SURPRISE: At the recent StarNet convention, Lori Dowling, the consummate association director, made the startling announcement that she is in her final year of service and plans to retire in April of 2007. The president and CEO of the commercial flooring contractors group will have completed eight outstanding years with the organization, bringing to it momentous progress, significant growth and needed professionalism. When she joined StarNet it had 35 members, today it has 149 in 240 locations, including Canada. That’s progress, Dowling style. The board has an efficient transition plan in place; a national search firm has been retained and she is involved in the process. They hope to hire a replacement by January, so she could have four months to help indoctrinate the new executive and make the change a smooth one. That’s a classy lady.

GREAT PROMO: After an illustrious career in the public sector, Chuck Jackson joined a flooring retailer and intelligently combined the two vocations. He had been public information officer for the Maryland State Police, director of public affairs for the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and public affairs specialist with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Now, he is handling sales, marketing, advertising and promotions for O.C. Floor Gallery in Ocean City, Md. He has launched a highway safety campaign on U.S. Route 50 into Ocean City for all motorists to see: Floor It…But Not On The Highway.” That preceded “Cruisin’ Weekend,” which begins May 18, and OC Floor Gallery concludes the promotion by pledging portions of its sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day to local fire fighters and emergency medical services. OC is OK.

NEW BOOK: The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has released “Smart Investments: Developing Top Performers in Wholesale Distribution,” a book that focuses on training and cultivating personnel in that segment of the industry. NAW finds that human resource involvement among distributors is lacking and failure to train people to meet their needs will seriously hamper the process of finding and retaining top-quality employees. The book presents five tactics to remedy this shortcoming: Integrate training activity with business strategies; form partnerships with training personnel; develop a strategic training plan; engage everyone in training activity and hold each accountable, and utilize creative solutions to overcome obstacles. For more information or to order the book, call NAW at 202/872-0885.

CARE-ING: At its fourth annual conference earlier this month, The Carpet American Recovery Effort (CARE) announced record results in its annual survey. The study showed that 224.6 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from landfills in 2005, an increase of 108% over 2004. The convention was attended by recyclers, prospective entrepreneurs, members of the carpet industry, state and federal officials, and equipment manufacturers. CARE monitors the national carpet recycling efforts and charts progress toward the goals in the Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU), a national agreement signed by members of the carpet industry, government representatives and non-governmental organizations. CARE’s mission is to foster market-based solutions for recovering value from discarded carpet to meet the recycling and reuse goals of MOU. Serious business.

ADVICE: During lunch with a friend last week, we were discussing a retailer who was having problems with cash-flow. “I’ve been there,” he said. “Given a choice between building your business on large debt or facing a firing squad…choose the firing squad. There’s a chance the firing squad might miss.” Good friend.