Custom cabinetry trends

The Cabinet Makers Association has now posted its CMA Professional Certification Program curriculum classes and CEU sessions on the IWF Atlanta website, www.iwfatlanta.com, so those interested can see class descriptions and register for classes.
Three live CMA curriculum classes will be held each day of IWF, Wednesday through Friday, August 22-24, covering the materials that testing will be based on for those seeking a CMA certification. There are also four CEU sessions held at various days and time throughout the show. These sessions are open to everyone but discounts are offered for CMA members. For more information, visit http://cabinetmakers.org.

The Cabinet Makers Association is currently accepting entries through May 31 for its 2012 awards contest, which will now include a bonus prize offering from Columbia Forest Products for the use of its hardwood plywood product.
The awards program encourages woodworkers to enter their work in as many categories as they see fit, to be judged by a panel of volunteers from the woodworking industry. Projects entered in the 2012 Wood Diamond Awards competition that include the use of Columbia Forest Products PureBond hardwood plywood and mentioned that in the entry form will be eligible to win an additional cash prize from Columbia Forest Products as a Wood Diamond category winner. 
The awards will be presented at IWF in Atlanta, August 22-25. For more information on becoming a CMA member or entering the awards contest, go to www.cabinetmakers.org/member_join.html.

The Cabinet Makers Association will hold an eastern New York Regional Event and factory tour on Friday, May 11, at Taghkanic Woodworking.
As part of the CMA Professional Certification Program, Leland Thomasset will host attendees at his Taghkanic Woodworking shop in Pawling, N.Y., from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., for informative discussions on automating the small woodworking shop.
Two seminars will be held for small to mid-size shops. Mike Russell of Federated Insurance will present a session titled “Insurance 101: Controlling Your Business Insurance Costs.” Thomasset will present a seminar on “CNC Basics,” which will cover considerations in bringing a CNC machine into a woodworking shop, from necessary infrastructure, to software, to tooling, to fixturing and maintenance. There will also be ample time for discussion and questions after each presentation.
The event costs $20 for those who register in advance at http://cabinetmakers.org/2012MAY11_NY_PCP_Event.html or $35 at the door. 

The Cabinet Makers Association will launch its live core-curriculum class schedule for CMA certifications at the International Woodworking Fair 2012 on Wednesday, Aug. 25, with three class sessions taking place each day from Aug. 25 through Friday, Aug. 27. 
These educational sessions will be conducted by CMA members and other industry experts, with all subject matter related to business management.
Class sessions that will be offered at IWF 2012 include: Pricing 101; The Art of Pricing; Marketing 101 and Marketing 102; Basic Marketing and Advertising Techniques; Business Strategies in Changing Markets; Sales 101; Basic Sales Techniques; Finance/Insurance 101, Finance/Insurance 102 and Finance/Insurance 103; Seeing Beyond Numbers; Making your Business Attractive to Insurers (Insurance 101); Cost/Benefit Analysis Systems for Major Business Investments; Ethics 101; Ethics for Shop Owners; Wood 101; and The Basics of Wood Properties, Sawing, Shaping, Gluing and Fastening.
You do not need to be a CMA member of enrolled in its professional certification program to attend the sessions. For more information on CMA membership or the upcoming IWF seminars, email Dave Grulke, executive director, at director@cabinetmakers.org, visit www.cabinetmakers.org or read CMA’s member publication, PROfiles magazine, at http://editiondigital.net/publication/?i=102204.

The Cabinet Makers Association is now accepting entries through May 31 to its 2012 CMA awards program.
The program recognizes shops with “Wooden Diamond” awards for excellence in their respective categories and also awards custom certificates for placing within their category.
All CMA members in good standing may enter the competition in as many categories as they see fit. The awards will be presented at IWF Atlanta, which will take place Aug. 22-25. Volunteers for judging the awards will be sought in June, the association says.
To enter, go to www.cabinetmakers.org and click on the “Wooden Diamond” icon. 

The Cabinet Makers Association announced its last call to receive a complimentary copy of the results of its 2012 survey of the custom cabinet and woodworking industry.
To receive a free copy, subscribe to CMA’s monthly e-newsletter before March 1. Included is the full 24-page report, highlighting shop labor rates, annual sales volume, number of employees and shop sizes, pay rates for production and management employees, automated equipment usage and software preferences, as well as industry news and business management information in each monthly e-newsletter.
CMA says a trial subscription to the e-newsletter is free for requesting the information. To subscribe, go to http://visitor.eliteemail.com/?action=subctrl&bid=CA/1824&goback=%2Egmp_1790963%2Egde_1790963_member_95982525, and check the box that reads “2012 CMA Benchmark Survey Results Requested.”

The Cabinet Makers Association, with sponsors C.R. Onsrud, Microvellum and Cabinetmaker+FDM magazine, will host the Central Florida Regional Event on Feb. 10, as part of the CMA Professional Certification Program.
The event will take place at A Ward Designs, a CMA member-shop in Winter Haven, Fla. The event host, Kevin Ward, will demonstrate how CNC routers and software systems have automated his shop to work at peak efficiency. The event will also include a Q&A session on how shop owners and managers can benefit from enrolling in the CMA and its programs, and presentations on new media marketing techniques.
For more information or to register, please visit http://cabinetmakers.org/2012FEB10_FL_PCP_Event.html. 

The Cabinet Makers Association released initial findings of its woodworking industry survey, which in which 76 percent of woodworkers said they feel more optimistic about business prospects in 2102, while only 13 percent are expecting a decline.
The survey, which will be released in late 2011, also found that two out of three (67 percent) custom woodworkers reported that their businesses grew in 2011 and more than half (58 percent) reporting growth of more than 15 percent.
The goal of the study is to provide custom woodworkers with a set of benchmarks they can use to compare and manage their businesses to become more profitable and competitive. The 40-question survey seeks information on woodworking operations such as employee wage-ranges for various functions, facility size, presence of CNC equipment, business development and marketing practices, among other factors that will enable the CMA to cross-tabulate responses and provide the industry with a report that can be used to compare averages to individual situations. 
“While it’s fairly easy to get bits and pieces of the kind of information we are gathering in this survey, to have it in a useable form where a shop owner can actually compare his/her data to others in similar markets means more than just the numbers,” CMA executive director, Dave Grulke, said. “That means a shop owner can not only learn where they stack up, but where they can better invest their time, money and effort to significantly strengthen their business’ profitability. I’d urge every woodworking shop owner to take the few minutes needed to complete this survey. Adding your data in confidence will only strengthen the survey results.”
The CMA encourages all professional woodworkers to participate in the online survey in order to make the findings as accurate and useful as possible. Those who take the survey will be provided with the findings. To take the survey, go to www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22DRJTFZVVK?utm_source=EliteEmail&utm_campaign=Benchmark%20Survey%20G/A/P&utm_medium=email.