The CFA Staff has recently sent out several surveys to its members; one to collect our thoughts on some of our competition, one to poll us about our historical experience of sill-plate connections and even one on the topic of certification. Is it worth your time to fill these questionnaires out and return them? Are the results of these surveys useful? Are they MVI, Most Valuable Information or just MIV, Minutiae in Volumes?

I remember sitting in a CFA Board meeting years ago when one of my all time favorite people and Past President, Ron Colvin, (this was well before his presidency) gave us his viewpoints. I think the acronym he used may have been PIA! Ron, never one to mince words, thought all surveys were a complete waste of time. He said that the few people who fill them out are probably lying! Ron may have been right, in fact he probably was right, about most surveys, but after years more experience with this group I am certain that he underestimated the members of the CFA!

Every time the CFA Staff sends a survey to our membership, the response is amazing. We get a much better return rate than we expect, along with invaluable additional comments, suggestions and a wealth of knowledge on the issues. The feedback we get helps us understand the issues, the problems, the future and the very basics of our business. With this information we can plan events, articles, and be better equipped to guide codes and standards.

In the following pages you will read the survey results from the sill-plate questionnaire conducted in February. I believe you will find these results very interesting as well as the information on how this knowledge is being used to shape our industry and the “rules” we must follow. This is just one more shining example of how willing our membership is to help our group and each other.

To those of you that responded to this survey, I thank you on behalf of the membership and the industry. To those of you that did not respond, I hope you see the benefits that are being derived from gathering this information and consider participating in future efforts. Based on the effectiveness generated by our initial three, there will be more, but we are committed to keeping them Valuable and brief.

What a group this is! I hope to see you all at Kalihari!