The Northeastern Forest Products and Equipment Expo takes place every year in Bangor. It’s huge! In my wildest dreams I could never have imagined what the Expo would be like. The show of products and equipment from all the different vendors and dealers is spectacular. It fills up the Bangor Auditorium and the Bass Park Complex. Loggers can walk around and drool over state of the art machinery that could makes their jobs easier. They also have the opportunity to enter into competitions that can show of their professional skills and make them pine even more to own the equipment they have the chance to use.

There were numerous seminars, a Loggers’ Awards Banquet and Forest Industry Forums. Mona Lincoln, WORK SAFE Editor from Northern Logger Magazine and the Coordinator of Training and Safety for the Expo asked if I would like to speak in the 2007 Sawmillers Forum. This forum consisted of representatives from the industry with a wide range of perspectives. Mona had heard me speak at The Southern New England Master Loggers Graduation in Massachusetts and found my topic of employee engagement interesting. She thought a presentation along the same light would benefit those attending.

I stood up in front of the group and said, “Picture this, me standing on a knoll looking down at a raging river, which was just a small stream a few days before. The rain was pelting against me, so much so that my jeans became instantly wet and clinging to my legs. My newest black boots from Louis were caked in mud, and my hardhat created a perfect channel for the rain to funnel directly down my back, underneath my raincoat. Rain was dripping off my nose, and what I really wanted to do was sit down in the mud, stomp my feet, and cry. To my left a little further down the knoll was our feller buncher operator, and to his left, at a diagonal, was my boss. We were all staring at the river that now was roaring about 3 feet above our temporary bridge. I was consumed with an overwhelming sense of having absolutely no control whatsoever over the situation and my face looked somewhat like this.” Then I contorted my face into a full pout and tried to reenact a desperate look of despair for my audience.

“What?!” yells my boss over the sound of the wind and rain, “I told you this job was not for the faint of heart!”

I shared with my audience that “I thought when he said that, he meant flying logs, and whirring saws, not an overwhelming feeling that there is not one darn thing that you can actually do to change a horrid situation. So in an industry where there are so many variables that are absolutely out of our control, I would like to share with you some things that we can control.”

Then I went on to share the overused term, “Employees are our greatest asset”, and that I thought that, “having leaders that can inspire employees is an even greater asset,” and how as leaders they can have an impact on employees that won’t cost a penny which is a variable that they can have total control over. In an industry where so many things are out of their control, controlling certain initiatives that can promote employee engagement would benefit their employees, their companies and ultimately the industry.

Then I went on to share some of the ways that we are working to raise the level of employee engagement at Maine Custom Woodlands.

The next day, I saw some of my fellow classmates from CLP training and even sat in the audience to cheer on my friend Ernest in The Prentice Loader Championship, which offers some nice awards for those who place in speed and agility. I was hypnotized by the competition and watching the level of professionalism just blew me away. Ernest did a great job even though he had been running the feller buncher for his company for the passed three years.

Some of the equipment that gets purchased stays on display with the companies’ names and logos on them, which I am sure, is a psychological selling tactic. When you are strolling along and see that a fellow logging outfit bought this huge piece of equipment, well need I say anything about boys and their toys? Not even to mention the capacity of output. Everyone longs for the shiny new equipment that can help maximize the shrinking time that we get to spend in the woods.

Well it was a great time, a huge learning experience and lots of camaraderie. I am already looking forward to next year and what the Expo will bring.

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