ICFA creates Retail Council

Names Greg Martin as chairman

-- Casual Living, 8/21/2009 4:13:00 PM

Martin	Watson

The International Casual Furnishings Association has established a Retail Council to provide a forum for member retailers to discuss issues of common concern and to develop benefits and services for the ICFA retail membership.

The Council also will work to advance the ICFA’s mission of creating the desire for quality outdoor furnishings through industry partnerships.

Retail Council officers will serve one-year terms, while general council members will serve one-to three-year terms.

Greg Martin, owner of Kolo Collection, Atlanta, has been named chairman. Assisting him at the helm of the Retail Council will be Cathy Galbreath Watson of ABSCO Fireplace & Patio in Birmingham, Ala.

Council members serving one-year terms include Martin; Paul DeMerlis, The Sign of the Skier, Toronto, Ontario; Mary Fruehauf, Fruehauf’s Patio & Garden Center, Boulder, Colo., and Becky Stover, Stover Hearth & Patio, Frederick, Md.

Members of the council serving two-year terms include Watson; Keith Guidry, Percy Guidry Hearth & Patio, Lafayette, La.; Joanne Klime, Stauffers of Kissel Hill, Lititz, Pa., and Larry Talbott, Fishel’s, Portland, Ore.

Council members serving three-year terms include Gary Ecoff, Carls Patio, Boca Raton, Fla.; Audrey Opdyke Edelhauser, Opdyke Furniture, Point Pleasant, N.J., and Kristine Schultz-Hutchinson, Patios Plus, Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Talbott and Ecoff also will serve as liaisons to the ICFA Board.