President’s Message

I can hardly believe another year has passed.  I would like to extend my thanks to my Conference Committee, they did an incredible job.  The presentations were well received and provided some insight on how others work.  I hope everyone learned a lot, rekindled some old friendships and had a good time.  Stay tuned in 2007 as we will try to bring the Chinese presenters to you.  I know there were some issues with the coffee service and the limitations of our locations.  Also due to area limitations, we tried some different entertainment this year.  They seemed to be crowd pleasers and we will try to do the same in San Diego.  Check back soon for a quick survey that will be posted on the website to help us plan the 2007 conference.  Thanks to everyone who was able to attend and provide the feedback on the surveys. 

The membership cards handed out at the conference as your name tags will be used at all trainings from this point forward.  Each region will have a card scanner for you to swipe your card at check in.  The membership database will tell us whether your membership is current or needs to be renewed.  Please keep these cards with you for these training sessions as it will hopefully make the check-in process flow quicker and smoother. 

The new board members are in place for the next two years.  Hopefully this will help to keep things running in the same direction.  I would like to see a process put into place so  the conference in the North and the South use the same process so we do not reinvent the wheel, the merchandise ordered will be the same amount etc…  This will make planning the conferences a little easier and allow us to concentrate on finding quality speakers. 

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for the conference or anything else, feel free to contact myself or any board member as we are always happy to have your input.  After all this is your association.

Thank you again for another successful year,

Matt Thomas