Welch Tile is a people company and WE are proud of our association with NTCA and the many changes in which we’ve been involved. Eric Astrachan TCNA Executive Director In 1993, I first met Joe Tarver at Mees Tile in Columbus, Ohio; he was the fea- tured entertain- ment and expert on all things tile. I didn’t know who he was, but he was sure helpful, friendly, and enter- taining. Around the same time we first met Joe, my wife and I bought the build- ing in which we were making art tile in the back. Who knew it was zoned retail and we would be forced to open a tile store? All good except that our town of 20,000 only had two genuine full-time installers, and people would wait a year to get on their installation calendar. It wasn’t hard to sell our tile, but it was hard to get it installed. I remember in particular when some remodeler, posing as an installer, had his customer bring back all the corner decos – according to him cutting the tile made it crack. We needed installers in a hurry and my limited knowledge – gleaned from college work in the ’70s – wasn’t going to get the job done. I took a trip to the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation (CTEF) back in the early days of Michael Bryne that resulted in my one and only helper quitting. Apparently spending a day “learn- ing” how to grind concrete indoors in South Carolina with the AC off and the windows and doors closed wasn’t his idea of shared fun, or he was just smarter about silicosis back then. After CTEF, I joined NTCA and went to my first meeting, where besides seeing Joe again, I was welcomed by the likes of Bob Roberson and Doyle Dickerson. That first meeting stands out in my mind, both for everything I learned from the speakers, but especially what I learned from other installers over meals and beers. I don’t know that I have ever learned so much so fast, but of course I was starting with a pretty blank slate. I came to learn that ITSE (now Coverings) and the NTCA meeting were the two meetings I could never afford to miss, no matter how busy. As the years went by, it was again and again that NTCA contractors taught me the essential information I was lacking to grow. My Regional Director was Dave Gobis, and he stopped by a few times on my jobsites; somehow he always had something to critique. And Doyle helped me understand how to go from making only enough money to keep everybody fed and employed, to really being successful. We also served together on the board of CTEF, back in the day when turf wars were still being fought between mortar and thinset, between NTCA and Tile Council of North America (TCNA), and between everybody and the union. As history would have it, along the way I went from being a tile manufac- turer and installer to an association guy. NTCA figured large again – my first day on the job was September 17th, 2001 going to the NTCA meet- ing in Nashville. After driving all night, Celebrating 70 years 106 TileLetter | September 2017