The Cabinet Makers Association (CMA) announces that their upcoming regional event, which will be held May 18-19, 2016 in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is filling up fast.

The CMA has been hosting high-value events such as this since 1998 as a means of connecting similar-sized shops around North America with the purpose of sharing best practices and business acumen, while learning how other businesses do what they do. The regional events typically involve plant tours, educational seminars, networking, and simply a chance to talk shop and share issues, solutions and even projects.  Although they are dubbed “regional”, these events typically draw attendees from across the country as well as Canada.

The May regional event will begin in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN on Wednesday, May 18. The day’s agenda includes a tour of Anderson Corporation's window plant, a visit to the 3M Innovation Center and CAM Center, as well as a plant tour of Navy Island. The day will conclude with a wrap up discussion over dinner at the hotel followed by a brief educational presentation. On Thursday, May 19, the group will travel to WalzCraft Industries in Lacrosse, WI for educational presentations and a plant tour. Finally, the group will head north to Blaine, MN to tour Northland Woodworks and enjoy a BBQ dinner.

The CMA offers this event to members for a bargain price of $50, while non-members are only $75 per person. For more information and to register, visit www.cabinetmakers.org/events.html
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For out-of-town guests considering attending the event, the CMA has secured a block of rooms at the Embassy Suites Bloomington. The deadline to secure a hotel room at the discounted rate of $149/night is May 3, 2016.

The Cabinet Makers Association (CMA) is pleased to announce that they now offer discounted rates for students and instructors of wood manufacturing programs to join the association and/or attend regional events.

The newly established membership rate is $50 for 6 months, and then attendance at a regional events is free. If a student or instructor simply wants to attend an event and not join the association at that time, then the registration fee for the two-day event is $25.

“Since education is one of the premises of the association, it is only natural that we would want to extend our membership offerings to students and their instructors,” explained Amanda Conger, the newly appointed Executive Director of the CMA.

“Getting involved in the industry will help students learn more,” added Matt Krig, current President of the CMA’s Board of Directors and Owner of Northland Woodworks in Blaine, MN. “By connecting with established business professionals, the students will discover first-hand what this line of work is all about.”
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Students and instructors who wish to apply to join the CMA may do so at http://www.cabinetmakers.org/membership.html

The CMA’s March 15-16 regional event in Dallas, Texas was BIG, of course. 
 
The first day of the event the group toured local woodworking shops, which were BIG compared to what CMA members are used to.  But the size of the shop doesn’t affect how much you can learn from it; big or small, you can always learn something.
 
The first visit was to Long Star Cabinet & Millwork in Greenville, Texas. The business was started in 1992 in his garage, and now employs 32 workers to produce 80 cabinets a day. Lone Star recently bought a CNC machine to increase their production capacity, and also gained quality as an added benefit.
 
The second visit was to Advanced Fixtures (AFI) in Farmersville, Texas. Although AFI was significantly larger and more automated, the company also started in a garage. One takeaway from this tour was that each work stations was stocked with only the materials, hardware, and tools needed for that that day’s production requirements.
 
The last visit of the day was to H. H. Ruseau in Dallas, Texas. H. H. Ruseau produces the Holly Hunt line of high-end furniture and has design showrooms in major cities across the country, as well as London. Their production process was primarily hand-crafted and they realize the need for lean and automation.
 
The second day of the event was spent in Stiles Machinery’s regional showroom, participating in educational seminars as well as seeing their BIG machinery in action. The seminars covered topics such as cabinet door manufacturing and justification, the dos and don’ts of edgebanding from a maintenance standpoint, an introduction to zeo edgebanding, an overview of Industry 4.0, and proper ways to prepare product prior to finishing.
 
The majority of the attendees were from Texas, with the exception of one who made the trip all the way from Ontario, Canada. These frequently-held regional events continue to draw visitors from across the country and continent, regardless of the physical location.
 
The next event is planned for May 18-19 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN and LaCrosse, WI.  Then we head to Boston in mid-June. For more details and registration information, please visit: www.cabinetmakers.org/events.html

​Question: Our company has recently instituted a new policy for requesting time off when another employee is already scheduled off and/or an employee who covers for the new requester’s time off will be covering someone else and/or on vacation themselves consecutively with the new request. We have limited employees and only a few employees that cover for other employees. We have implemented that no two employees may be off at the same time and that all employees must review the vacation calendar prior to submitting a request for time off.  All employees have access to the vacation calendar and it is updated each time a request has been approved. If an employee needs to request time off during either of those situations, we have requested that the employee provide a reason that they need off so that we can make a determination whether or not to approve the request.
 
We have one employee who refuses to provide a reason and is requesting time off when another employee is already scheduled to be off.  The person who covers for the newly requesting employee is off on the day after she would be required to cover for the newly requesting employee if she was granted time off. She refuses to give a reason, just states, "it’s personal," and therefore we have stated we could not approve the time off. We do not normally request a reason when employees request time off, only in this special circumstance do we ask a reason. We have been having many issues arise when we give two or more employees off at the same time in the past and have instituted this new policy as a way to avoid this issue in the future. All employees were notified of the change in December, prior to the institution of the change. Can we deny her request for a personal day if she does not provide a reason?
 
Response: We are not aware of any law prohibiting the employer from denying a vacation request under the circumstances you describe. You advise that the employer asks employees to disclose the reason for time off requests only when there would be a resultant lack of coverage if the request is granted, which is something the employer is willing to allow only in emergent or other legitimate cases (and we trust this includes cases where the time off may be required by law, such as to accommodate a disability or sincerely held religious belief, or for jury, witness or military service, etc.). To the extent the employer's policy is clear on this issue (and you indicate that it is), and an employee is refusing to disclose the reason for her request, we are not aware of any law that requires the employer to grant it based only her assertion that "it's personal." Indeed the employer cannot ascertain from such a vague explanation whether the request for time off is protected by law, and where it is not (and the employee would need to let you know if it was), the employer is not required to grant the time off as requested pursuant to your company’s policy (which you advise grants the employer some discretion here). The employer must ensure, though, that a time off denial in this situation is consistent with employer policy and practice to avoid discrimination concerns.
 
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The Woodworking Machinery Industry Association (WMIA) presented its 2016 Wooden Globe Educator of the Year Award to Scott Nelson, president of the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America (WCA). The award ceremony was held April 14 during the annual Woodworking Industry Conference at the Marriott Casa Magna Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

The WMIA Educator of the Year Award recognizes Nelson’s leadership of the WCA, a not-for-profit organization created to address the woodworking industry’s critical skilled worker shortage through the development of industry-recognized skill standards. Under Nelson’s direction, the WCA has developed observable and measurable performance standards and assessments for more than 240 woodworking machine operations. In addition, WCA has enrolled 125 secondary and postsecondary institutions as EDUcation® members, issued over 1,000 WCA passports, and trained more than 180 accredited skill evaluators. Perhaps most importantly, all of these key program metrics are continuing to increase.

Bill Esler, associate publisher and editorial director of Woodworking Network, nominated Nelson for the prestigious award. In presenting the Wooden Globe, Esler praised Nelson as a “tireless worker” for directing the Woodwork Career Alliance’s advancement. “Scott is one of the treasures of the woodworking industry,” Esler said.

“Winning the Wooden Globe Educator Award is a great honor for the WCA and the many dedicated professionals working behind the scenes to make this program a success,” Nelson said. “I thank the WMIA and its members for recognizing our efforts and for helping to raise awareness of the WCA’s activities to develop and promote skill standards that can be used to help the industry recruit, retain and reward woodworking professionals for their achievements.”  
 
The WMIA, based in Alexandria, VA, is a trade association representing importers and distributors of woodworking machinery and ancillary equipment in North America. Nelson and the WCA join nearly 30 other woodworking educators and institutions that the WMIA has recognized for excellence through its Educator of the Year Award since 1988.
 
About the Woodwork Career Alliance
The Woodwork Career Alliance was founded in 2007 as a 501©(3) non-profit corporation and is governed by a volunteer board of directors. The WCA’s mission is to develop and administer a unified set of Skill Standards for the Wood Industry. Since 2011, WCA has developed observable and measurable performance standards and assessments for more than 240 woodworking machine operations. In addition, WCA has issued more than 1,000 Passports, a portable, personal permanent record documenting each holder’s record of achievements as a woodworking professional. More than 125 high schools and post-secondary schools throughout North America are WCA EDUcation® members. To learn more about the WCA and how to get involved with its programs, visit www.WoodworkCareer.org

​Scott Nelson, president of the Woodwork Career Alliance, winner of the 2016 WMIA Wooden Globe Educator Award, is flanked by Jason Howell of Michael Weinig Inc., chairman of the WMIA Education Committee, left, and Bill Esler, associate publisher of Woodworking Network.

Biesse Group would like to thank all of you who attended our Grand Opening event and celebrated this very special milestone with us.  Biesse hosted a large group of manufacturers from across the United States and Canada on April 7th and 8th for the  official opening of our new 23,000 sqft showroom.  Attendees were given demonstrations on over $3 million worth of cutting edge Biesse and Intermac machinery, a variety of educational seminars on leading industry topics, as well as the opportunity to work with 35 partner companies including tooling, software, banding, finance, etc.
 
Event Highlights:

• Over 500 attendees visited the showroom
• In excess of over 700 machine demos over the 2 day period
• Over 1,500 meals served
• Over $30,000 in Biesse Group Bucks given away
• Two roundtrip tickets to Italy winner, Jeff Stanway from O’keefe Inc.

  
“The third phase is now complete and devoted to a new 23,000 sqft state of the art showroom fully equipped with machinery designed to host custom demonstrations, in-house events like our popular Inside Events and educational events,” said Federico Broccoli, Biesse America and Canada President/CEO.  “The entire Biesse team was honored to have such an exceptional response to our invitation to join us for this very special occasion.”
 
Biesse Group would like to convey our sincerest apologies to all of the companies who were not able to join us due to our reaching maximum capacity.  If you were not able to participate in the Grand Opening, we are excited to
extend a special invitation to join us May 12th and 13th for the Encore Event.  We will be sending out additional
information and again, we apologize that we were not able to accommodate everyone for last week’s event.
 
For additional information please feel free to contact us at 704-357-3131 ext 5001 or via email at marketing@biesseamerica.com
 
Biesse Group
 
Biesse Group is a multinational leader in the technology for processing wood, glass, stone, plastic and metal. It designs, manufactures and distributes machines, integrated systems and software for the producers of furniture, door/window frames, components for the construction, ship-building and aerospace industries. It invests on average 14 million Euros per year in R&D, boasting over 200 registered patents. It works via 8 industrial sites, 30 branches, 300 agents and selected resellers, exporting 88% of its production. Its customers include some of the most prestigious names of Italian and international design. Founded in Pesaro in 1969, by Giancarlo Selci, the company has been listed on the Stock Exchange (STAR segment) since June 2001. It now counts 2800 employees throughout the world.

​Festool USA has just announced its first ever product tour schedule, the Festool Roadshow, which will be powered by a 48’ truck making numerous stops throughout the United States in 2016 with Canadian tour stops being added later in the year.  The tour has been designed to give craftsmen across North America a first-hand look at everything that's currently available - and upcoming -- with Festool. Widely regarded as the superior brand among remodelers, carpenters, cabinet makers, furniture builders and painters, the Festool Roadshow will be showcasing recent product introductions and future product previews as well as a broad range of Festool’s award-winning product line.
 
“The Festool Roadshow is our way of taking our professional tool solutions out into the marketplace, where craftsmen can experience first-hand, how to do their jobs better and in less time,” says Steve Rangoussis, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Festool USA. “We understand that because our products – and the Festool system approach - simply do things that others cannot, it’s important to give users the opportunity to see them demonstrated.”
 
The Festool Roadshow will give many professionals the opportunity to experience:
 
VAC SYS System: Introduced earlier this year, the VAC SYS provides proven, vacuum-based suction clamping and is a highly effective and ergonomic work platform for nearly any project. Effectively clamp material or a workpiece for effortless machining and finishing while protecting delicate surfaces from clamp damage.
 
Dust Extractor CT SYS: Available May 1st, the CT SYS is ultra-portable and compact, yet loaded with features such as Full Unit HEPA Certification, tool-triggered operation, high-performance suction, and Systainer integration. The CT SYS is ideal for remodelers and painters who need the utmost in portability, yet without compromise in function
 
Festool’s line of award-winning tools: From the TSC Cordless Tracksaw, Conturo Portable Edgebander, ETS EC Brushless Sanders, PDC QuaDrive Drill, and Domino Joiner to the entire line of CT HEPA Dust Extractors.
 
Festool Roadshow begins this week in Charleston and West Columbia, SC, and continues on to GA and throughout the United States. For a complete schedule through the first half of 2016, go to http://festoolusa.com/roadshow/ - additional tour dates will be added in the coming weeks.
 
About Festool USA
Founded in Germany in 1925, Festool is known for its innovative, precision-engineered power tool solutions.  Based in Lebanon, IN, Festool USA offers a comprehensive lineup of power tools and system accessories, designed to boost productivity through efficiency and high performance. For more information, visit www.festoolusa.com.