Hardwood Matters - National Hardwood Lumber Association

WHERE IN THE WORLDIS NHLANHLA CONTINUES ADVANCED LUMBERGRADING COURSES IN CHINANHLA recently completed its second Three-Day Advanced Lumber Grading Course held December 3-5 at the DongGuan Xing Ye Marketin Guangdong province. The sold out seminar attracted attendees from Dongguan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Qingdao as well as theUnited States including some of the top companies dealing with North American hardwood.The class was again taught by former NHLA Chief Inspector and Inspector Training School Director, Bob Sabistina. Twenty-three passingattendees (out of 25) received NHLA certificates during a graduation ceremony. Compared with the first class in Shanghai, the numberof Chinese wood distributors in attendance surpassed that of NHLA member representatives. This class also welcomed for the first time astudent from the Chinese furniture manufacturing industry representing Lacquer Craft Co., Ltd, the largest furniture manufacturer in China.DongGuan XingYe Market gave strong support to this activity by promoting the event through China timber websites and offering thetraining venue. Cathleen Xu from Mayfield served as interpreter for the class, while Shenzhen Tianrun provided the lumber and the venuefor the hands-on practice.Due to the success of the 2009 classes and the increased interest from Chinese users and traders, NHLA plans to continue to offer lumbergrading seminars in 2010. The classes will be held in Eastern China (Shanghai), Southern China (Guangzhou) and Northern China(Beijing) respectively – please see calendar on page 24. In order to ensure the quality of education, each class is limited to 25 students.Interested students are encouraged to enroll as soon as possible. For more information, please contact Crystal Oldham, Director of Educationat 901-507-0312 or c.oldham@nhla.com. Chinese inquiries can phone 021-65216751 or email nhla_china@yahoo.cn for more information.28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 HARDWOOD MATTERS WWW.NHLA.COM