The Cutting Edge™ - May 2004

Business Strategies

2004 WIC Workshop speaker Tim Longwell of D.J. Case & Associates is pleased to announce the launch of a website with the resources developed for the Hispanic Woodworker project:.

Obstacles, current training needs, and optimal delivery methods of information were identified through an assessment of participating companies and Hispanic workers in the wood products industry in late 2002 and early 2003. Based upon the results of this assessment, several specific products were identified for development.

These products are company information resources that can help improve communications and information exchange. There products include:

• Working with Hispanics
• A Small Guide for the Hispanic Immigrant
• Employee Handbook Template
• Spanish/English Wood Products Terminology
• Company Orientation
• Achieving Quality Through Teamwork
• Assessment Results
• Related Links

All of the products can be found at http://www.djcase.com/hispanic/

These are now being pilot tested to allow developers to modify them to best meet your needs. Please complete the evaluation for each resource to give feedback on the usefulness of these tools. Your honest evaluation of these materials will help developers improve them for you and your workers.

We are asking that users complete the evaluations prior to June 1^st 2004. At that time we will modify the resources to best meet the needs of the woodworking industry. Once these changes are made the products will be formally delivered to the Wood Education and Resource Center in August 2004 and the website will be hosted on a U. S. Forest Service server. The "new and improved" products will continue to be available to you free of charge.