Walk into a World Floor Covering Association board meeting and you can’t help but be impressed. About 30 people, each successful in his or her own right, striving for the betterment of this industry.

WFCA members are in good hands. In no particular order, there’s Sam O’Krent, who is said to have one of the finest showrooms in the industry. There’s Aaron Pirner, who is doing as much as any retailer in the move toward B2B. There’s Keith Campbell, chairman of Mannington Mills, who is also the current chairman of the Floor Covering Industry Foundation (FCIF). There’s Bob Weiss, president of All-Tile, one of a handful of $100 million flooring distributors. There’s Terry Wheat, president of RFMS, who has done more to move retailers into 21st century technology than anyone. There are even people like Paul Pumphrey, the only person to serve as president of both of WFCA’s predecessors: the Western Floor Covering Association and American Floorcovering Association.

Believe it or not, a WFCA meeting is all business. Current chairman Brooks Mancini, B.T. Mancini Co., sees to that. Business is discussed and chitchat is kept to a minimum.

I recently was honored to sit in on the recent WFCA meeting in Austin, Tex.— honored because the door is most often closed to the press. Here are some random nuggets worth mentioning:

I was able to get a sneak peak at Beautiful Flooring, WFCA’s consumer magazine that hits the streets at the end of October. A Meredith Special Interest Publication, this is the first true, exclusive flooring publication to reach consumers. Trust me when I tell you it is top shelf and will succeed in driving customers to WFCA member stores. Board member Mitchell Brown, owner of French Brown in Dallas, believes this initiative will drive more consumer dollars to floor covering “than anything we’ve ever done before.”

Mannington’s Campbell discussed some PR efforts that are designed to bring more dollars to the FCIF. Interestingly enough, he said an equally pressing issue is the lack of applications for grants. One board member jokingly noted, “Only in this industry can we have a hard time giving money away [to people in need].”

I asked the board collectively about WFCA’s most significant initiatives in recent years. If 30 people would have responded I may have gotten 30 answers. As it was, a plethora was thrown at me. Pirner cited B2B. Former president Gary Wasmund talked about the white paper that dealt with combating moisture in commercial environments. Counsel Jeff King talked about the recently produced green flooring primer. Dennis Blake noted how the trade scholarships have helped WFCA members simply be better. Cammie Weitzel, WFCA general manager, is especially proud of the organization’s efforts earlier this year in Washington to have the tax on bamboo flooring imports repealed. And there was much more.

Whatever the case, I came away with one thought: If I were a retailer, the first thing I’d do is join this association which does so much for so many.