By Matthew Spieler
ST. LOUIS—Recognizing that sometimes one voice is better than two, the industry’s leading wood associations—the National Wood Flooring Association ( NWFA) and NOFMA, the Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association—have merged their operations into one organization under the NWFA banner.

“NOFMA brings more than 100 years of experience to NWFA and has a solid reputation within the wood flooring industry,” stated Ed Korczak, NWFA’s executive director and CEO. “We welcome its contributions and expertise.”

The agreement took place last month at NWFA’s headquarters here. More than 50 mill representatives were in attendance to witness the signing of the agreement by Ken Schumacher, NWFA’s chairman, and Bob Haggard, NOFMA’s president.

The reason for the merger was simple, Korczak explained. “For quite some time now, NWFA and NOFMA were appearing together to promote the same issues— he illegal logging ban is a perfect example. Both organizations appeared before Congress to present similar material, and discussions began that the industry might be better served if we spoke as one voice on behalf of the industry as opposed to two separate entities.”

As a result, NOFMA as an entity no longer exists, but its programs, people and spirit live on as part of NWFA. The NOFMA staff will become part of the NWFA staff. NOFMA had only three direct employees at the time of the merger. Two of them, Regina Thornburg and John Ryder, are staying on as NWFA employees. Ryder was NOFMA’s mill inspector and will continue in that role, while Thornberg, who was NOFMA’s office manager, will continue to offer office support and will also help coordinate NWFA schools. Also, Haggard and Tommy Maxwell, vice president of NOFMA’s board, will join NWFA’s board.

NOFMA’s programs also remain in place, such as grading standards, except it will now be monitored by NWFA. “NOFMA developed these standards,” Korczak said, “and has done an outstanding job maintaining them, so we want to present continuity for those manufacturers that have come to rely on these standards in their grading processes.”

As part of being able to keep the continuity, NOFMA members should have no problem blending into NWFA. At the time the consolidation took place, NOFMA had 18 members, and all but one was already an NWFA member.

For more on NWFA, call 800.422.4556.