PERSPECTIVE: 2007 Quips

John Wolz

When Dr. Bart Basi teaches, he gives out only “A”s” or failing grades. “When is 30% wrong a “C”?” he asked Western Associa-tion of Fastener Distributors conferees. After all, once students graduate “there is no room for mistakes. An order filled 30% wrong is not acceptable.”

With its newer T3 Train-the-Trainer program going strong, the National Fastener Distributors Association was a bit surprised that its aging “Exciting World of Fasteners” video cassettes were selling at a rapid pace this year. NFDA president Joel Roseman offered a possible explanation: “It got picked up by Netflix.”

The September 19-20, 2007, Fastener Fair Stuttgart was being held just as major storms threatened to flood parts of Asia. Taiwan had just escaped serious hurricane damage and a tropical storm was headed to China.
The “timely exhibitor” was Schafer & Peters with a large sign boasting “Rost Frei” stainless steel fasteners. Attendees who had followed weather and flooding reports didn”t need to read German to understand Rost Frei.

“People sitting in the front row are exempt from questions,” speaker Bob Griffin of Mac-Dermid Industrial Solutions said as a Fastener Tech 07 conference session was about to begin with an empty front row andconferees still entering the room.

In announcing a 10-minute break, Lee Froschheiser warned Western Association of Fastener Distributors conferees that he”d restart with or without them. “I can get through this a lot faster if you”re not here.”

In a discussion of quality assurance, Fastener Industry Education Group panelist Bob Hill of Hill Fastener recalled his tour of China: “I saw more KFC initials than ISO initials,” the domestic manufacturer quipped.

Win Adams developed a reputation as a master fastener salesman during his 38 years in the industry. “My strength was always getting an order,” Adams said in a retirement interview with FIN in 2001. But one Adams confidant reports Adams “may now be placing as many fastener orders as he once sold” after crashing two motorcycles in retirement. Fortunately, Adams is “just paying for fasteners for his bikes and not medical fasteners.”

WAFD marked its 25th anniversary with the “Rusty Bolt” conference session with industry veterans Bob Lehman and Dave Kendall being interviewed by president Suzanne Dukes. Mostly retired Lehman mentioned that he and his fastener buddies used to compare sales numbers. Now they compare the number of doctors. “Last time he had 12 doctors, now I got 12,” Lehman said as he counted past his fingers and thumbs.

“I thought I was next in line,” remarked a seventy-something fastener executive after a well-known sixty-something passed away.

A trade show official reprimanded an exhibitor who had wandered from his booth that “show rules require booths be attended.” The exhibitor retorted: “if you kept the aisles attended we”d be in our booth.”

Boomerang of the Year(s): Mike McGuire’s own copyright disclaimer boomeranged first in 2005 when he began posting articles from other publications word-for-word with neither attribution nor indication he had obtained permission. Copying & pasting was “repeated” in 2006. McGuire “three-peated” in 2007 as word-for-word items were posted from copyrighted websites with no indication permission was obtained. Readers may get the impression McGuire was writing some of the articles because there was no attribution to the real author who did the work. Nor was there credit to the publishers who paid reporters and editors to develop the stories.

During 2007 China discovered it had been selling fasteners too cheaply. The irony is that “China can thank the U.S. and Europe for pressure to lower the tax rebate,” Jikyoon Park of XL Screw explained. �2008 FastenerNews.com