A Good Year

All in all, it was a good year. But there were, admittedly, a few bumps. At year’s end the AWCI story for 1980-81 was a near-record convention, a move into its own headquarters building, the establishment of a new industry library, and the rise of the association into a position of leadership and prominence in national political activity. These were the major accomplishments of the association. The bumps? For three years since the consolidation of the former plastering and drywall organizations AWCI has been able to plow goodly amounts of money into its reserves. This past year that splendid record slid sideways as the association broke even (when the final accounting is in perhaps there may be as much as $10,000 for surplus) after elimination of depreciation. The missing extra surplus primarily could be traced to over optimistic expectations in the associat ion magazine’s net income, and also in budgeting for a larger convention attendance than was actually realized. During the past year the magazine income slid back along with some scheduling problems. It is now back on a firm publishing track with the editing controls back in the hands of Jerry Wykoff now returned to AWCI following an absence of 18 months. As for the convention, with 154 booths, it was the largest exposition in the industry’s history and contractor attendance continued its climb to new, higher numbers. Unfortunately, there was a fall-off in total manufacturer attendance, bringing the gross registration to a figure below the number of persons attend-