NSA Conference Oct.22

The National Slate Asociation conference has been taking place in Saratoga, NY between the 7th and 9th of October 2022. After few years obliged to canceled events due to the COVID 19, it has been a great opportunity to be able to meet all togethers again.

be natural® has been proud to participate at this event and be GOLD Sponsor of the Conference.

More than 80 people have been attending the event between the Quarry Tour, the Slate Museum, the Round Tables and the Lake George Dinner cruise ! Great time !

A special thanks to Clay, Bob, Tom, Brian for organising the event and a big aplause to Tom, our new prsident of the N.S.A !

We have been able to exchange all points of views and the sum up has been that our slate resources have been reduced over the last 10 years on the top of labour shortage and little investments in the industry so we are now facing a lack of roofing slates in the US. On the top of this, other roofing products like wood shake have increased by 100% or the clay tiles increased by 80% so the demand on the Natural slates which increased only 20% during the same period, has created an extra demand ! So future looks good as long as we look after our Quarries because our product is unique ! be natural®

We would like to mention the great job of the Slate Valley Museum of Granville between New York and Vermont border, which contribute to put more value to our product. Located in the heart of «Slate Valley,» this was one of the major slate mining areas of the United States over a century ago. The thing that made this most unusual is that this valley produced the only known large quantity of naturally colored slate in the world. Because of this rarity, colored slate was a hit commodity for wealthy businessmen and home builders. The Slate Valley Museum tells the story of this hard, demanding quarry work done by immigrants throughout the 25-mile area. The museum is gorgeous in that many of the colors of natural slate are on exhibit on the walls and floors of the museum. This is an amazing museum. Well done !