OTA Summer 2016

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Issue 3, Summer 2016
BART SHERMAN
OTA Chair
Welcome to the next edition of the Dispatch
with the theme of past, present, and future.
Our featured company in this issue is Reddaway
Trucking with a look back at their history. Each
trucking company in Oregon has its own unique
back story and path to success and many, like
Reddaway, have called Oregon home for many
years. It’s these companies that form the
backbone of Oregon trucking, as well as OTA
and truly deserve to be recognized and celebrated.
We’ve had a string of successful events this
summer, including the Truck Driving
Championships, TMC Maintenance Fair/
SuperTech competition and the Truck PAC golf
tournament. I want to thank everyone who came
out for these events as participants, attendees and
sponsors. Your support of these major events,
along with our training programs and other
council meetings keep OTA’s mission and
outreach a dynamic part of the association itself.
OTA’s next big event is coming up in September
at our annual Leadership Convention at Eagle
Crest in Redmond, Oregon. We already have a
number of engaging speakers lined up, plus a
number of activities to promote attendee
interaction with our Allied members, as well as
plenty of networking opportunities to catch up
with friends and colleagues. The convention will
mark the passage of my first year of a two year
term in office. As I look back over my first year
in office, time seems to have flown by. Along
with working toward our goals, each week seems
to bring another issue that requires attention,
which is a very familiar scenario for those of us
who run a trucking company in Oregon.
Some of the highlights of my first year include:
` ` The success of our events. The participation
and quality of our events is up and this has
led to a financial benefit to our association.
` ` The quality of our staff. We made some
changes to our staff mid-stream, but as you can
see from item one above as an example, this
has led to greater results and I believe the
results in the future will be even better.
` ` We have been working at having greater input
from our committees and task forces, along
with the formation of several new committees.
In the future, I believe our committees will be
stronger and contribute even more, to the
ultimate benefit of the association.
` ` We have been able to raise our revenues by a
small amount. With success in cost controls
and our events, we have been able to
financially perform much better. I believe
our efforts with non-traditional revenue
sources and plans to make our events even
bigger and better than last year’s, we will
continue make the association stronger.
` ` The political environment. Fees and taxation
and labor issues continue to expand each
year. With next year being a full legislative
session, this year will probably seem mild in
comparison. We must rally behind the
association and get our voice heard.
In the present, the association has been doing
some spring/summer cleaning. The interior of
the office was painted; we have a new phone
system being installed and have board room
wired for presentations. We have changed our
website provider with a primary goal of ease of
use to reduce time and effort to get things done.
For the future, I look forward to closing out
some of my goals:
` ` Increase membership
` ` Increase Truck PAC donations
` ` Get our new committees up and running:
Dues Taskforce, Allied Members Committee
and Public Awareness and Image Committee
` ` Streamline current committees
` ` Social media direction
` ` OTA safety and compliance strategy
It’s been a pleasure to serve the organization
and I look forward to another year. 
CHAIR’S MESSAGE
I want to thank everyone who came out for these
events as participants, attendees and sponsors.