Members, supporters, friends and guests of the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. (SCTPA) assembled here January 29-31 for the group’s 11th annual meeting, conducted with the theme “Adjusting to Changing Opportunities.” Orchestrated by outgoing chairman Tommy Barnes and President/CEO Crad Jaynes, the event was a mixture of entertainment, enlightenment, networking and inspiration. Total attendance was around 240.

Recession? What recession? These are boom times for Singleton Forestry Services, LLC, a mechanized planting and spraying operation out of west central Georgia. “Two of the best years I’ve had are last year and this year,” says owner Steve Singleton. “Next year should be good, too.”

Documented by the U.S. Bureau of Corporations in a monumental report of 1914, Southern lumber companies, national lumber companies and railroads formed an interlocking network that gave credence to the Brotherhood’s claim that they battled not independent lumber companies but a “Southern lumber trust.” As labor historian Geoffrey Ferrell accused (and to an impressive degree, substantiated), this linked network of companies was involved in “undermining competition, fixing prices, curtailing production, manipulating the press, influencing legislation, and battling labor organizations.” Ferrell documented that the lumber companies traded with each other, exchanged personnel, sat on each other’s boards, ex­changed information, socialized with each other, and ar­ranged for sons and daughters to marry each other. The networking was formal and informal, economic, financial, social, and familial.

The dictionary defines the word opportunity as a “chance for progress or advancement.” So if opportunity is a chance, it obviously involves some risk. And not everybody embraces risk with confidence. Someone has described opportunity as an “Olympic class sprinter with a beard,” saying it is much easier to catch coming than it is going.

Of course I look familiar; I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator. Hey, thanks for letting me use your bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.

When a machine fails, the result is downtime and repair costs. Making a repair, without analyzing the cause, can result in further costs. Avoid this by following eight steps to gather the facts, determine a sequence of events and then identify and correct the root cause.

Momentum is building rapidly for Timber & Biomass Expo Southeast, a live/static event where providers of forestry equipment, technology, supplies and services interact with customers and potential buyers. The show begins on Friday morning, June 11 and concludes the next day. It takes place on a Langdale-provided tract located a dozen or so miles east of Valdosta, Ga. and four miles south of the intersection of U.S. highway 84 and Georgia highway 135.