Throughout WWI, the NHLA inspection staff was at the disposal of the United States Government and its allies. World War II also brought the NHLA into service to benefit the war effort, and NHLA threw is full weight into the struggle for victory. NHLA staff helped develop specifications to govern the materials used in training camps, housing, and plant construction. During this period of high demand, the NHLA inspection staff increased from 28 men handling 6-million-feet monthly in December of 1941, to 88 men handling 22-million feet monthly in 1945. The NHLA is a membership-based association with six member categories. NHLA membership offers opportunities to make industry contacts, grow business relations, connect with buyers and sellers around the world, education, training, resources, promotion and marketing, and a vehicle to have business' voices heard at the highest levels of government through the Hardwood Federation. The categories of membership are explained below. In the late 1940s, demand for hardwoods continued to be brisk, but there was a shortage of competent individuals to properly grade hardwoods under the NHLA rules. Lumber was being sold without adequate inspection, and this led to dissatisfaction with the product, which cast a negative shadow on the entire industry. Short courses had previously been held to teach the grading rules, but they were not enough to solve the problem. The NHLA responded by establishing a temporary school. At the time, Memphis, Tennessee was known as the “hardwood capital of the world,” so the city was the logical location for the new school. The first Inspector Training School classes were held in Downtown Memphis in 1948. Nickey Brothers Lumber Company generously offered ground for a building site, and a one-story building was erected in 1949. This building was specifically designed for teaching hardwood lumber grading and included a large classroom, lumber storage, and facilities for practice grading. The success of the school is due to the interest and cooperation of the association's members. Many members furnished students with lumber for grading practice and hired the growing number of trained inspectors. Not only has the school provided a reservoir of needed inspectors, but it has also supplied numerous mill operators, proprietors, and sales executives. The NHLA has a long history of being involved in the national and international issues that affect the hardwood lumber industry. In 1976, the hardwood lumber industry was concerned with the long-standing practice of the footage as an allowance for shrinkage in lumber measured after kiln drying. This practice was challenged as being misleading, and there was a difference of opinion among industry leaders as to how this issue would be resolved.