In This Edition:
Presidential
Message
Annual Dues Renewal Time
Tom Berg Retires From Dispatch Editor Position
TWNA.ORG Update
Call For Agenda Items For MATS 2002 Meeting
Winner Of TWNA Scholarship
Thanks From Ruth Jones' Family
Report On Positive Trucking Articles
A Few Words About Computer Security
Support The FDNY Widows & Children's Fund
On The Lighter Side
Next Issue Due Out 12/15/01 - Deadline
For Materials 12/10/01!
President's Message
As a journalist I'm accustomed to explaining things as much as
reporting on them, but six weeks after September 11th, I find
myself at a loss to say anything truly constructive or even meaningful.
Yet I also feel the need -- even an obligation -- to do exactly
that. Call it a professional millstone.
It's my guess that,
as practising communicators, all TWNA members feel something similar.
Those of us who edit
magazines or have a 'soapbox' of some other sort do, in fact,
have an obligation to add perspective to the events that color
our readers' business lives. Like it or not, if we're doing our
jobs well, many people look to us for clarity, for a sort of leadership.
Usually, that's difficult; today, in the wake of unprecedented
horror, on-going threats, and a recession to boot, it's an enormous
challenge.
The question, then,
is what can we do? What can we possibly say?
Waving the flag of
patriotism isn't enough here, nor can we credibly suggest that
life will return to normal if we just get on with business as
usual. Absolutely, we must do both those things, but we must also
recognize that 'normal' has changed forever. None of us can define
the new world we've been forced to join, so we're left, it seems
to me, with promoting an idea: that there's every reason to be
optimistic.
We've learned things
in these last few weeks -- about community, about inner strengths,
about what really matters -- and in a very real sense we've been
given a clean slate on which to draw whatever we choose. Living
with threat brings its own clarity, which provides a sort of head
start, and it's my guess that we'll finish with a country -- and
a continent -- that's better than the one we left behind on September
10th. Out of tragedy, the biggest that most of us have ever experienced,
has come opportunity.
You all know that I'm
a Canadian, and so some of you may see something false in these
words. But I'm really a North American, and in the most visceral
of ways, the events of the 11th struck me -- like most everyone
else in Canada -- as if I lived in Pittsburgh or Portland. This
is our problem too.
I wish you all well.
Rolf Lockwood
President, TWNA
Editorial Director, Today's Trucking, highwaySTAR, & Transport
Routier
It's
Baaaaccckkk - Dues Renewal Time
The treasury is now open...for 2002 dues. Please send $35 along
with vital statistics (name, company/publication, title, address,
phone, fax, e-mail, etc.) to:
TWNA, c/o
Avery Vise, Treasurer,
134 Kentwood Way,
Alabaster, AL 35007.
Also, please note whether
or not you have a TWNA pin.
Berg
Retires, New "Ed" Is Named Tom, Too
As you may have heard, Tom Kelley is the Dispatch's new editor,
replacing me. I wrote and edited the official TWNA newsletter
for the last year and a half or so (and did a newsletter-like
reports in 1988-92, when I served as TWNA's first president, though
I can't remember if I called it the Dispatch; I think that's the
name David Kolman, TWNA's second president and first President
For Life, gave it).
I asked Tom Kelley
to take over because I was busy with a bunch of other stuff and
wasn't giving the Dispatch the attention it deserves. Tom, who's
also a director, has shown considerable ability, imagination and
energy in drawing up our technical standards and setting up our
current website. He was already formatting and e-mail distributing
the Dispatch, so, as he said, becoming editor wasn't much of a
workload add-on.
One of the more frustrating
aspects of the editor's job is hanging out there in the wind,
alone. The Dispatch's editor usually has to conjure up almost
everything that goes in an issue because he gets few if any editorial
contributions from you, the members. We suspect that you're doing
interesting things and sometimes have stories and opinions to
share, but seldom do any of you send in anything.
Please make Tom's job
easier, and the Dispatch more interesting, by occasionally banging
out a few lines of copy and zapping
'em to him. If he doesn't run 'em, well, then you can e-yell
at him. Tom, thanks for taking over the Dispatch, and please don't
screw it up (ha ha, just kidding, 'cause I know you won't). I
will of course continue as a TWNA director, and will shoot off
my mouth at meetings and other functions. See ya on the road.
--Tom Berg, Super Scribe
TWNA.ORG
Update
Work is underway to develop the member-only functions of the twna.org
website. The first added feature, a discussion board, is up and
running already. This particular board is an entry-level package
that we'll use to test the concept and determine the needs of
the group. If the needs and traffic are sufficient, we can upgrade
to a better software package that would run within the TWNA site.
Through the test period, the board will be limited to the member-only
area, but once things get moving along, we have the option of
having both public and private forums. E-mail
me if you need help with the password.
We are still lacking
website link information from the majority of our members. If
you'd like your site to be linked from twna.org, visit the links
page to see some examples of other members' site descriptions
and then compose a similar paragraph for your site. Save the description
as a text-only file and send it in using the e-mail link provided
on the top of the links page.
If you have any suggestions
or ideas for ways that we can improve the website, please feel
free to send them along. We've had a few suggestions to include
a CB Radio slang dictionary as part of our Trucking Terms Glossary.
If anybody has a compilation of these terms that they'd like to
provide, we'll include it in the site.
No
Hidden Agendas
While our esteemed president has the final say in the agenda,
the members of TWNA are nonetheless asked to submit items for
consideration. If you have an issue, topic or concern you wish
to have voiced, please forward those to TWNA secretary, Carol
Birkland (cbirkland@truklink.com).
She will pass them along to the president and the other board
members for consideration.
Our next meeting is
scheduled to be held in conjunction with the Mid-America Truck
Show in March of 2002. Please send your ideas by the end of December
2001 so we will have ample time to process requests and to publish
an agenda prior to the meeting.
TWNA
Scholarship
The TCA Scholarship Trustees met in early July and selected Ms.
Amy Michele Belden of New Albany, IN to receive a scholarship
from the Truck Writers of North America. The scholarship is awarded
on the basis of need, academic excellence, major field of study
and quality of an assigned essay. Both Amy and her mother work
for Mercer Transportation in Louisvile, KY. Amy is majoring in
elementary education at Oakland City University in Oakland City,
IN.
Thanks
To All From Ruth Jones' Family
The family of the late Ruth Jones (TWNA Director and Landline
Editor) passes along its thanks to all who expressed condolences,
and thanks to TWNA for making a gift of $250 to the National Colorectal
Cancer Research Alliance in Ruth's name.
Deb
Lockridge Reports On Mass-Media Trucking Coverage
In the six months or so that I've been doing this, I have yet
to find a single example of egregious, biased, anti-trucking reporting.
Instead I've found a good number of positive, or at least balanced
and accurate, stories about the trucking industry.
I use e-mail to respond
to most of them. Not only is this faster and easier on me, I find
I'm more likely to get responses than I would via snail mail.
Here's a typical one: "Thanks
so much for your note. Being a journalist, I'm sure you know that
compliments about coverage are much harder to come by than complaints.
I am passing your information along to our primary transportation
writer and adding you to our source list."
Here's a list of the
stories I've responded to during the last few months:
Dallas Morning News,
July 17, "She's Eastbound and Down, But Only for a Few
Days," By Amy Roquemore. Great account of a ride-along
in an 18-wheeler.
Washington Post,
Aug. 5, "The Long Haul," by Wells Towers. While not
what you would call a positive piece, it's balanced and offers
a mostly accurate look into the long-haul trucking industry
from the point of view of the driver. Extremely well written,
with excellent use of detail and description.
Albuquerque Journal,
Aug. 14. Driver/trainer Danny Gallegos is profiled as part of
a regular feature looking at various jobs.
Spokesman-Review
(Spokane, Wash.), Sept. 2. Business writer Amy Cannata has an
eye-opening piece (to the average reader) on today's truckstops.
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram,
Sept. 3. Kelly Melhart profiles C.W. Lyons, the Texas Truck
Driver of the Year.
Chicago Daily Herald,
Sept. 4. A story about the National Truck Driving Championships
focuses on local competitor Larry Knight, who "hopes the
event's focus on proper behavior and safe driving will make
the general public think a little differently about truck drivers."
Commercial Appeal
(Memphis, Tenn.), Sept. 10. A pastor's eye-opening trip in a
big rig.
Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch,
Oct. 1, "All the Comforts of Home: Truckers Add Flash and
Function to Their Vehicles." Interviews with truck dealers
and drivers look at the "fashion statements of owner-operators,"
including chrome, showers, stereos, kitchens, gauges, colors,
lights and mirrors. It points out the usefulness of many of
these items, the fact that these trucks homes on wheels, and
the pride truckers take in their jobs and their rides. Link
to story.
A
Few Words About Computer Security
With many recent outbreaks of computer viruses and the ongoing
problem of spam, it's probably a good time to say a few words
about computer security.
First, be assured that
TWNA's newsletter mailings are conducted in such a way that individual
e-mail addresses are not visible to anybody but yours truly, the
newsletter editor/distributor. This prevents our list from being
inadvertently added to an address book that later gets used to
forward other communications, eventually landing your address
in the hands of somebody who will be happy to sell you, or anybody
else, 20 million e-mail addresses for the low, low price of $149.00.
Our member/prospect list is only available to TWNA members and
is only made available on the condition that the list is only
used for legitimate media communications.
Next, there is a well-intentioned
but poorly executed anti-spam measure currently being adopted
by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that may prevent you
from receiving all of your legitimate e-mail. Chances are that
your ISP may adopt this service without notifying you of the actual
ramifications of its operation. Without going into a lengthy description
of arcane network server details, any company that uses a domain
hosting service for its e-mail (that would be most of us), does
so through what is described as an open relay. This allows you
to connect through a local connection and access your e-mail server
located at the hosting service.
Because open relays
also happen to be a favorite tool of spammers, ORDB.org and ORBZ.org
have created an instant market for their poorly designed service
by convincing service providers to pay for access to databases
of "open relay" e-mail servers. The service has just
recently been put into action, so by the time you read this, it's
likely that one or more of your e-mails will have bounced back
with an error message linking you to ORDB.org or ORBZ.org. Now
while the extra 'net traffic created by spam does create unnecessary
load on your service provider's hardware, turning off a large
portion of your legitimate e-mail traffic is not the answer.
Discussing the situation
with the militant techno-geeks at ORDB.org, ORBZ.org, or your
ISP's tech support will get you nowhere. Call the sales department
of your ISP today and tell them that you do not want ORDB.org
filtering applied to your e-mail service, and that you will take
your business elsewhere if they don't comply. Once ORDB.org and
ORBZ.org get the message, their basic concept can be modified
and delivered in a more businesslike manner. TWNA Vice President
Bill Hudgins reported that his ISP abandoned the open-relay filtering
shortly after its adoption, as a result of complaints from customers.
Finally, a few tips
on virus prevention. You've heard this often enough, go out and
buy some decent anti-virus software, install it on your computer
and keep it up to date. The small amount of time and money invested
now will save hours or days of heartache later when the next new
virus catches you by surprise. Next, no matter how curious you
might be, if you didn't specifically ask somebody to send you
a file attachment, and/or you don't specifically recognize the
file extension as that of an illustration or text file, DON'T
OPEN IT!!! Let me repeat that, if you don't know exactly what
an attachment is and why it's there, DON'T OPEN IT!!!
If the name of somebody
you know is listed as the sender, that doesn't mean this person
intentionally sent you the virus. The way these things work is
by exploiting security holes in Microsoft's e-mail programs that
allow the bug to automatically send itself to everybody in the
user's Outlook address book when the attachment is opened. Your
friend may not be the smartest computer whiz in town, but they
didn't intentionally send you the virus, they just screwed up.
The easy answer here
is to use Netscape or another non-Outlook e-mail program and delete
or disable any versions of Outlook that are installed on your
computer. This won't prevent you from receiving the virus, but
it will stop you from spreading it. To keep from being infected,
never open a .exe, .vbs or .bat file that is attached to an e-mail.
If in doubt, kill the original e-mail and then ask the sender
what they were sending and why. Stay Healthy!
The following details
regarding the Nimda virus were provided by AT&T's Worldnet:
It is possible
for you to be infected via email or by downloading a specific
file when visiting an infected web site. The email may be from
someone you know; please exercise caution when checking your email.
For users of some
versions of Internet Explorer, when the worm arrives by email
the virus can be executed just by reading or previewing the
file. Microsoft has information and a patch for this exploit
on microsoft.com.
Some web sites are
also infected and may prompt you to download a file called either
readme.exe or readme.eml. Just say NO when asked.
Support
The FDNY Widows & Children's Fund
Many of us spent the days following September 11th feeling the
need to do anything we could to aid the rescue personnel searching
through the collapsed World Trade Center (WTC) Complex. The response
to calls for blood donations was met almost as soon as it was
issued, and relief supply needs were also rapidly met. Unfortunately,
the firefighting brotherhood, the very people that we all rely
on in times of disaster, was hit the hardest by this tragedy.
While building occupants and visitors were doing all they could
to run out of and away from the WTC Complex, hundreds of firefighters
were running into the structure in an effort to rescue those still
inside.
As the firefighting
community is altogether too familiar with the loss of its members,
there is already an infrastructure in place to deliver aid and
support to the families of these fallen heroes. However, due to
the extreme magnitude of the New York disaster, these agencies
will need tremendous additional financial support. To make donations
to the New York Fire Department Widows & Children's Fund,
please send checks to:
Widows
& Children's Fund
C/O Uniformed Firefighter's Association
204 East 23rd Street, NY, NY 10010
(212) 683-4832
To
donate online, visit: www.fallenbrothers.com.
On The Lighter Side
You know you're having a "Really Bad" day when:
You wake up face down
on the pavement.
You jump out
of bed in the morning and miss the floor.
Your wife says,
"Good Morning, John!" but your name is Dave.
Your bar of Ivory
soap sinks.
You put both
contact lenses in the same eye.
The bird singing
outside your window is a vulture.
A 60 Minutes news team is waiting in your outer office.
The Gypsy fortuneteller
offers to refund your money.
Your boss tells you not to bother to remove your coat.
Your pet rock snaps at you.
You call suicide prevention, and they put you on hold.
Your twin sister
forgets your birthday.
Your income
tax refund check bounces.
Your doctor
tells you that you're allergic to chocolate.
Your blind date
turns out to be your ex-spouse.
