On February 1 & 2, 2002 we held our first corporate retreat in Fountain Hills, AZ. The intent of the meeting was to bring our senior managers from Manatts Inc. and our sister companies together.

Those in attendance were:

Manatts, Inc  Brad Manatt John Manatt Mike Manatt Tim Manatt Tom Manatt JC Miller Dan Boyer Aspro, Inc.  Brad Blough Norris Asphalt  Brady Meldrem Basic Materials  Chris Dinsdale Pelling  Chuck Finnegan NW Company  Curt Manatt Bard & Apex  Denny Thier CMT  Doug Clement Marquart Block   John Thiele Norris Agg  Pat Garrett Illowa  Randy Soedt WQI  Tony Manatt

Deb White served as retreat coordinator and we hired Hank Harris with FRI to be the facilitator.

The goals of the company retreat were:

Develop Corporate Direction
Best Practices
Communication
Socialization

I feel our goals were met and I will try to summarize the results.

On socialization, this goal was easily met. Many of the participants had never met each other. After two to three days together, I think everyone got to know the others a lot better.

On communication, we had a lot of interaction amongst one another. The program required a considerable amount of open discussion and participation. We established committees to further develop communication in the following areas:

Accounting and
Banking

Centralized Pur-
chasing

Insurance and
Bonding

Establish Recogni-
tion and Apprecia-
tion Program

Increase Safety
Accountability

We set timelines and all committees should have initial reports by June 1, 2002.

On best practices, we split into three groups; ready mix, asphalt, and aggregates. Each group had a discussion on their best practices; what they do best and how. Then each group reported back to the whole group. We formed a best practices task force for each group. Their timeline is to establish a best practices and uniform program no later than April 1, 2002.

On the last day we focused on corporate direction. We developed nine goals for a five-year plan listed as follows:

Improve safety Objectives: Experience Modification Rate at max of .85 Reduce incidence rate by 25%

Be the buyer of choice for acquisition targets in our chosen markets.

Improve profitability and efficiency through best practices.

Achieve 90% participation in wellness program.

Create career-training opportunities for all employees.

Be a leader in our core markets.

Achieve best possible liquid position with best of class cash management.

Improve total Return of Investment 5% annually through 2007.

Achieve an element of diversification and/or new market in each business unit by 2007.

As you can see we had a very informative and productive two days. Now the hard part!!! We must act in concert to make sure our objectives and goals are met. Each committee or goal was assigned a chairperson. Their responsibility is to see fruition of their assignment. It should be noted, I intentionally left out who was chairman of what. This is to give them time to set up their committees. We should hear from them in the upcoming months, then I can name names. Look for additional information in following issues of the “Mirror”.