b'BUSINESS tionallyuseconferencecallsorwas released and pointed members short person-to-person contact, hetoward the paperwork to try to fill explained. Now we have peopleout as quickly as possible.from the same location conferenc- Dan Welch,CEO, Welch Tile& ingfromtheirofficemostsignifi- Marble in Kent City, Mich., said the cantly so that we can share screenscompany has been using Zoom for and update/present information toover two years with consultants from thegroupwithoutviolatingtheout of the country, while BombBomb social distancing standard. isnewtothefirm.Wevehadit At Heritage Marble & Tile in Millfor two weeks and were just start-Valley,Calif.,thecompanyhasing to get the hang of it, he said. adopted Google Duo to communi- IhavebeenusingMicrosoftto cate as a company. Martin Brookes,finalize our apprenticeship program founder and presi- for six months. All dent,hasbeenwork well and take attendingmanysometimetoget webinarsregard- usedto,andall ingthePaycheckarebeingusedat Protection Programa larger level after andfeltthattheythe COVID-19 out-have given, for thebreak.Zoomand mostpart,suf- Martin Brookes,Microsoft are greatDan Welch, ficientinforma- Heritage Marbleto record the meet- Welch Tile and & Tile Marbletiontoguidemeing and make notes through the process.when the meeting is over. Both are Henotedherecentlyattendedmuch better forms of communica-an NTCA webinar that had recordtion because you can see the body attendance. I see this continuinglanguage.for the foreseeable future, he said.As for the future, Brookes believesThisisgoodnewsintheuncer- we are entering into a new era of tain times we are living in. Socialhow we do work and business, as distancinghasitschallengesandthesituationhasforcedusinto people are just looking for ways tobeing creative and making use of keep social given that their regulartools that we hadnt adopted previ-channelshavebrokendown.Itsously. Because we are creatures of important for mental health to dohabit,Ibelievewewillcontinue this and feel connected to a com- to use these tools in one form or munityofsomekind.Ibelieveanother moving forward.NTCAprovidedthis.IpostedaIve come to realize that I can be video in the NTCA Members Onlymore productive on my office side of FacebookgroupwhenthePPPthe business and fewer site visits are 34TileLetter | June 2020'