer Co., Bay City, Mich., president of the Plywood Manu- 

 facturers Association. 



The commissioner will be M. Wulpi of Chicago, head of the Cen- 

 tral Credit Bureau, Inc., and commissioner of the Plywood Manu- 

 facturers Association up to the date of the merger. The national 

 body will make a contract with Mr. Wulpi to be dated April 1. 



With the completion of the merger the old National Veneer and 

 Panel Manufacturers Association ceased to exist and its affairs were 

 all turned over to the new association. The Plyw^ood Manufac- 

 turers Association continues as one of the groups in the national 

 organization. 



Name Will Be Adopted Later 



A name for the new association will be adopted at a subsequent 

 meeting when a report on this subject will be made by a committee 

 selected by President Sale. It was suggested at the merger meet- 

 ing that it be designated "The National Thin Lumber and Plywood 

 Association," but as there was some disagreement on the advisabil- 

 ity of dropping the w^ord "Veneer" it was decided to leave the 

 question to a committee and the judgment of a later and larger 

 meeting. During the interim the old name of the National Veneer 

 and Panel Manufacturers Association will be used. 



The merger w^as effected as a result of the desire of the members 

 of the National Veneer 6c Panel Manufacturers Association to have 



H. Brooke Sale, elected President 



a more efficient and compactly organized national association than 

 their organization happened to be. They thought that by reorgan- 

 izing so as to raise sufficient funds to secure an executive secretary 

 they might attain to this more efficient organization. 



The plan of the new organization was explained by Mr. Wulpi at 

 the meeting on March I 4. The national body, he said, will func- 

 tion on matters of broad general interest, such as traffic and pub- 

 licity, while the work which is of interest only to one or another 

 of the member groups w^ill be left to the 

 function of the group. Thus the entire 

 membership will be assessed to pay the 

 cost of the national functions, but the cost 

 of group functions will have to be paid 

 by group assessments. 



Mr. Wulpi also reported on the status 

 of collections for the proposed $50,000 

 national publicity campaign, which is 

 probably the most important matter to 

 which the new organization falls heir. A 

 total of $6,552.99 of the $50,000 has been 

 collected, he said. Of this, seventeen ply- 

 wood manufacturers subscribed $4,355.1 !, 

 four veneer manufacturers, $5 78.84 and 

 four members of allied industries, $ 1 ,- 

 619.04. Of these sums $1,642.26 has 

 been spent on the preliminaries of the 

 campaign. 



Kline Explains Merger Plan 

 A complete exposition of the nevi' plan 

 is contained in the report made by Mr. 

 Kline, who reported as chairman of the 

 merger committee of which Mr. Barnard 

 and Mr. Sale were also members. Mr. 

 Kline said, in part: 



"It w^as thought best by your committee that the nucleus of the 

 present association should be maintained with only a slight change 

 of title and that around it could be built such separate organiza- 

 tion as the necessities of the business and the expediencies of the 

 case warrant. Going into more detail, the plywood members are 

 not interested materially in the necessities or the activities of the 

 cutters. The cutters of birch are very little interested in the cut- 

 ting of gum or poplar. The cutters of walnut are not interested in 

 either of the above woods. The cutters of mahogany are perhaps 

 not interested in any of the foregoing, and we could go on and on. 



"The plan of operation as conceived is this that if the cutters 



of gum, or of birch, or of poplar, or of walnut, or of mahogany, 

 or of sawed quartered oak, deem it desirable from a costing or 

 statistical standpoint to have a separate organization, they may do 

 so, electing their own chairman or president as you may term him, 

 which officer becomes automatically a vice-president of the parent 

 body and a member of the executive committee of the parent body. 

 This your committee thinks desirable, as the individual manufac- 

 turers of whatever groups may be formed are more acutely in- 

 terested in the choice of their own executive than would be the en- 

 tire body of cutters or manufacturers, and by automatically mak- 

 ing this executive a vice-president of the parent body or the na- 

 tional association, each group is represented in the executive com- 

 mittee of the national association. 



"The commissioner or secretary will function for the parent 

 body as a whole and include in his duties such duties as the individ- 

 ual groups may require. His contract will be with the parent body 

 or the national association and he will be paid by the national as- 

 sociation. To provide the funds to carry out the above, assess- 



