Happy first day of Spring everyone! Many of you are reporting that you've already started to feel the season "spring" into action early this year. It is certainly a sign that we are starting to see glimmers in the economy coming back to life.

When the recession hit five years ago, new pool construction abruptly stopped. Now that the economy is starting to recover, backhoes and workers are starting to fill backyards again and new pools are going in. Many of you know about Construction Monitor and more than likely stopped subscribing to the service after the economic downturn. For those of you who are not familiar with Construction Monitor, they are a web based company that has been in business since 1989 providing weekly building permit information to industry professionals. It is a subscription service and the reports are compiled by county. You can subscribe to one or all of the counties you service and compile a list of homeowners with pools for marketing purposes.

I have heard many positive stories from those that already use the service. Getting this list gives them early access to those building a pool and the opportunity to sell the benefits of solar pool heating to them before their competition. Even if they don't buy initially, this same potential customer is perfect to market to after owning the pool for 2 -5 years since they are probably not enjoying it as much as they thought they would because the pool is just too cold.

For those of you interested in subscribing to Construction Monitor or learning more about their services their website is <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001BG74qGV779iNa1vaHjYKELy7u5_SDZyvxFBz2t-E1VLskggRux2DQUF1viTc6wH-wc4Iu7mYHAVgxRdFDCwIewRmtN2Jx3jZisRxtUrj4g_7ymG7jztuCBTggrxcj-6xyjyAEWeQwb0=" target="_blank" shape="rect">https://www.constructionmonitor.com/</a>

Now for the numbers! First off - I try to get this memo and report out to you complete in a timely manner every month, but often find myself waiting weeks for just one or two more sales numbers. In the future, if I don't have your numbers by the 15th of the month I'll be using DNR, which will stand for DID NOT REPORT instead of a "0" from this point forward. Let's hope I'll never have to use it!

<strong>Mark Naylor</strong> is the top salesman in the country for February with 29 sales. Another great month Mark! <strong>Bill Long</strong> from Stilwell Solar came in 2nd place with 26 sales. Outstanding Bill! Rounding out the top 3 is <strong>Dennis Esposito</strong> from Performance Solar with 19 sales for February. Welcome back Dennis!!

<strong>Stilwell Solar</strong> is the number one dealer with 301 collectors installed for the month. Congratulations to Bill and the entire team at Stilwell! <strong>Mark Naylor</strong> Solar Specialists came in 2nd with 217 collectors. Nice job, Mark! 3rd place goes to <strong>Performance Solar</strong> with 133 collectors for the month. Fabulous February, Dennis!

Aquatherm's upcoming events:
<ul>
	<li>NABCEP Continuing Education Conference, April 12th  - 14th in Malta, NY</li>
	<li>Intersolar North America, July 9th - 11th in San Francisco, California</li>
	<li>Solar Power International, October 21st - 24th in Chicago, Illinois</li>
</ul>
If you would like more information on these events or are in need of a badge for the trade shows please contact me directly and I will be happy to help you.

As a reminder, Aquatherm will be closed on Friday, March 29th for the holiday weekend. We will reopen on Monday, April 1st.

Lastly, Dawn is out for eight weeks until mid-May. In her absence, Pati, Janet, Carol, Dan and I will all be doing their best to cover for her. Please be patient if we just don't get to something as quick as you're accustomed to. Dawn should be back just in time for the thick of the season.