Our goal for this new bulletin board is to be a key online gathering place for tile industry professionals, a place where information, as well as opinions, are openly shared and discussed. If this seems like a tall order, it is, but our experience with other Web sites has shown us that bulletin boards can be a valuable tool for the industry. For example, the Web site for our sister publication, Floor Covering Installer, has seen a steady increase in its traffic since the bulletin board was started, and it is now the most popular area of the site, drawing thousands of installers each month. On that site, installers log on every day to post questions about specific techniques and even specific installations, and their questions are answered by their fellow installers. One bulletin board member told us that he had posted a question about a job he was working on, and before starting the job, had to stop by his office to check the response -this example shows the level of experience at work on that site.

It is this level of experience and communication that we hope to achieve with the Tile Magazine bulletin board. In order to get to this level, we need your participation, your knowledge, your experience. The bulletin board will go online to correspond with the release of this issue of TILE Magazine, so by the time you read this, the bulletin board will be available for you. Please take a moment to visit the bulletin board and sign up, and be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about the board as well. With your participation, we hope to make this bulletin board an integral part of the ceramic tile community.