Are We Going to Be Okay?

Early in the day on September 11, 2001, in the midst of all the chaos, I talked to a family member who happens to be a structural engineer. “Tell me those buildings aren’t going to come down,” I said in a voice that was more filled with question than command. But a declaration was what I got in reply. “I can’t tell you that,” was the quiet answer I received about 10 minutes before the first one fell. I went looking for reassurance and found that, sometimes, the truth doesn’t give you any.

Although this is in no way a proper analogy, nor is it an attempt to trivialize the events of September 11 in any way, I did feel the need to go looking for answers after Arch Aluminum filed for bankruptcy late last month. Up to that point, even amid the rumors that had been swirling about for months, I’d felt that our industry was in the midst of some very, very tough times but that we would emerge from them okay. The Arch reorganization—that of a long-time, large, primary source fabricator—was a tsunamic event felt around our industry. It was unsettling. If Arch could file for bankruptcy, the thought process went, then was anyone safe? Would our industry come crashing down around us?

“Are we going to be okay?’ was the question I asked to a few very learned, most highly-respected leaders—the structural engineers, if you will—in our industry. I went again seeking reassurance, but this time I got it.

The new year is often a toast to hindsight mixed with expectation, followed by a chaser of predictions. So here are my predictions, based both on my observations and (hopefully) educated guesses, along with the opinions of those I value. Watch for:

1. Consolidation at the primary manufacturer level. I would not be surprised if we have one less primary manufacturer in existence by the middle of next year than we do as I write this. This consolidation will be the result of merger;

2. Increased influence among manufacturers. Along with such a consolidation will come an increased influence by certain primary manufacturers and fabricators over what companies make it in the business and which ones do not. Since the number of companies at these two levels are relatively small, they will have more control over which companies in financial difficulty are allowed to exist and which are not;

3. Operators under the “commodity” model will dwindle. The days of being able to sell volume are gone, at any level. Primary manufacturers and fabricators must differentiate themselves through value-added and specialized product in order to survive long-term;

4. Capacity will decrease. In addition to the effect of consolidation, lines are down due to refurbishment and low demand. The eventual effect will be reduced capacity and, as a result, increased prices. Some leading experts also said a glass shortage would not be out of the question. That sounds counterintuitive on the surface, but when you analyze it, it’s not;

5. A healthier industry in the long run. Survival of the fittest is cruel in nature or in business, but it leads to stronger, more vital players.

This has been a tough year for our industry. I am glad I got to spend it with you. I am very thankful for the people I get to work with—and work for. Even in tough times, the glass industry will survive. Are we going to be okay? Yes.

Happy New Year. It is an honor for us to work for you.

The Good 'Ole American Way

What do glass block and accidental deaths of children have to do with it each other? A lot it turns out.

I began this morning by picking up a few consumer news items that might have implications for the industries we cover. The first was about the President's schedule for today. As I write this, President Obama has just finishing speaking at a nearby Home Depot about buying energy efficient building products. It's a pool feed so we are covering it as part of the pool, but it's still been interesting to see the President focus on energy efficient products. He even made an attempt at a joke at their expense, opining as to how press secretary Robert Gibbs might be able to find at Home Depot to plug leaks (not too many people in the audience got it though) .... anyway, it should be an interesting story for the readers of our USGlass, and DWM-SHELTER magazines.

The second story was one that has gotten a lot of consumer press this morning. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC of safety glazing fame) has issued a massive recall of blinds --50 million in fact -- because they constitute serious strangulation hazard for children and babies. The report on NBC's TODAY show showed the very serious danger.

"I know the blind thing is peripheral to DWM readers ..." I started to say when I walked in the office. "Yeah, I saw it too and I'm on it," DWM publisher Tara Taffera shot right back. "It might help some dealers or installers identify problems and alert homeowners, so I think we should cover it," Tara added. In fact, she'd already written a story about it.

About an hour later I checked my inbox and sure enough, it didn't take long for one glass block company to make a marketing opportunity out of it. I usually don't comment on such pieces, but this one just left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to share. Only in the good 'ole USA could someone hear a baby strangulation story and attempt to make a marketing opportunity. Here's the first paragraph:

Obscure Acrylic Block Windows Eliminate Need for
Corded Window Treatments
Massive Window Blind Recall Has No Effect on Hy-Lite/U S Block Windows
PENSACOLA, FLA. – Following the announcement of a massive industry recall of corded window treatments, the experts at Hy-Lite/U S Block Windows are offering a no-cord alternative to potentially hazardous blinds.
“Homeowners add blinds and corded window treatments to their windows to obtain privacy and style,” says Roger Murphy, president of U S Block Windows. “Using acrylic block windows and interior shutters is the obvious choice for obtaining those same privacy results in the home, but with no risk to children of potential strangulation.
“The obscure nature of durable acrylic block windows --- both in fixed and operable styles --- means that homeowners can gain privacy without the use of corded window treatments or blinds. And, for those homes that already have clear glass windows, interior acrylic block shutters can be added to a window in just 20 minutes. Both products provide style to the home as well as a safe, secure product around children.”

Well the folks at Hylite get my dubious acheivement award for the week. Geez.

Date with a Hero

Last Wednesday was one of the most memorable days in my career as I got to spend a good portion of it with "Sully" -- Captain Chesley Sullenberger -- the U.S. Air pilot who, together with his crew, safety landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15th.

Sully was the keynote speaker at the fifith annual International Auto Glass Safety Conference, sponsored by the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards Council (the AGRSS Council) for which I serve as a volunteer leader this year. After a private breakfast with AGRSS-registered companies, Sully kept a crowd of about 4,000 glued to their seats and riveted by his recollection of his flight that day.

There's a lot parallels between the auto glass industry and the aviation industry, including the quest to reduce costs and the resulting ways this affects safety. (You can see one such example in the Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-13-2009/chesley-sullenberger. I was struck by them as I read Sully's book. (You can read my opening at the Conference here.)

All industries, especially the glass industry, are under pressure to reduce costs. AGRSS-registered companies pledge safety as their paramount concern. And they not only pledge to do the job right, they allow independent, third party validators to come into their shops and audit that committment.

The Captain understood this. "The AGRSS Council must have felt like a tea bag in an ocean when it started," he said. "I applaud your efforts."

He also understood the importance of safety. "I will be known in my life for this one event but, in reality, that event was one I had trained for and had to anticipate for many years."

Sully is the living definition of hero. But he is also a regular guy--a reluctant celebrity who has had fame foisted upon him by one extraordinary action. It was an honor to meet him.

GlassBuild Days Two and Three

Day two was noticibly stronger than the first day. It seemed that many people came in the for the show on Wednesday and spent the better part of Thursday there. Reaction among exhibitors was more mixed than usual. I took an informal straw poll while walking the aisles and here are the results. When asked how the show was going for them:

About 40 percent said it was a good show, and that they were very pleased;


About 40 percent said that it had exceeded their expectations. Most were quick to add, however, that their expectations had been nil given the economy;


About ten percent said it was not good at all for them;


and the other ten percent said that it was really too soon to tell. With trade shows, the proof is in orders that come in from it.



As for traffic, it's difficult for our booth staff to adequately assess as, try as we might, our booth somehow always end up in the hinterlands of the show (three rows from the end this year), but our editorial staff reported brisk traffic most of Thursday in certain areas of the show. So I don't think we'd be the best judge of traffic because we didn't have much ourselves.



What Thursday gave our industry was .... hope. There was still some business to be done out there. And there was more than one occasion when customer and exhibitor embraced in a joyous "we are both still here" hug that let you know that was just what both of them were thinking.



Reviews of the seminars were mixed with high marks given to the Energy Session and the Solar Panel with a great video into by Russ Ebeid. Judging by that video he'll be joining the 60 Mintues team any day now. Our ediorial staff will be covering the important ones in more in depth in future issues.

Day three was painfully quiet with very little activity, leading some of the familiar comments I've heard over the years to resurface ... GBA should be a two day show ... GBA should be every other year. Ending shows on Friday is always tough because everyone wants to get out of town and it did seem a much lighter traffic day than the last day of the show in 2008, which was on a Thursday.

It's Show Time

The first thing I noticed about Atlanta today was that the weather was beautiful. I was expecting to see canoes in the streets and water half way up the streetlights. But that, according to the cab driver, was last week not this week. He showed me some pretty high-high water marks in downtown while mentioning that the rain was 150 year rain. The city did a good job of clean up because you can't even tell there was flooding. At behind all that bad weather came the beautiful day we had today.
Tomorrow starts the glass show. Some people think of New Year's day as the beginning of the year; for others, it's September when school starts. For me, for the last 28 years at least, this show has always represented a new beginning .... more tomorrow.

Our Condolences

Well, it wasn’t the flu, but I got hit with a pretty nasty cold earlier this week. So I found myself calling in sick for three days, something I have not done before. Problem was, it was such a wicked cold that it was hard to function even from home.

This is how I have come to find myself in the office on the most beautiful of Saturdays, catching up on what I should have been doing all week … so please forgive me for being a day or two late in talking about John De Gorter, who died on Wednesday in North Carolina at the age of 81.

John De Gorter’s roots were in the glass industry. His father, Daniel was one of the largest importers of glass and glass products in the United States. After his death, John expertly predicted that increased need for fabrication equipment in this country as a result of improved and float production in this country. John felt that glass fabricating equipment would be in greater demand in the future. So in 1969, De Gorter Inc. began devoting its efforts to the sale and service of glass processing equipment.

Long before it was commonplace for foreign machinery companies to have representation in the United States, John De Gorter saw the need and filled it. The list of machinery his company has sold into the United States is too long to include and he was known worldwide.

On my first trip to glasstec in 1984, I was excited to try and meet with as many equipment and machinery manufacturers as I could. In every single meeting, when it became apparent I was from the United States, the very next question, every time was either “Do you know De Gorter?” or “Can you introduce me to De Gorter?”

Condolences to his wife of 58 years, Denise, and their children Dan, Deborah and Peter.

More info is available here.

Taking Up the Pen Again

When I was an eight-year-old second-grader at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary elementary school on Long Island, N.Y., I decided our school needed what I called a newspaper, but what was really a monthly magazine. I thought we needed it because we didn’t have it. Oh sure, we got tons of great-smelling blue mimeographed sheets to read and bring home at night, but we didn’t have anyplace where we students could express ourselves. I had this vision that kids from each grade would submit stories and artwork and we’d give the “newspaper” out once a month to all the students in every class once a month.

So I went to my teacher, Sister Rosario, who patiently listened to my request and then sent it to the principal, Sister Sheila. A few days later they said, “Okay, you put it together and we will copy and distribute it.” They even told every teacher to allow me to come to their class and talk about the newspaper and how kids could send materials and pictures in. I thought the students should name it too, so I came up with this contest idea for the name. Anyone who wanted to could submit a name for our newspaper and the students would vote on it. They’d see the winning name when the first issue came out.

The response surprised me—the first issue was about 40 pages long (there’s still a copy somewhere up in my parent’s attic) and it was filled with stories, poems and pictures from every grade. The winning name, The Monthly Blab, was my least favorite of the choices but it had won fair and square. I felt a real sense of accomplishment when I gave the final pages to Sister Sheila with a big drawing of the school penned by a fourth-grade artist, and right below it in big block letters the winning title, The Monthly Blab.

It seemed like it took forever to get the newspaper printed because, at that age, I was unfamiliar in some of the ways Catholic schools work. I did not realize that the ever-resourceful sisters had talked a local printer into printing the Blab at no charge—but the agreement was that he would “fit it in whenever he had time.” Finally, after March had turned into April, one day, I heard the shrill sound of the intercom intrude into our classroom and a booming voice called me to the office. Now, at my school, being called to the office usually meant either you were in big trouble or someone in your family had died, so I actually found myself hoping I was in trouble.

Sister Sheila was waiting for me with Pete, the janitor, who had a pretty good-sized dolly upon which were piled three big cardboard boxes. “Here’s your newspaper,” she said with a slight smile. “You can hand it out in all the classrooms tomorrow. Make sure you give Sister Rosario one, too,” was all she added.

I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. As soon as we got in the hall, I asked Pete to open the box and hand me one. And there it was, all 40 pages, printed in front of me with the great illustration of the school and below it the words The Monthly … no, wait, where were the words? The spot where the words The Monthly Blab had sat was now blank. Instead, on top, in the finest cursive penmanship you could imagine (that I recognized as Sr. Rosario’s) it said Our School Newspaper. Our School Newspaper? Our School Newspaper? A very cool name had been replaced without my knowledge—and with a very lame one at that.I thought there was a mistake, so when I got back to my classroom, I told Sister Rosario. Now here you should know that most of us in the class figured that, conservatively, Sister Rosario was about 117 years old. She was also about 3-foot 11, but she had the aim of Tom Seaver with an eraser, so I mean it when I say we were looking eye-to-eye and I was trying not to be intimidated.

“Sister, there’s a mistake,” I said holding it up and pointing at the blank space. “It was supposed to say The Monthly Blab right here and it doesn’t.”

“Oh, that’s not a mistake,” she shot back pleasantly. “I changed it. That wasn’t a good name for a newspaper.”

“But Sister, all the kids voted …” I protested.

“Oh well, too late now,” she said with a unique combination of authority and finality.

I was eight years old and I’d learned an important lesson. I’d just been edited.

I should probably be too embarrassed to tell you what I did, but I will anyway. Working out of Pete’s broom closet, I was able to spend the whole next day delivering the newspapers to all the classes. But before I would visit each class, I would make a stop in the girl’s bathroom and, in my best penmanship, write the words The Monthly Blab in magic marker on each one. I did this for all copies—all 841 copies—except, I’d somehow forget to do it on the copies I gave to the teachers. An ingenious plan, I was sure.

The first Blab got a number of great compliments and I started to plan the next edition. It wasn’t too long after that that the good sisters told me there was not enough time or money to do another issue of the Blab, so I shouldn’t even bother to work on it. This was how I came to understand the phrase “winning the battle but losing the war” at a young age.

To my knowledge, there never was another school newspaper at QMHR, which, sadly, is no longer a school but a community center.

So why am I telling you this? Because I tried an experiment this summer. It’s been 40 years since I first started writing for The Monthly Blab. I decided this year to take the summer off from writing. That’s why I haven’t in ink since May. Oh, I was still editing, researching, etc., but I just took a break from writing. I had this crazy idea to stop for a summer and see how it felt. Instead of feeling a sense of freedom, I felt loss. I missed writing terribly, and I’m back. I will keep a tender hope that you are glad; I know I am.

Icy Tears

The closing of the Pittsburgh Glass Works plant in Hawkesbury, Ontario, brought to mind a special memory. See the links below for more information.

Father-Daughter Dance
Any Dream Will Do

Spring Ahead

“The harshest winter finds in us an invincible Spring.” -Albert Camus

When I began to write this article on Monday, the outer suburbs of the Washington, D.C., area had just been hit with its first major snow in more than three years. We got ten inches at our offices here in Stafford, Va. Now, as I put the finishing touches on it on Saturday morning, I am being enticed outside by the promise of a 72-degree temperature, bright sun and absolutely no snow left on the ground—it’s all melted. In its place are tons of industrious birds, including at least two robins with bright red chests thumping, all digging into the waterlogged earth in search of breakfast. Might it really be Spring?

Spring was on my mind early last October when I read part one of Brigid O’Leary’s excellent article about the glass in the new sports stadiums opening this year. “Why don’t we save it for Spring?” suggested editor Megan Headley. “We can use it in March and it will come out right before the start of the baseball season. It would be a great cover story.”Now there’s a saying among editors (sort of akin to the “sometimes-you’re-the-windshield-sometimes-you’re-the-bug” one) that says “great pictures or great photos, you never get both.” In this case, we had a great article, but we had no photos. So any story, let alone a cover story, was going to be a challenge.

With that in mind, Megan went to work on the both the Yankees and the Mets to let us get some great glass photos of their new digs. Now let me say that getting permission to photograph an as-yet unopened major league baseball stadium turned out to be the most difficult photo shoot we’ve ever attempted. Despite repeated tries, the Yankees just said flat out “no.” Thanks to the good graces and great shots by the glass teams working there, we were able to bring you the interiors any way. You'll see some exterior shots next month.

After many months of negotiations, the New York Mets came through and, once Megan got the word that we could do so, we knew just who we wanted to take the pictures.The photos of the new Citi Field in this issue were taken by award-winning New York photographer Fred Kopf. “I had an escort with me at all times but there were certain areas I was not allowed to visit like the players’ locker rooms,” he said, “but I got a good cross section of all the major glass work. They told me that the Mets were allowing only two photographers in to shoot prior to opening day—a Sports Illustrated photographer was permitted to take one picture and USGlass magazine, which did a full shoot.”

I knew Fred would come through for us. In addition to being a professional shutterbug, he is also my younger and only brother and is used to the danger that difficult situations bring. Most days, he serves as a lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department. He is FDNY through and through. “It was a great kick to do the shoot and the Mets organization was first-class,” he said. The article also served as a point of discussion in my family. Growing up in New York, the boys (my father and Fred) were always more partial to the Yankees. But my mother grew up in Queens watching Shea Stadium being built and passed her admiration of the Mets on to her daughters, so the shoot also served to prove the ladies right: Mets rule.

I am headed home this week to New York, which is also the home Glass Expo Northeast '09. We will be out at the Hyatt Regency Long Island Wind Watch Hotel &; Golf Club. The event runs Wednesday and Thursday and I hope to see you there.
Here’s wishing you an invincible Spring. —Deb

P.S.: Take a look at this New Yorker article for another take on baseball's new abobe in the big apple.

Photos and text (c) 2009 Key Communications Inc.

It's Always Something

It’s Always Something …

It’s tough when you’ve been there at the beginning and now you are there at the end.

I’m spending most of this week at the National Auto Glass Conference in Orlando, Florida. A long time ago (20 years) in a different lifetime, I was involved in the creation of this event. I take a bit of pride in that. Twenty years ago, the auto glass industry was an active and vibrant one. Insurance company influence was limited to a phone call or two from the local agent. Networks were just beginning to pop up around the country. Groups such as AGRSS, IGA and NWRA had yet to form. No one knew what the Internet was.

This Conference has been held in many different cities and venues over the years, visiting Memphis, Tampa, Marco Island, Fl, Tuscon (four times), Phoenix and Minneapolis among others. It’s hosted a great variety of speakers from within and outside the industry. It didn’t have a trade show for the first decade, then it did, then it didn’t again for the last two years. At its height, the conference attracted more than 1,000 retailers.

But the best thing about the Auto Glass Conference has never been the seminars or the show; it’s always been the people you see there. Twenty years ago, it provided a way for the industry (which had always played second fiddle to the architectural glass industry) to converge around common issues at one location.

It’s always something.

Over the years, the conference has also been part of a number of watershed moments. The modern auto glass era was born at the 1991 Conference in Phoenix when network founder Joe Kellman admonished the group that they would have to “work a full day instead of half” to make a living. When he said that the industry had been ripping off insurance companies for years, you could hear an audible gasp and see a physical reaction in the room. I have always wondered if that speech was aimed more as an admonishment of the glass industry or a sales pitch to the insurance industry.

The event has also been square in the middle of tragedy as deaths by two attendees occurred—sadly, one of a heart attack and another a drowning. The conference has had to duck hurricane Isidore at Marco Island in 2002 and Ivan in Tampa in 2004. Two years ago, there was a bomb scare and, just today, a fire alarm emptied the hotel in the mid-afternoon.

It’s always something.

And, of course, the Auto Glass Conference had been scheduled for September 12-14, 2001 in Minneapolis—a conference that never happened in the wake of September 11 the day before. I’ll never forget that I was already in Minneapolis sitting in an AGRSS Council meeting when we got the first word of the plane crashes. I ended up driving all the way home to Virginia later than week.

Times change, industries change and economies tank. During last year’s conference, organizers announced that the 2009 Conference will be the last in its current form and so it will be. So I raise a glass to an end and a beginning.

It’s always something.

Punched Out

Well it’s been about 15 years since I made a mistake like the one I did in my story on Russ Ebeid’s great and prophetic speech at the BEC Conference. Thankfully, a number of our alert readers let me know about it. Not since I said Waiting for Godot was written by Eugene Ionesco (it wasn’t) have I been so embarrassed by a wrong word or two.

Let me start by saying that I don’t know much about prize-fighting. Never even saw a bout, and I wouldn’t know a heavyweight from waterweight, or is that welter weight? No weight--I mean wait--water weight I’m familiar with.

Anyway, the general rule in journalism is to write what you know and, if you don’t know it, look it up. So while I searched my brain for a phrase that would convey the depth of power that Mr. Ebeid’s words had delivered to the audience (because his speech had some knock-you-down stunning information in it) I came up with gut-punched, but somehow confused it with sucker-punched. And I didn’t look it up to check.

I feel especially bad because I admire Russ Ebeid as much as a person could, so to somehow suggest that he was involved in sucker-punching anything or anybody is horrifiying. The article has been corrected and the offending word striken.

The readers who contacted me were very kind, saying that they knew I meant gut-punch but had written the wrong thing. Even Earnest Thompson of Guardian itself was pleasant. “That’s okay,” he said, “maybe you had just been listening to too much Puscifer lately,”

I appreciate that, and I sure hope the big guy himself will forgive me. See, I already messed up this week. I knew he had just had a birthday and had promised him a cake. So I had brought some birthday candles with me and was going to run over when they served dessert at the Glass Week dinner and pop them in his cake. But, alas, they gave us a poached pear. I spent the better part of dessert wondering if one could put candles in the whipped cream and not ignite a fire. I erred on the side of caution. No candles.

So Mr. Ebeid, if perhaps you see you way clear to read this, I owe you more than a birthday cake now. You name it. Any punishment and I’ll take it. You want me to hit a punching bag (or myself) with Everready gloves for an hour? You got it. Want me to learn all the names of every prize-fighting champion in the world? I’m on it. I will even—gulp—watch all four Rocky movies (including even the third one) in a row. But I will never, ever again confuse a sucker-punch with a gut-punch again. My apologies.

BEC Day Two

Today I am headed back to the East Coast from Vegas as the BEC is ending. Yup. I’m on the plane and my laptop battery doesn’t seem to want to hold a charge so this will be a short one. The low battery light is already on.

Monday—the first full day of the Building Envelop Contractor’s Conference (BEC) actually brought me hope. Russ Ebeid’s thought provoking presentation gave everyone in the room quite a bit to think about (see related story for more) and Bill Yanek detailed the excellent work he is leading for GANA in the energy arena. Bill is right that the glass industry has a target on its back. As deadly as a silent killer like carbon monoxide seeping into your lungs at night, the possibility of federally-mandated greenhouse gas emission control could choke, debilitate and ultimately kill our entire industry.

It was interesting that Bill mentioned the industry’s old “friends” at ASHRAE are developing regulations that are possibly anti-glass. This will sound familiar to anyone who has been around awhile. Shades of 90.1P—you know the let’s-get-rid-of-the-glass-so-we-can-keep-installing-inefficient-HVAC-systems regulations promulgated by ASHRAE 20 or so years ago.
This industry needs to come and stay together on this issue.

With so much bad news in the economy, it was nice to have a good news day. The BEC top ten list is always a hit and gave the crowd some deep chuckles ….I caught too with John Dwyer of Syracuse Glass. His company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year …. Also talked with Craig Carson who recently patented a neat new product (more in the future pages of USGlass) that is working well in Colorado…saw Bob Lang of Billco, the busiest, hardest working retired guy in the industry…day two, though a long one, was a good.

Glass Week Ends; BEC Starts

Report from Sunday, February 15


The question “how are you doing?” has taken on new meaning here as GANA’s Glass Week ends and the BEC Conference begins. Where people used to respond with updates on their lives or their health, people instinctively now feel they are being asked about the health of their company in light of the economy.

A question of “how are you doing?” invariably leads to a response of “we are hanging in there,” “we are holding on and hoping it turns” or a variation thereof. The biggest discussions center around the economy of course.

The lead industry story is about the changing ownership –and face-- of the primary glass manufacturers. With two of the manufacturers believed to be in play and another two under significant economic distress, it will be interesting to see how this year turns out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see changes in ownership yet again among some of the primaries.

One of the nicest parts of Glass Week/BEC is getting to catch up with people in the industry…and there was a lot of catching up to do. Both Russ Ebeid of Guardian and GANA’s executive vice president Bill Yanek were in the process of celebrating birthdays...”All you have to do is say you were out with Ren Bartoe last night and everyone will understand how you feel,” said ICD’s Kris Vockler at the beginning of her report on the decorative glass division, “and I was out with Ren Bartoe, what more can I say?” Arch’s Max Peristein was attempting to be in two places at the same as outgoing BEC chairperson as incoming chairperson Henry Taylor raced back from Switzerland to Las Vegas. Valerie Block of DuPont glowed as she talked about missing the newest addition to her family—her first grandchild, a boy.

Glass Week: for Young and Old

Between the holidays and the weather, I haven’t had too much road time lately. All that changed earlier this week as I made my way westward to the Glass Association of North America (GANA)’s Glass Week and Building Envelop Conference (BEC).

I spent a minute on the plane contemplating the chaos that is always Las Vegas and anticipating an even more frenetic pace as hundreds of thousands of loving couples made their way to Vegas for Valentine’s Day. The location of the GANA meeting—the Palms Hotel—has been featured on the 2005 reality show “Party at the Palms” as a pretty well known a place for the “in” crowd in Vegas.

As the cab approached the hotel and the marquee came into view, I cranked my neck to see who was headlining here over the weekend. My heart sunk when the sign came into focus. “This Weekend,” it shouted, “Puscifer!”

Puscifer?

Who or what is a Puscifer? I’m guessing by the devilish looks of the billboard that it rhymes with Lucifer. (Note reader: I was going to link to Puscifer’s site here so you could hear the “music” and figure out who, or what, it was but the content wouldn’t have made the family hour, if you know what I mean.)

Anyway, seeing Puscifer on the billboard was definitely a watershed moment for me because, up to this point, even if I didn’t listen to them, I’d always had a working knowledge of who the group was. Thus my lack of awareness of Puscifer –whether a he, she or a group of either or both—reminded me that I was probably way too old for this hotel. With a deep sigh I paid the cab drive and went in.

Then, two pleasant surprises. First, the Palms is actually a lovely hotel and it hasn’t made me feel too old for it at all. The rooms are nicely appointed and, more importantly, it’s not gargantuan. It’s still big, but it doesn’t overwhelm; you don’t have to put your jogging shoes on to get to get from the sleeping rooms to the meeting rooms. And the staff has been exceedingly helpful.

Second, (nice surprise for me, not so nice for Vegas): Rather than Valentine’s Day, it looks more like Thanksgiving or Christmas here. The downturn Max mentioned in his blog last month has not abated. Vegas, evidentally, continues to feel the effects of the economy as much as anywhere. Vegas is actually empty.

Of course, the important part of this week is not the hotel or the city, it’s the substance of the meetings as GANA is the substance and the conscience of the glass industry. To learn more about what’s going on please visit http://www.usgnn.com/. Be sure to stop by our video reports there as well and don't forget to visit Max Perilstein's blog. for up-to-the minute meeting flavor. I’ll be back with periodic, more substantive reports over the next few day.

In the meantime, I'm really getting into this place and so has our crew. Some of our editors even volunteered to work late tonight and stop by the Playboy Club so they could see the etchings of the bunnies on the glass railings up there. What a dedicated group.

The First Valentine

When we were growing up, my sister (who is two years younger) and I (who was about four) engaged in a fixed ritual nearly every week night. We knew that at exactly 5:50 p.m. we should start walking up the block and, a few minutes later, my father would appear like magic. We could see him in the distance as he came around the corner walking the last leg of his 15 minute stroll from Long Island Railroad station.

The minute we saw him, Patti and I would break out in the fastest run we could shouting “Daddy, Daddy” until we literally careened into him, jumping and smothering him in hugs and kisses. Now my Dad didn’t like us running too much, and he liked us shouting even less, but somehow he never complained about this custom.

Valentine’s Days were especially exciting because he would come around the corner with a big chocolate heart for my Mother and smaller ones for each of us. I remember being so excited about this (and not really because of the candy although that was good) because somehow I knew that a box of chocolate was a grown-up gift and that I—all of four or six or even fifteen—was getting one. “I’m the luckiest guy today,” he would always say, “ because I have three valentines.”

My Dad never missed bringing us a heart each year, never listening when we were in our teens and told him we wouldn’t eat the chocolate, not stopping even after we told him it was old-fashioned, even after we’d moved on to cities and spouses and families of our own, nor after he’d retired and didn’t walk home from work any more. On Valentine's Day he always had that little something for his three valentines.

So for all Dads out there, including my own, who gave their hearts to their daughters all those years ago, know that others may come and go but, on Valentine’s Day, we all harken back to the guy who really was—and still is--our first love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Deb

Still A Happy New Year

These are very tough times for the glass industry. Not a day goes by when our e-news service, USGNN.com™, doesn’t include at least one plant closing or company lay-off. Lack of access to credit and capital, along with greatly reduced demand, has led to the most difficult economic environment I have seen in my 27 years of covering the glass industry—even worse than the infamous 1991.

There are a few things that make what we are going through even more challenging than it was 17 years ago. In 1991, there was little work, but never did we see the wide-scale cancellation or postponement of work already in progress or contracted that we now see. Some major fabricators have gone from having so much work that they required long lead times for delivery to having so little work that they’ve closed plants and laid-off workers. This situation is particularly egregious because we know that those same companies passed up other jobs, or saw customers move elsewhere, due to their long lead times. In short, the work they passed on went elsewhere, now their jobs have cancelled and it’s too late to get the other work back.

Things aren’t faring much better for contract glaziers. As Tom Niepokoj, vice president of sales for Harmon Inc., says in our forecast article in the January USGlass: “Our backlog is solid through the end of the third quarter of calendar year 2009. The fourth quarter and beyond is where we’re scratching our heads …” That about sums it up as many of them struggle to get through this downturn.

Our country is different than it was in 1991. The cable news networks blare gloom-and-doom on a 24-hour basis, consumers reduce their spending, banks don’t lend and no one can or wants to buy anything.

The biggest difference between then and now is that we have lost our faith in ourselves. Compare Roosevelt’s message of the 1930s “that we have nothing to fear but fear itself ” to today’s message, from both sides of the aisle, that financial Armageddon is but one moment away.

Yet, despite all the economic hardship, I remain confident in the glass industry. We will come through and survive this very difficult time. Why? Not so much because of who we are but because of what we make. Our industry is not going away. When buildings are erected and houses are built again, they still will be full of glass. We are not losing our industry to new materials or technology, like the travel agents did during the last decade. Glass is here to stay. The people who make it, enhance it and install it have to make sure they are too. This is the time for cost containment and good credit and collection policies. Both are essential to weathering the storm.

So happy New Year. Please remember that in the grand scheme of things our most important “possessions” are not really things at all—they are the God we worship, the people we love, the health we have and the education and memories we carry with us. Now without those, we’d really have nothing at all.