The Southern Pine Council’s popular web site, www.southernpine.com, collected just over 1.2 million page views throughout 2006. Relevant content, easy navigation, and ongoing promotions continue to attract design-build professionals, homebuyers, consumers, and others who are interested in the latest Southern Pine information.

Once logged on to the home page, viewers learn how all about how to build termite-resistant homes, clean mold, and apply Southern Pine’s versatility to most any building project. The sidebar to the left offers a product locator, span tables, publications, product information, and much more. The product locator continues to gain popularity, attracting 75,800 visitors in 2006. Searches for dealers (57,718) and distributors (9,994) were both up some 7% over 2005. Attendance at SPC’s pair of e-classes for building professionals tallied 292 in 2006. And just over 100,000 PDF downloads of Southern Pine publications were made during the year. SPC’s site dedicated to raised floor construction continues to draw heavy traffic, as well. A total of 367,862 page views were recorded at www.RaisedFloorLiving.com during 2006; monthly activity notably peaked in correlation to the advertising campaigns conducted in Gulf Coast markets. Southern Pine Council promotions throughout 2007 will continue to steer visitors to the two sites. Be sure to check them out!

Hundreds of thousands of building professionals are reading about Southern Pine products in the 2007 editions of the Sweets Catalogs. Since 1906, Sweets has been established as the most comprehensive building resource for architects, engineers, and contractors (AEC). The Southern Pine Council has produced an informative 8-page insert that explains the species’ strength, versatility, and beauty. A full page is devoted to a description of the environmental benefits of building with wood. Six case studies are summarized, explaining why Southern Pine is the designer’s choice. Technical information covers Southern Pine grades, along with tables listing design values and span capabilities. Typical Southern Pine grade marks are illustrated, too. The back cover describes other SPC publications, services, and other resources available.

This material is now being distributed to 25,000 AEC firms. The residential edition of the catalogs goes to an additional 60,000 firms that include homebuilders, remodelers, designers and residential architects. Both the multi-volume AEC and residential catalogs come with a desktop directory, a handy reference to the inserts. SPC has descriptive ads in all 150,000 copies, with a brief summary of Southern Pine’s many attributes. Readers can then easily locate SPC’s 8-page insert within Division 6 of the catalogs, or go directly to www.southernpine.com for more information. Sweets offers its entire catalogs on a twin DVD set (another 50,000 copies), and SPC’s insert is there, too, complete with web links. Reprints of SPC’s insert are distributed at trade shows and seminars throughout the year. Request a copy of publication #240; a PDF download is available at www.southernpine.com.

SFPA welcomes LMI Technologies, Inc. of Delta, British Columbia, as its newest Associate Member. LMI is a global supplier of vision sensor technology for original equipment manufacturers. LMI’s DynaVision-branded products have set industry standards in 3D scanning for the wood processing industry. Since 1976, customer partners have engaged LMI to develop and deliver more than 50,000 sensors for numerous automated vision, control and measurement applications. Complete details about the company’s product line can be found online at: www.sensorsthatsee.com. Barry Dashner is LMI’s President of the Wood Division, and can be reached at 604/636-1019.

On February 22, Mark Walker will present "Buying, Selling or Expanding a Business", covering issues related to business appraisals, and strategies that can be used to transfer control of a business to employees or family members. ACF and FRA members will be on hand to discuss their transition tactics and experiences. For more information, contact ACF at 888/540-TREE, or visit: www.acf-foresters.org.