Right to Practice on the Radar

At the 2009 NBFTA AGM, the ARPFNB announced that its membership has decided in favor of drafting ‘Right-to-Practice’ Legislation for forest practitioners in the Province of New Brunswick. They have hired legal counsel to help them in drafting legislation that will eventually be presented to the people of New Brunswick through a Private Members Bill in the New Brunswick Legislature.

At the NBFTA AGM we were invited to take part in this process and reserved decision until we could have a formal meeting to discuss this. That meeting took place today, April 22, 2009, and the Executive has decided that we need to be included in this process in order to have our voice at the table.

The current position of the NBFTA, with respect to this legislation, is that we neither support or reject Right to Practice Legislation. That is something that the general membership will decide in the future. Two members of the Executive will be involved in the process, representing the best interests on the Association.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks

Todd MacPherson, CFT
President NBFTA

CFE Opportunity: SFI 101 Webinar – April 24 2009

Following is an announcement for an SFI Webinar April 24 2009 (this coming Friday). Instructions to join in are included in the announcement.

The webinar will cover the following topics and will provide a comprehensive update of SFI Program progress:

* Provide an overview of forest certification
* Provide an overview of the SFI® program including the draft revised SFI Standard
* Present and discuss SFI labels and Claims
* Summarize the key marketing initiatives of SFI in North America, including consumer & customer research to date
* Present technical and marketing resources to support your company and certification
* Q&A session

This webinar is free of charge.

Feel free to forward this notice to anyone who may be interested.

SFI Webinar Series

Sustainable Forestry Initiative Masthead

March 17, 2009

Sustainable Forestry Initiative® 101 Webinar
Friday, April 24, 2009
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative(SFI) program represents a growing community of foresters, landowners, wood product and paper manufacturers, distributors and conservation organizations, among others, who are committed to improving forest practices globally. Over the past few months, we have had a growing interest among our program participants and certified companies for SFI Inc. to host a webinar to:

* Provide an overview of forest certification
* Provide an overview of the SFI® program including the draft revised SFI Standard
* Present and discuss SFI labels and Claims
* Summarize the key marketing initiatives of SFI in North America, including consumer & customer research to date
* Present technical and marketing resources to support your company and certification
* Q&A session

SFI Inc. President and CEO Kathy Abusow will lead this webinar and Q&A period on the basics of SFI. Attending this live, online session will enable participants to:

* explain the value of SFI to their customer and
* leverage the SFI brand into marketing plans.

The SFI 101 session – the first in a series of webinars coming in 2009. We invite you to please forward this invitation to all relevant staff, sales teams and training coordinators in your organization, and RSVP individually to lisa.fox@sfiprogram.org by April 10th, 2009. The webinar access information is found below.

Future topics in SFI Inc.’s 2009 webinar series will include Green Building, labels & claims, and the revised SFI Standard, among others. Please send suggestions for future webinar topics to karen.brandt@sfiprogram.org.

Webinar Access Details:

Topic: SFI 101
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009
Time: 1:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -04:00, New York)
Meeting number: 598 974 417
Meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)

Web conference link:

Please click the link below to see more information, or to join the meeting.

https://intercall.webex.com/intercall/j.php?ED=114359752&UID=0

Audio conference information: Provide your phone number when you join the meeting to receive a call back. Alternatively, you can call:
Call-in toll-free number: 1-866-5536252
Call-in number: 1-650-2514440
Conference Code: 8556904433

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Karen Brandt
Vice-President, Market Affairs
SFI Inc.

Contact Info and RSVP to:

Lisa Fox
Coordinator, Marketing

SFI Inc.

Lisa.Fox@sfiprogram.org

NBFTA Congratulates Brandon Hicks

Congratulations to Brandon Hicks, winner of the NBFTA Scholarship for 1st Year MCFT Students. The 18-year-old Sackville, NB resident is also the 2010 Graduating Class President.

left to right: Chris Finnamore, NBFTA Past President, Brandon Hicks, and Todd MacPherson, NBFTA President
left to right: Chris Finnamore, NBFTA Past President, Brandon Hicks, and Todd MacPherson, NBFTA President

This award is presented annually to 1st Year MCFT students who are residents of New Brunswick. To learn more about the criteria for this award please click here.

Again, congratulations to Brandon.