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- Dryvit internal e-mail -

Date: 9/30/98 9:31 AM

Sender: Tony Stall

To: Steve Collins

cc: Duncan Crowther; Peter Balint

Priority: Normal

Subject: EIMA Membership

Steve,

Senergy is out of EIMA. Now what will they do? It is logical that as a first step, they will have to explain to their distributers why they have dropped out, They will say that the organization is weak, and no longer serves Senergy's best interests. They will encourage their distributors to drop out as well, siting the need for joint resolve.I think we have to be prepared for Senergy to declare publicly that they (like USG???) have "seen the light" and that is why they have 1) settled, and 2) could no longer be involved with EIMA, which acts to defend a position they no longer believe in.

Perhaps now, more than ever, we need EIMA to be a strong, viable, enitity capable of interating positively on the industry's behalf. If we cannot maintain this position and the organization dwindles, or even dissolves, Synergy will be seen as having led, or been responsible for, this occurence. Senergy and USG would love for this to happen. Can we afford to allow it?

One way to help EIMA remain viable and vibrant would be to increase the membership. This more than ever would demonstrate to our detractors that the organization is healthy. And, we could use such a membership drive to further our own goals of promoting advanced products. Here's how.

We set up a way for our distributors to have their EIMA dues paid by us, or a percentage thereof, through purchases of certain products i.e. Genesis. We could allocate a small percentage of sales of this group of products as the "EIMA allowance" which, once reached, would ensure the distributor the next year's membership was paid by Dryvit. They would have to agree, up front, that they would attend the annual meeting as their part of the deal. I believe that the distributors would react positively to this plan, since the only reasons I have heard for not joining have related to the dues structure. Further, we would not just make this a Dryvit plan. We could present it to the marketing committee as our idea, providing other suppliers offered a similar plan to their network.

The plan, if accepted, would show a unified response to Senergy's departure, and more importantly, help increase the membership at a time we most need it.

What do you think?