Excerpt taken from the weekly NADRA Industry Brief

December 21, 2010 | Thanks to everyone that attended Tuesday night’s Atlanta NADRA Chapter meeting at the Soho.

Special thanks go out to Timbertech for their generous sponsorship of what I believe to be one of our best meetings to date. Bill Georgelis and James Gunning teamed up to make a very informative presentation of their decking products and market forecast.

We had a full house which included several very special guests. Terry and Diann Dempsey, the founders of Deck Expo and Professional Deck Builder Magazine were in attendance. John Mortimer, the first President of NADRA was present along with our 2010 “Deck for a Soldier” customers, Captain Don Thompson and his wife Dana.

Michael Beaudry, NADRA’s Executive Vice President of NADRA was our keynote speaker and gave a great presentation and really helped strengthen the local and national membership connection.

Ginny Tibbetts, of Atlanta Decking and Fence Company, who has been the secretary and treasurer for our chapter since it’s inception, received a recognition award for her valuable contributions to the Atlanta Chapter. Ginny has devoted countless hours to our cause and has provided a lot of behind the scenes leadership. Her enthusiasm, willingness to help, and general wisdom have served this chapter beyond what any can realize. Keith Compton, who headed up our 2010 Deck for a Soldier campaign, was recognized for his contributions as well. Keith has been a valuable asset for our chapter and has put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to complete our first DFS effort.

I’d like to say thanks for all of us to Bobby Smith for his forethought and willingness to begin the formation of this local chapter and his contributions as our first president. In hindsight I realize we should have given him the recognition and acknowledgements he deserves long ago. He worked hard to get the ball rolling and to set this chapter up properly. I remember the first day we met as a group to discuss the idea and approach we might take. I remember how great I thought it was to finally begin to meet people I’d known of for years. It’s nice to see that as a team and association we can work together to continue the progress and expand on the foundation we started with. Mr. Smith, thank you so very much for your efforts and contributions to this Atlanta NADRA Chapter.

The truth is this chapter is blessed beyond belief when it comes to great people and great minds. The enthusiasm and spirit of this group is impressive to say the least. When you consider just who our members are, you begin to see the wisdom, experience, and knowledge present.

I believe the best is yet to come and that we’ll see great things happen in 2011. Thanks again to everyone for their support!

– Bobby Parks, NADRA Atlanta Chapter President

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