I find it hard to believe another year is quickly coming to an end and the winter holidays are already upon us. I would like to wish each of you, your families and employees a warm holi-day greeting from ASD and the Vitco Team.

This past year has truly been a rollercoaster ride for each of our firms. From the market outlook, I anticipate we should all prepare for a few tough months ahead. The current issues facing our economy will definitely have a trickle effect on our businesses in the first quarter as the market re-groups. As someone said to me at the recent meeting, “Hold on tight. We are in for a rocky ride.” That being said, as the saying goes – the strong will survive.

As I look back on the past year, ASD experienced a high-level of success despite a weak steel market. Our regional meeting and annual conference attendance surpassed our expectations. In addition, 15 new members ex-perienced the many benefits of membership.

Most important, we witnessed the official debut of the next generation of ASD – the new ASD Future Leaders Forum! I am extremely proud of this new entity, which is designed to enhance the experience of industry’s future key players. This past year they have met four times and have truly become a cohesive team.

Recently, you received your membership renewal notice. I encourage you to make what could be one of the most important investments in the future of your business. Send in your member-ship investment today! ASD is here for you and continues to bring you the most up-to-date industry information as you will see from our listing of meetings dates for the coming year.

As my term as president of ASD comes to a close in March 2008, I will look back proudly at the many successful events and activities ASD brought forth to our membership. ASD is and will continue to be a leading organization for steel distributors to gather the pulse of the market and network with fellow industry members and suppliers.

The future is bright! The ASD Board of Directors is committed to this organization and the im-portant role we play in the steel distribution marketplace.

Thanks for your continued support!

Best wishes, Dominic Vitucci, Jr.

ASD Calendar Regional Meetings Wednesday, Jan. 30 Ritz Carlton Dearborn Dearborn, Mich. $169 single/double 313.441.2000

Thursday, Feb. 28 Harrah’s Atlantic City Atlantic City, N.J. $105 single/double 609.441.5776

Spring Conference April 4 - 7 Marriot Marco Island Marco Island, Fla. $319 single/double 800.438.4373

ASD Staff Ron Pietrzak Executive Director RPietrzak@smithbucklin.com 312.673.4782 Mary Cronkright Association Associate mcronkright@smithbucklin.com 312.673.5793 Kris Delas Armas Conference Senior Associate KDelasarmas@smithbucklin.com 312.673.4832

Dennis Coyle News & Views Editor DCoyle@smithbucklin.com 312.673.4909 Amie Shak News & Views Associate Editor AShak@smithbucklin.com 312.673.4889 Association of Steel Distributors 401 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60611 Tel: 312.673.5793 Fax: 312.527.6705

Association of Steel Distributors

The premier information source for steel distribution industry professionals.

News & Views Winter 2007

ASD President’s Corner

SECURITY STEEL PROCESSING If you need to know who can decamber your material,

give you quality cut to length flat bar, gauge and width correct your coils or edge condition including deburring,

call and let Security Steel be your answer.

12211 Coyle Detroit, MI 48227

Phone: (313) 835-4330 Fax: (313) 835-8127 E-mail: Claudia@securitysteel.com Cory@securitysteel.com Web site: www.securitysteel.com

2007 ASD Board of Directors President Dominic Vitucci, Jr. Vitco Steel Supply Corp. Executive Vice President Thomas N. Smith, Sr. B & D Steel Company Vice President– Eastern Region Dave Raco Tomsin Steel Company, Inc. Vice President—Central Region Jim Barnett Grand Steel Products, Inc. Treasurer Robert Pelles Premium Metals, Inc. National Directors (Eastern Region) Ron Chase Action Steel Steven Bergman Premier Steel, Inc. Lisa Goldenberg Delaware Steel Co. of Pennsylvania Albert J. Gedeon Lane Steel Company, Inc. (Central Region) Brian Robbins Mid-West Materials, Inc. Steve Lutz Tomson Steel William Feniger Universal Metals, LLC Tim Loeffel Loeffel Steel Products, Inc. Greg Gross Northshore Metals, Inc. Peter Dennen Dennen Steel Mike Bush Century Steel LLC

Advertise in News & Views

• There is a variety of advertising options available for member and non-member companies.

• Advertisers can pick from full-page ads, half-page ads and business card ads.

Call ASD Headquarters at 312.673.5793 for more information.

2 | News & Views

Future Leaders Strengthen Bonds at Leadership Session

Members of ASD’s Future Leaders Forum worked to strengthen their bond during a leadership session at the Ritz Carlton in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 15.

Mary Jen Meerdink, Ph.D., a business con-sultant specializing in leadership training and employee moral seminars, presented the session. The goals of the session were to increase group cohesiveness and learn more about key people skills associated with effective leadership.

FLF member Mike Barnett, Grand Steel Products, Inc., said the meeting fulfilled those goals. Barnett called the meeting informative and educational, saying that it increased the cohesiveness of the group.

“After that, I felt like I had bonded with the other people in the meeting… which was nice,” Barnett said.

Lisa Goldenberg, Delaware Steel Company of Pennsylvania, FLF co-chair, said more than 20 people have attended forum meet-ings since its inception and that people are invited to join in at any time.

“It’s great if you’re always there, but if you’re there once, then you get value from what you did attend. It’s a very open, fluid experience,” Goldenberg said.

For more information about joining the Fu-ture Leaders Forum, please contact Mary Cronkright at 312.673.5793 or by e-mail at MCronkright@smithbucklin.com.

FLF members celebrate a successful meeting

Universal Metals Named ‘Hot’ company by Entrepreneur magazine

ASD Welcomes New Members Harvard Steel Sales, Inc. 5400 Harvard Ave. Cleveland, OH 44105 Tel: 216.429.0019 Fax: 216.429.0296

Beemac Trucking LLC 2747 Legionville Road Ambridge, PA 15003 Tel: 724. 266. 8781 Fax: 724. 266.5638 www.beemac.com

James Burg Trucking Co. 27275 Mound Road Warren, MI 48092 Tel: 586.751.9000 Fax: 586.751.1367 www.jbtc.net

Ohio Steel Trading, Inc. 87 East Washington Street Chagrin Falls, OH 44022 Tel: 440.893.0055 Fax: 440.247.5331 www.ohiosteeltrading.com

News & Views | 3

Save the Date

Boy Scouts of America Metals Industry Dinner

Wednesday, April 16 Hyatt Regency Chicago Entertainment by “American English”

For more information, please e-mail Kevin Wilson, BSA Senior Finance Director, at kevin@chicagobsa.org or call 312.421.8800, ext. 231.

By Amie Shak, News & Views Associate Editor

Universal Metals LLC was named one of Entre-preneur magazine’s “Hot 500” businesses for knowing what it takes to find customers, make sales and build business.

The magazine’s accolade recognized Universal Metals as one of the 500 fastest-growing compa-nies in America, naming it number 156 on its yearly list, which shined a spotlight on today’s most successful entrepreneurs.

“Our entire team was elated with the listing and very proud of our efforts and recognition,” president and co-founder of Universal Metals LLC Bill Feniger said.

Feniger established the com-pany with current Vice President Michael Sawyer on May 1, 2001, in Toledo, Ohio. Feniger had been involved in the steel service center industry since 1969 and teamed up with Sawyer after a previous company they were involved with headed in a different direc-tion than what they wanted, Feniger said.

The two borrowed money from the bank to start the business and were profitable within the first six months.

“We have been profitable for the entire six and a half years, each and every month. We believe our success is a direct result of our tightly man-aged businesses, controlling overhead and offering our customers a niche in the market-place,” Feniger said.

The company started with just five total employ-ees and now Feniger expects the company will employ 45 people by 2008.

“Our efforts to control our growth within the steel distribution side provided growth in reve-

nues while maintaining minimal growth of per-sonnel. The expansion with our affiliate com-pany, American Posts, is being managed with the same efficient philosophies,” Feniger said.

Universal Metals LLC had $8.2 million in sales in 2002. That number rose to $38.4 million in sales in 2006.

So, what’s the secret to the company’s success?

“The fact that we're not one of the industry gi-ants, that every customer is so highly valued and every order so expeditiously monitored is what fuels our success. Our team of sales, ser-vice and support personnel are continuously schooled in customer responsiveness and accu-

racy. We are more aggressive in locating the right product at

the best price, more focused on quality and more dedicated to on-time deliveries,” Feniger said.

Feniger also cited offering customers quality steel and quality service as well as surrounding themselves with quality people as reasons for their success.

Feniger believes that the company’s success won’t stop here.

“I believe the first quarter of 2008 will be solid as it relates to price stability combined with market tightness to the supply/demand equa-tion in our industry. The major questions we all face are: where will the level of demand be and how will the automobile and home building industries fare. Overall, expectations are quite good for the first quarter,” he said.

Feniger plans to take advantage of his involve-ment with the ASD to build an even stronger

Continued on Page 5

China Minmetals Corporation (Los Angeles)

Carbon Steels & Stainless Steels

Carbon Steels & Stainless Steels CR-Coils, CR-Sheets, CR-Strips

Light Steel Frames Steel Gratings

E-mail: sales@minmetalsla.com Web site: www.minmetalsla.com

Contacts Us: 1034 Walnut Avenue, Pomona, CA 91766 USA Phone: (909) 627-8258 FAX: (909) 627-8830

“ I am hopeful the ASD will become an important place our sons can use in the future.”

Bill Feniger, president, Universal Metals LLC

4 | News & Views

News & Views | 5

Tips On How To Set Appointments

business for the future, not only for himself but for future generations as well.

Feniger has been involved with the ASD since 2001, currently serving as the association’s Central Region Di-rector. Feniger said that the company finds its membership and participat-ing with the ASD quite rewarding.

Feniger cites enhanced relationships, exchange of information and ability to expand networking within the in-dustry as key benefits of membership with the ASD.

“My involvement in the ASD is based on my desire to continue our growth and build an even stronger, more recognized organization within the industry,” he said.

Continued from Page 3

A lament I hear often from salespeople is that it is getting harder to set appoint-ments. There are a lot of reasons for this—but the most important reason is that customers just don’t have time to waste. This also ties into one of my “heretical” statements: relationship-selling is less important today than it used to be (not totally unimportant but defi-nitely less important).

There used to be a lot of emphasis on the “relationship” side of sales. For example, account profile templates used to include things like spouse’s name and birth-day.

And because of this, the value of the sales call began to lessen in the eyes of the customer. Now, with more work and less time, salespeople who have historically relied on relationships are finding it more difficult to get appointments.

The answer to this dilemma is to remem-ber the following: the value provided by a salesperson begins when they ask for an appointment—not when they actually sell a product or service.

The first sale that you have to make is to get the customer to give you some of their time. You do this by selling the value of the appointment. Too often, I’ve heard salespeople try and set appoint-ments using language like this, “I’ll be in your area next week and I’d like to come by and tell you about our products/services.” If you think about how this sounds to the customer, you can see that there is little value for them in this re-quest.

There are two different types of sales ap-pointments—calls on new customers and calls on existing customers. Calls on new customers have an extra layer of difficulty but both require a higher level of prepa-ration now.

Let’s start with a few general rules:

• Do “lukewarm” calls rather than cold calls (on new customers);

• Do your homework and have a specific reason for the call;

• Try to make it a real sales call—day, time; • Don’t ask anyone to call you back; and

Try never to make a cold call on a new customer. My recommendation is that you should make at least one call on someone who is not part of the purchasing process first.

Talk with someone in their sales or cus-tomer service department and learn as much about them as you can before you try to set your first real sales appoint-ment.

Do your homework and have a specific reason for the call. Never ask for a call to

“learn about their business” or to “tell them about your new product or service.” And if it’s an existing customer, never ask for a call to “see how things are going.” These are all perceived as timewasters by the customer.

Spend some time on the internet; talk with other non-competing salespeople; read the trade magazines of the cus-tomer’s industry—look for the major problems they are facing and make a specific recommendation to the customer as part of the request for the sales call.

A request should sound something like this: “It looks like the things that you are most concerned about are x, y and z. Over the past year, our organization has worked with blank, blank and blank to solve those kinds of problems and the results were… I would like an opportunity to discuss these issues with you and any-one else in the organization that might be involved.”

With this approach, you are adding value from the first interaction and distinguish-ing yourself from most of the other peo-ple that call on the customer.

If you are calling on an existing customer, this approach should be easier because you should know a lot about them. Ide-ally, you know your existing customer’s business goals and make all of your sales calls support what they are trying to ac-complish.

For a new customer, this takes more effort but normally pays big dividends in trying to get that first appointment.

Try to make it a real sales call, with a specified day and time. Whether you get the person or voicemail, always ask for a specific sales appointment.

Don’t ask for an appointment early next week or sometime on Monday morning. By giving a specific time, you make the appointment seem more real.

Don’t ask anyone to call you back. When you have to leave a message, don’t ask the customer to call you back. Your call should sound something like this: “I

would like to call you/see you at 10 a.m. on Monday morning and my plan is to call you on Thursday after-

noon at 3:30 p.m. to confirm. If that’s not a convenient time, please call me at 555.5555 and let me know when it would be convenient.”

Just remember that you have to sell and demonstrate the value of the sale call. If you spend a little extra time in prepara-tion, you are more likely to get the ap-pointments you want.

-Joe Ellers is a long-time sales strategy & training consultant. More information about Joe can be found at his Web site: www.JoeEllers.com.

“ The value provided by a salesperson begins when they ask for an appointment—not when they actually sell a product or service.”

Joe Ellers, sales strategy and training consultant

European steel producers are asking the European Union to slap a 40 percent sur-charge on soaring imports of below-cost Chinese steel, a spokesman for the steel industry group Eurofer said Oct. 29.

Gordon Moffat of the European Confed-eration of Iron and Steel Industries, or Eurofer, said China's output was “out of control” and talks with the government have failed to cap overcapacity.

“We’ve seen an enormous increase in tonnage from virtually nothing prior to 2004 to 12 million (metric) tons last year,” he told The Associated Press.

In a formal complaint to the European Commission, Eurofer puts forward evi-dence to show that galvanized steel sheets used in construction and stainless steel cold sheets used for building and engineering products are being dumped at prices 25 to 30 percent below the Euro-pean average.

They claim this breaks trade rules and the

EU has the right to take action, demand-ing a 40 percent duty be applied on im-ports of these steel products from China.

Moffat said there were also problems with other Asian countries that are trying to sell steel abroad that they can't offload in their own saturated markets — but said China's overcapacity was the root of the problem and this had “ruined their own market.”

EU antidumping charges on imports was the only possible remedy for the industry, he said, since the Chinese central gov-ernment has been unable to restrain out-put.

The EU can now take a couple of months before starting a formal probe during which it gathers evidence. The soonest there would be any hint of trade sanctions would be next year, when officials make a

recommendation and EU governments decide what to do.

Recent EU statistics bear out Eurofer's complaints: steel imports from China from January to September 2007 grew 137 percent from the same period last year to 8.9 million metric tons.

Europe's yawning trade gap with China widened by nearly 25 percent in the first seven months of this year — causing

European offi-cials to call on China to do more to open its own markets to European and other foreign

goods and services.

EU and Chinese officials will hold Novem-ber summit in China as European econ-omy officials call on China to revalue its currency — part of the problem because its low level against the U.S. dollar and the Euro makes it cheap for the rest of the world to buy from China — but expensive for China to import from others.

- Manufacturing.net

European Steel Producers Ask For Chinese Sanctions

Steel Scrap Prices Predicted to Rise in First Quarter

6 | News & Views

By Tom Stundza, Purchasing.com

Market analysts expect scrap prices to increase in the first quarter and to remain relatively high, reflecting a decrease in manufacturing in the United States.

Bob Garino, the director of commodities at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Indus-tries, said that “those closest to the fer-rous scrap industry see December as a basically a flat-to-sideways kind of month (in terms of pricing) but with a push (for higher prices) for January expected.”

Steel scrap has been weakening in price lately, reflecting soft orders for steel and seasonal factors. The index of all scrap steel prices tracked by Purchasing-data.com averaged 174.7 this month, down from the 2007 high of 207.9 in April. The index began at 100 in January 1994.

Since peaking at $308/gross ton in April, the monthly price of benchmark No. 1 heavy melt in Chicago has slipped in an erratic pattern to $258 this month, accord-ing to Purchasingdata.com. The weekly

price was slightly lower in the latest Iron Age Scrap Price Bulletin, a subscription pricing service, which meshes with re-ports this week from buyers of $239.

Customer inventories have been coming down as steel buyers continue to use in-house stocks rather than buying product from the mills.

However, distribution industry invento-ries are quite low (2.6 months supply) and imports appear likely to weaken even further given the weakened dollar and heightened ocean freight rates.

The mavens think flat-rolled and long product prices will increase along with higher steel scrap costs in the first quar-ter of 2008.

Still, scrap prices are particularly volatile and have a history of not following the supply/demand basics of Economics 101.

So, to paraphrase analyst Chuck Bradford at Bradford Research/Soleil Securities in New York City, there are a lot of risks in

steel-pricing forecasts.

The main risk is that the metalworking economy could be softer than is being assumed — “and a lot of economists are forecasting a recession due to the credit crunch and the sub-prime debt prob-lem,” he said in a report.

“ “We’ve seen an enormous increase in tonnage from virtually nothing prior to 2004 to 12 million (metric) tons last year.”

Gordon Moffat, European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries

News & Views | 7

American CEO’s Take Upbeat Position on State of Economy

The Business Roundtable has surveyed chief executives for many years in order to seek out some admittedly subjective data regarding what the country’s pri-mary business leaders think about the state of the economy.

The latest fourth-quarter poll was expected to show a lot of concern and depression but the results are surprisingly upbeat.

The CEO Economic Outlook In-dex rose from the readings in the third quarter – going from 77.4 to 79.5.

This is still below the reading from the fourth quarter of 2006 when the index hit 81.9 but it should also be remembered that anything over a reading of 50 indi-cates economic growth.

The two biggest concerns are health care costs and energy expenses and there is an expectation that the U.S. economy will

grow by 2.1 percent.

The majority of analysts really expected to see a further decline from the third quarter, given all the challenges the economy has been hit with, but the mood was striking in the confidence shown

about the resilience of the economy and its ability to recover from the problems created by the housing slump.

Armada Strategic Assessment

There are a couple of interesting conclu-sions to be drawn from this survey. These are the executives that are making the decisions for the country’s largest compa-

nies. At the end of the day, their opinions matter more to the conduct of company operations than the investors, analysts and financiers.

The fact that there is an upbeat mood in regard to the future suggests that more

companies will be pursuing growth strategies as opposed to hunkering down in survival mode.

An improved outlook at the CEO level often leads to fewer layoffs and more efforts to expand mar-ket share.

It is important to note that the optimism expressed by these executives was nei-ther universal nor overly exuberant and many of them cited the same issues. The two most consistent concerns expressed worry about oil prices and the status of interest rates.

- Strategic Global Intelligence

“ The fact that there is an upbeat mood as regards the future would suggest that more companies will be pursuing growth strategies as opposed to hunkering down in survival mode.”

Armada Strategic Assessment

NAW Institute for Distribution Releases Excellence Fellows’ Predictions for 2008

The No. 1 thing your company should emphasize in the new year: Our partners are advising most of our distributor cli-ents to focus on strategic pricing as their No. 1 priority for 2008, said Brent Grover, managing partner at Evergreen Consult-ing LLC.

Pricing is the last “unplowed field” for most companies. Sales people are over-whelmed with the challenges of manag-ing the pricing for their cus-tomers. The chaos of dis-tributor pricing begs for a simple, elegant solution.

The economic outlook for 2008 is less than robust for many sectors. A pessimistic outlook for sales growth can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Distributors work hard to pass along cost increases and to nurture their accounts, but the only factor they really have con-trol over is increasing market share. Tak-ing business away from competitors needs to be an active process even when the economy is bad.

As the prices for companies cool down, 2008 and beyond may present a golden

opportunity to make small, low-risk ac-quisitions to jumpstart market-share growth.

The most important message for dis-tributors: The most important message to distributor executives for 2008 is to not get distracted, said J. Michael Marks, managing partner at Indian River Con-sulting Group. The coming year will be one of uncertainty, and many will get con-

sumed with the ups and downs of current events.

Peter Drucker often spoke about the op-portunities in chaos, and Marks said he firmly believes that the distributors who win during 2008 will be the ones who stay focused and get their execution of funda-mentals right.

Keep confidence in your country, the un-derlying strength of our economy, and your personal leadership. Support your channel partners but challenge them

when necessary. This is easy to describe but hard to do, he added.

W-Ds may face tough year in 2008: Most wholesaler-distributors will find 2008 to be the toughest economy in nearly five years, said Pembroke Con-sulting President and NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow Adam J. Fein Ph.D.

Use the changing environment to make the tough decisions and sur-vive. Growth has allowed some distributors to over-serve unprofitable custom-ers, but a downturn is the right time to review cost-to-serve economics and focus

on your truly profitable customers.

Hopefully, you have used the recent pe-riod of economic growth to clean up your company’s balance sheet.

If so, a business slowdown can be the best time to invest in productivity-enhancing automation and new technolo-gies because the pressure of day-to-day business is lower.

- NAW SmartBrief Special Report

“ The most important message to distributor executives for 2008 is to not get distracted.”

J. Michael Marks, managing partner, Indian River Consulting Group

8 | News & Views

Dow Jones Steel Indexes

News & Views | 9

Beware of Loss of Frequent-Flyer Miles

As airlines impose new requirements including forfeiture of frequent-flyer miles, it behooves frequent flyers to be aware of the potential loss of their miles and to take steps to avoid such forfeitures. While miles used to have unlimited life, now air-lines repeatedly impose three-year activity forfeiture, and some will forfeit unused miles after 18 months or even after 12 months of inactivity in the flyer’s account.

So how do you keep your account active? This will vary with the programs offered by airlines, but many of them will credit miles for retail purchases, credit card use, subscribing to pub-lications, booking a vacation, banking online, and all sorts of other third-party transactions that have nothing to do with fly-ing.

Howe and Hutton: Here is a use to consider for miles about to expire or perhaps on an airline you simply don’t fly anymore: donate the miles to www.fisherhouse.com where they can be used to fly a wounded veteran or family members to join the wounded veteran undergoing medical care at distant medical facilities. It is a much better use than just having them expire.

Is It Or Is It Not an EEOC Formal Charge of Age Discrimination?

The U.S. Supreme Court asked Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawyers whether a preliminary “intake statement” from an employee constitutes an actionable charge against the employee’s employer.

The underlying issue before the Supreme Court is whether such a statement constitutes an actionable charge or is merely an introductory statement, crucial to determining whether an employer is required to defend against the charge which de-termines when the 60-day waiting period between when a charge is submitted to the EEOC and the filing of a lawsuit is permitted. Employers rely on the 60-day period to possibly settle claims and head off such lawsuits. If the 60-day period has not passed, the employer moves for judgment saying that the lawsuit was not timely filed. Employees may assume filing an intake statement constitutes a charge against an employer, thus triggering necessary action by the EEOC, but that is not necessarily the case. Now it is up to the Supreme Court to de-cide what constitutes an “actionable charge” under federal law.

Howe and Hutton: Employers and employees have a lot at stake on the outcome of this decision. Which way will the Supreme Court go on deciding whether a preliminary filing on the part of an employee constitutes an “actionable charge”? Until there is clarity from the Supreme Court, federal appellate courts may take difference positions, and employers and employees will be unclear as to what they must do to plead and defend cases which require EEOC scrutiny before lawsuits are filed.

Wireless Access on Airplanes is Getting Closer

Possibly in 2008 but more likely in 2009, airline passengers will be reunited with their e-mail and other wireless connections while flying. American, Qantas, Lufthansa, Qatar and Ryanair are just some of the airlines working with companies trying to solve the technological steps involved.

It appears a year or two out that passengers will pay a per-flight fee for wireless access but that will be of little conse-

quence to business travelers who will typically expense the cost. European and Middle Eastern airlines will probably be the first to offer wireless access.

Howe and Hutton: There are advantages and disadvantages to always being available. Flying was one of the activities which allowed some “away” time from always being connected. Be careful what you wish for.

If You Don’t Want to See It on a Large Screen, Don’t E-Mail It

Corporate clients and their lawyers are literally and figura-tively tearing their hair out over e-mails sent by employees which can come back to haunt their employers in litigation mat-ters. The concern is that employees chat on the Internet via e-mail, saying things they might say in casual conversations at the office without much forethought and without recognition that their words are all but etched in electronic stone. Employ-ees including executives simply fail to consider that off-handed comments can and do matter, and even when deleted, still can be traced by forensic software. The problem is that off-handed comments can be taken out of context and used to indicate the whole of a conversation that never took place, or an agreement or plan that was never intended or implemented, but when seen online and printed out looks devastating.

Howe and Hutton: Associations are just as prone to these prob-lems as their corporate members. Associations must be very careful to remind their employees that e-mails and other elec-tronic communications are not private, and are very much subject to discovery in the course of litigation. If you don’t want to see it in bold-faced print in the national news media or on a large screen before a jury, don’t e-mail it. Those e-mails linger in some computer’s memory for years and years and years - and are sub-ject to disclosure at the most disconcerting times.

Be Careful Whose Picture You Use

A number of lawsuits have been filed by persons whose picture has been posted online to a photograph-sharing Internet ser-vice owned by Yahoo called “Flickr.”

Flickr is a social network based on sharing of photographs. The litigation is based on the use of photographs for commercial purposes by third parties who download photographs, usually with credit given to the photographer who posted the photo-graph to get around the copyright issue. But the litigation is based on invasion of privacy because the persons appearing in the photographs have not given permission for their photo-graphs to be used for commercial purposes.

Howe & Hutton: It remains to be seen how these lawsuits play out, but there are a number of them pending. The underlying point for associations is to be sure their photographers are not posting photographs from association events on Flickr or other such net-works.

The Legal Update, available at www.howehutton.com, is de-signed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or professional service through its distribu-tion. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Con-tributors to this issue are Jonathan T. Howe, Terrence Hutton, John M. Peterson and David W. Norris.

Legal Update: The Howe & Hutton Report