Letter From the Executive Director
Letter from the Executive Director
Someone once asked, how do you eat an elephant? An elephant is a pretty large animal and good old Google search engine says that the average African elephant weighs about 15,000 lbs. That's more than 62,000 MacDonald's Quarter Pounders. How could one person possibly eat an entire elephant? The answer is "one bit at a time." When you have a large list of things on your "To Do List" then you have to tackle them one at a time or you will get overwhelmed. The good news is the elephant is getting smaller and smaller (please don't show this to PETA or we might get in trouble). We have completely transferred the operations to Alabama where it's located in the RandallReilly Publishing building and are up to date on our financial reporting too. Our website is updated, redesigned and the "look and feel" of the new site is cleaner and easy to read.. Since many of our members are on the road and have a slow Internet connection we wanted it to be easy to load and easy to read. We always need videos and pictures. The trucking industry has been very receptive to the Trucker Buddy message. In my opinion we have the best image program in the industry and deserves to be supported. ArvinMeritor agreed to continue its support as has Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions, Cat Scale, Wal-Mart, OOIDA and many others. We added Frito-Lay and Daimler Truck Products as sponsors and will be working closely with them. Three Board of Directors completed their eight-year terms and have moved to our Advisory Council. They are Mike Pennington, Don Nehring, and Greg Shipman. All three have been fantastic supporters of Trucker Buddy and we are thrilled they decided to stay on as advisors. It will be impossible to replace them but we now have three new Board members, Brad Williamson (Detroit Diesel), Steve Gundale (Dart Transit) and Heather DeBaillie (Cat Scale). With their background in the industry and enthusiasm for Trucker Buddy, we know they can help us move forward. One of my good friends in the industry challenged me to develop more directed messages for Trucker Buddy so Sustaining Our World was begun. This program shows teachers and students how the trucking industry is saving our natural resources for future generations. We will have a coloring contest and create a curriculum for the teachers, and then award some classrooms with some prizes. It's an exciting new program and we will be announcing several more new and exciting plans for the future. Well, I have to get back to eating that big elephant so give me a call if you want to know how much of it I have left. By the way I'll save a couple of Quarter Pounders for you! Randy Schwartzenburg Executive Director
www.truckerbuddy.org
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