From the Executive Director: May 2024

May 2024

Forest Products EXPO 2025 Booth Sales

The date is set, and now we need YOU! That’s right: exhibit booth sales for the 38th Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Exposition open Tuesday, May 14!

The SFPA team, in conjunction with the EXPO Advisory Committee, has been hard at work preparing to make the three-day biennial tradeshow, which returns to the Music City Center in Nashville from August 6-8, 2025, one of the best yet.

Booth space assignments will begin Monday, June 24, 2024, and shall be assigned based on:

  • Membership in SFPA.
  • Exhibitor priority points.
  • Date of receipt of the application/contract and deposit at SFPA.
  • Space size and availability.

 

SFPA associate member exhibitors and EXPO 2023 returning exhibiting companies receive discounted exhibit space rates for applications received before July 19, 2024. Not an SFPA member yet? Click here to explore the benefits!

We recommend you whitelist the following domains to ensure you don’t miss any important Forest Products EXPO news:

  • com
  • org
  • com
  • com
  • com

 

Have questions about the show? Visit SFPAexpo.com or email expo@sfpa.org. We can’t wait to see your booth application!

2025 Unified Export Strategy Nearly Complete

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) funds provided to American Softwoods (AMSO) cooperators, which include APA – The Engineered Wood Association, SFPA, and the Softwood Export Council, under the Foreign Market Development Program and Market Access Program are used to support Southern Pine lumber and American softwood market development in overseas markets.

A large part of how we secure – then use – those funds is driven by our Unified Export Strategy, or UES, which is a consolidated application and roadmap of how the three organizations listed above will deploy that funding to promote Southern Pine and other American softwoods at more than 15 international tradeshows and countless other seminars and trade missions each year.

SFPA has been collaborating with APA and SEC the past few weeks to develop another robust strategy for 2025, so stay tuned for updates on funding and details of our UES!

Welcome New Members

Welcoming new members to SFPA is one of the biggest joys the team and I get to celebrate, and we’re proud to welcome three new members this month! As you know we like to say, We’re Strong Together, and we can’t wait to see what these newest members bring to our association and the greater Southern Pine lumber community!

 

Coming Soon: Association Management System

With the launch of the redesigned and restructured SouthernPine.com website, the SFPA has turned (part of) its attention to establishing an association management system (AMS). As SFPA membership continues to grow and our resources and promotion efforts expand, maintaining clear, efficient, and organized communication, from invoicing to EXPO, industry statistic delivery to communities for our members to exchange ideas, is paramount to our – and your – success!

We’re in the early stages of identifying the right software to achieve this, but know we’re thinking of what will work best for you! We plan to launch this new feature before the end of the year, and, rest assured, we’ll have lots of training so you know how to leverage this new benefit. Stay tuned!

Get the SFPA News You Need

Everyone receives lots of emails every day. We get it! SFPA has always tried to be conscious of and kind to your inbox. But we’re taking that a step further with the launch of our preferences center, which you can find at the bottom of our Lumber Shorts emails.

So before you hit unsubscribe and miss out on important communications from SFPA, you can now update your preferences and receive only the emails you want! It’s as simple as scrolling to the bottom of Lumber Shorts and clicking “Update Your Preferences.” Once you do that, you’ll receive an email from MailChimp, asking you to confirm your contact information and select which email updates you’d like to receive.

We hope this will help you in your journey to achieve (or come close to) Inbox Zero while still receiving the information you need to grow!

Promotional Activities

SFPA is always somewhere in the world representing the industry and promoting the benefits and best use of Southern Pine. We’ve had and will have a busy few weeks with the following events: