Williams Heavy Industries

Despite the fact that it has been plagued by a string of unexplained fatal shootings, our annual Northeastern middle-management wilderness retreat, aka 'Stud Hike', will go on as usual and remains manditory.  Mr. Williams will be unable to attend and instead will once again be spending the weekend with some fellow big game hunters.  He wishes everyone the best of luck.

This year's 'Stud Hike' schedule will follow the same general outline as in years past.

1. Fri afternoon - Arrival - Remember to label your keys and leave them in the key basket in case someone else has to drive your car home.  And let's make a better effort to carpool this year - we don't want to end with more cars than drivers at the end of the weekend again.
2. Fri 8:00pm - Welcome BBQ and Campfire Sing-along
   
3. Sat 6:00am-8:00am - Breakfast - Load up because it's going to be a long day.
4. Sat 8:00am-9:00am - Registration - We don't need to remind you that registration is manditory for everyone - no exceptions, no excuses.
5. Sat 10:00am - Normal Head Start - I think we can all agree that 2 hours is a very generous head start.
6. Sat 11:00am - Penalty Head Start - Let's not have too many late starters this year - I have been instructed to tell you that it makes the event "less sporting".
7. Sat 12:00pm-Dusk - The 'Main Event' - This character-building, every-man-for-himself activity tests your survival skills and teaches you to think under pressure.  As always, the main event begins at high noon with a gun shot (the first of many) and ends at dusk due to local hunting regulations.  Good luck to everyone and we hope to see most of you in the morning.
8. Sun 6:00am-8:00am - The Survivors Breakfast - this is always a bittersweet affair as we are so happy and relieved to see our friends and co-workers but eventually realize who is missing.

Rules - Any violation of the following rules will result in a 1 hour reduction of the attendee's head start:

• Everyone must register and do so on time
• No cell phones or other communication or recording devices
• No GPS
• No firearms
• No bulletproof vests
• No scouting for hiding places ahead of time
• Numbered bulls-eyes must be wore at all times

This year lets all try particularly hard to avoid the kind of excuse-making, pleading, whimpering and other such unpleasantness that detracts from the memory of those who have fallen so nobly in previous years and cheapens the great tradition of this heard-thinning event.  Let's also try to be mindful of the schedule and the rules so that, together, we can make this an especially enjoyable Stud Hike for those of us who survive.

We believe that the current economic downturn is the perfect time to reconsider some of the many government regulations that have served to constrain the progress of forward-looking companies like WHI.  We invite you to join us in our 'WHI Not?' symposium - an open discussion about ways to turn back the tide of burdensome government regulation in the US and hopefully spark a national conversation on the need for the kind of unfettered industrial growth that will grow American jobs.  America is the greatest country on earth.  'WHI Not' overturn years of run-away government regulation?  'WHI Not' make it easier to create the jobs that will insure a brighter future for our children?  'WHI Not' allow American businesses at least as much oportunity at unregulated growth as you might find in Bolivia?  'WHI Not', indeed.

A few facts that you may be shocked to learn:

• The US ban on the use of DDT whcih included our highly-effective products, 'Silent Cornfield' and 'Weavel-Be-Gone', lead to the relocation of our central Alabama production facilities to our ill-fated plant in northern India and resulted in the loss of dozens of American jobs.  This ban not only continues to deny us one the the world's largest markets for these successful products; it also denies the American people the benefits of their use.
• The federal restrictions against mining and exploratory drilling in our national parks and preserves severely inhibits our ability to make productive use of some of the last unharvested lands in our great country.
• Our nation is blessed with an abundance of water and vast open space.  But did you know that to some extent the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, despite their feel-good names, actually make it more difficult to fully use the bountiful water and air to dispose of our industrial waste?
• Despite our preimminence as a world power, the US ranks 47th* in the amount of regulation that American industry must tolerate.