Past President/Partnership Manager Amy Shields gave a presentation on activities AHUG has engaged in over the past year.

By Becky Polaski
Daily Press Staff

During Monday night's annual AHUG dinner, past AHUG President/Partnership Manager Amy Shields briefly addressed those in attendance regarding AHUG's 2007-2008 activities.

Shields detailed some of the marketing support activities AHUG has engaged in over the past year, including representing regional hardwood companies at trade shows, participating in initiatives to support the use of PA hardwoods in tourist promotion activities, and working to promote the use of PA hardwoods in state buildings and showcase opportunities.

AHUG has also been involved in government affairs advocating for multiple use management on public lands and coordinating discussions between various agencies on topics such as access, budget, and management plans.

"That's one of the things that I've always admired about AHUG is the way Sue runs her organization," said Shields. "There are a lot of us that are very busy. We've got a lot of places to be and not a lot of people to devote to the activities that we need to be present for. So when we can't represent ourselves [AHUG members] do a great job of representing us."

The Group was also involved with several activities relating to education and professional development. Not only was AHUG involved with coordinating and presenting Project Learning Tree Programs and coordinating industry input into the planning processes of land management agencies, but they also worked to inform students about careers in the lumber industry. Shields noted that students have been very interested to learn about what is done in the wood products business outside of logging and log truck driving.

"Industry representation is another area that just really boggles the mind as you start to look at the list of public policy and advisory committees that AHUG serves," added Shields.

While discussing AHUG wood and lumber industry partnership activities, Shields elaborated on some of the career awareness programs she had previously discussed and also described how AHUG had expanded membership from 34 to 38 organizations over the past year. She also noted the efforts that when into making it possible for the NHLA Lumber Grading Course to be offered in PA and stated that a training grant is available for companies to be reimbursed for a large portion of the tuition cost.

After her speech several awards were presented. Jim Chapman was presented the Chris Mullen Memorial, Blaine Puller was presented the AHUG Sandy Cochran Memorial Award, and John Grunwald was presented the AHUG Good Neighbor Award.