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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
FROM THE PRESIDENT
JANA JARVIS
OTA President
Happy 2016! January has flown by
and,
while we are well on our way with this year’s
plans, I want to take a moment to review what
we accomplished in 2015.
We turned the corner of a declining
membership base. While the acquisitions
and mergers in our industry continued, we
grew our membership by over 5% and we will
maintain this level of outreach throughout
2016. Our goal? To grow our membership by
10% with the result being a stronger, more
representative organization for the trucking
industry.
Our event calendar was busy in 2015 with
the purpose of offering you a wide variety of
educational and networking opportunities.
From member mixers to the Fall’s
On the
Road
meetings, we touched over 200 of our
own members and added new members to the
fold. The Spring
Leadership & Safety Summit
,
hosted by OTA and our Safety Management
Council, provided great
education and networking
opportunities and was
well received by attendees.
The
Truck Driving
Championship
in June
drew a large number
of competitors—and
their families—and was
a great day showcasing the talent in our
industry. Shortly following that event was the
Maintenance Fair & SuperTech
, organized
by our Technology & Maintenance Council,
which included a wide range of participants
including student competitors from Oregon
colleges.
During the summer, we hosted the annual
Truck PAC Golf Tournament
at Langdon
Farms in Aurora. A great Oregon summer
day only enhanced the mood of the golfers
and we were successful in raising over
$12,000 for our PAC! In September we hosted
an
Annual Meeting
at the Wilsonville
Holiday Inn. Guest speaker Kelly Anderson
addressed a packed room, delivering an
insightful presentation on the topic of driver
recruitment. We wrapped up the year by
introducing a new event—the
OTA Holiday
Party
at the Pacific NW Truck Museum.
Over 70 members joined in our “Night at
the Museum” where everyone enjoyed great
food, great fun and the great opportunity to
see much of Oregon’s history in the trucking
industry up close and personal.
And there’s more! We welcomed back
Oregon’s own John Sallak to re-engage in
OTA’s safety training and outreach. John has
grown our class offerings and is committed
to providing consulting and education on
OTA’s behalf over the coming year. He is
also developing new products, which will be
unveiled at the upcoming
Safety Summit
in Springfield this coming April. We have
exciting plans in the safety department at
OTA and welcome your input and feedback as
these new offerings come online.
We also survived a very difficult legislative
session in 2015.
Thankfully, we have
Bob Russell on our team in Salem as he
maneuvered through several attempts at
legislation that would have affected you
negatively. Some of those efforts, such as
Paid Sick Leave, did move forward but we
have worked closely with the Bureau of
Labor & Industries to better define your
responsibilities and to be available as
questions arise.
Of course, looking forward there is a lot of
work to do in 2016. As I write this column,
Oregon’s legislative session starts in a week
and there are several very difficult issues
on the table. Some of these will likely be
addressed by the Legislature, while others will
move forward to the ballot box this November.
Either way, we need to step up our political
game and our first priority is to strengthen
the
Truck PAC
. To play competitively in the
upcoming election cycle, OTA will need at
least $200K. To date, we have raised $50K. If
you haven’t already done so, I encourage you
to read the previous issue of the
Dispatch
which highlighted the importance of the
Truck PAC and outlined what we’re up
against.
OTA intends to leverage the strength
of our membership and create better
opportunities for you to interact with
your members of the Legislature via mail,
Our event calendar is nearly
complete and you can expect
some top-notch training and
networking opportunities in
the coming months.