TWNA Membership Renewals
Industry Awards Banquet
TWNA Information Center & Communication Award
Display
TWNA Meeting
HDMA Breakfast & Briefing
TWNA Scholarship/Internship Update
TWNA Officer Elections
Member News
Women In Trucking Celebrates Milestones
Kolman's Korner
TWNA
Membership Renewals
After experiencing many summer holiday related delays in the
renewal process last year, the TWNA Board decided to adjust
the renewal period for the 2009 fiscal/membership year (6/1/08
to 5/31/09) back to the late Spring season.
We just mailed the
renewal forms yesterday, so keep an eye on your mailbox before
you leave for MATS. We will be accepting cash or check payments
in the TWNA Info Center (Room C103) at the truck show. Sorry,
but we don't have the credit card capability in place yet.
We are asking that
the member data forms be returned by no later than April 18th,
in order to ensure timely publication of our next directory.
Even if your dues have already been paid and there are no changes
to your data, we still need you to return the completed form
by mail or fax for our corporate records.
TWNA Banquet at MATS
If you have not done so already, it is not too late to purchase
your tickets to the TWNA Awards Banquet. The banquet is Thursday,
March 27 at 7 PM in rooms C201-203 of the Kentucky Fair &
Exposition Center in Louisville, KY. Tickets are $60 or $450
for a table of 8. For press members, the price of the ticket
includes your $35 dues. Contact Tom Kelley for tickets at admin@twna.org.
This year's banquet
will be better than ever. The banquet will include the presentation
of the TWNA Communications Awards, the TWNA Lifetime Achievement
Award and the Goodyear Highway Heroes award.
Our list of banquet
sponsors includes:
Platinum Level
Peterbilt - Caterpillar - ArvinMeritor
Gold Level
Kenworth - Goodyear - Shell Rotella - Grote
Silver Level
Daimler Trucks North America - Great Dane Trailers
HDMA - Mid-America Trucking Show - ZF Group
Bronze Level
Accuride - ATA - Bendix - GM Fleet & Commercial - Mack
Michelin - Mitchell1 - Truck-Lite - Volvo
Thanks to all of
them for helping make the banquet a success!
TWNA Information Center & Communication
Award Entry Display
This year, for the first time, TWNA is planning to set up a
display of all of the Communication Award entries, and a TWNA
information center in one of the south wing conference rooms
(tentatively C103) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (3/26-28/08)
of the Mid-America Trucking Show, in Louisville, Kentucky.
TWNA staff will be
on hand during show hours to answer questions, distribute TWNA
literature, and accept membership applications/dues payments.
Please stop by and bring a friend. Thanks to Grote Industries,
HDMA and R.L. Polk & Company for sponsoring this resource.
TWNA Meeting
TWNA's annual membership meeting will take place on Friday,
March 28 at 2:00 PM in Room C105 of the Kentucky Fair &
Expo Center. Agenda items include a Q&A session covering
the TWNA Scholarship/Internship program, plans for TWNA's 20th
Anniversary, and discussion regarding credit card acceptance.
If you would like to suggest additional items for the agenda,
please contact Eric
Berard or Tom Kelley
. Kudos again this year to Peterbilt for sponsoring the refreshments
at the meeting.
HDMA Breakfast & Briefing: Only 1 Day
Left To Register
The 18th Annual HDMA Breakfast & Briefing is set for Friday,
March 28, 2008 at The Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville,
KY. Doors will open at 7:00 AM, and the program will begin promptly
at 8:00 AM.
The 2008 featured
speaker is Tom Plimpton, President of PACCAR Inc. Plimpton has
corporate responsibility for Kenworth Truck Co., PACCAR Mexico,
PACCAR International and worldwide purchasing and information
technology. He began his career in the truck industry more than
28 years ago, in Kansas City. He worked at three truck manufacturing
plants and at three truck divisions for PACCAR, including four
years in England at PACCAR's Foden Truck Co. In January 1992,
while working as assistant general manager for Peterbilt in
Newark, CA, he was promoted to general manager, a position he
held until 1996 when he assumed his current role.
Plimpton plans to
speak directly with the supplier community on Paccar's aggressive
R&D and product planning efforts and their role in the future.
HDMA has reserved
a complimentary table of 8 for editorial members of TWNA with
admission by advanced reservation. Please contact Jennifer
Hjalmquist, HDMA Director, Marketing and Member Services
to reserve a seat. Reservations for this table are first come,
first served, and must be received by March 21, 2008. Individual
tickets are available for $36.95.
TWNA
Scholarship/Internship Program
The History
For several years, TWNA's members have discussed the idea of
organizing and funding some type of scholarship program.
A committee headed
up by Denise Rondini and Mike Pennington started the groundwork,
and it was determined by both the committee and the Board of
Directors that any such program must align with TWNA's mission
and objectives, so thereby, the scope of the program was limited
to furthering the education of a future journalist.
Although many suggestions
covering worthy endeavors such as a continuing education grant
for an existing TWNA member, a scholarship program for heavy-duty
technicians, and many other ideas were all given thorough consideration
by the committee, it was eventually determined that support
for future journalists was the most appropriate for TWNA's involvement.
The Goals
Recognizing the demographic trends in our corner of the journalism
world (i.e. not many younger folks pursuing truck writing as
a career), the committee and the Board agreed that it would
be most beneficial to our organization and our members if we
could find a way to use the scholarship program to expose journalism
students to our industry, and to encourage the awardee to consider
specializing in truck-related journalism.
The Plan
Two methods were developed to meet these goals.
First, to expose
the widest possible group of future journalists to coverage
of the issues in the trucking industry, it was determined that
the main focus of the scholarship application process would
require the applicant to write an essay on one of 4-5 trucking
related topics to be determined by the scholarship committee.
Second, to increase
the likelihood that an awardee might eventually join our elite
ranks in the world of trucking journalism, it was determined
that rather than making a straight grant to offset tuition or
course material costs, that the program should be organized
as an internship at a TWNA member company, where the awardee
would receive in-depth exposure to our industry.
TWNA would select
the intern through the application process and make a grant
(or a matching grant) to help cover the intern's stipend for
the period of the internship. The member company hosting the
intern would provide meaningful work for the intern, exposing
him/her to the various aspects of trucking communications.
Although the internship
was determined to be the most effective means of meeting the
program's goals, the committee and the Board agreed that once
the basic elements of the funding and selection process were
developed for the internship, that conventional scholarship
grant programs for future journalists could also be added to
the program, subject to the availability of funding.
The Response
Once the basics of this program were developed, a solicitation
letter was circulated to all members of TWNA, inquiring as to
the interest of member companies hosting an intern as part of
the program. Unfortunately, the response to that solicitation
wasn't very encouraging.
Subsequent discussions
with a number of TWNA members have indicated that several member
companies do work with internships through local colleges, so
there is apparently more interest in a TWNA internship program
than the initial response would have indicated.
The Requirements
To Continue
The nature and scope of our proposed internship program more
or less requires that we have hosting commitments from member
companies before we promote the program to prospective applicants,
as the level of funding wouldn't justify a West Coast student
participating in an East Coast internship. So, one of the next
key steps, if we are to implement this program, is to get hosting
commitments from our member companies.
Also, while TWNA's
treasury is able to make a small contribution to the scholarship/internship
fund, one of the goals of this program is to further engage
our members and their companies in the process by soliciting
(501c3 qualified) charitable donations to the fund, thereby
leveraging TWNA's existing resources. So, the other key ingredient
needed to get this program off the ground is a commitment from
our members to make donations to the fund.
Q & A
We will set aside a brief period at out upcoming MATS meeting
to answer questions about the proposed program, and discuss
the nature of the commitments required to further pursue the
program. Once we know that we will have adequate support and
participation, we can move forward with the administrative work
that is required prior to implementation.
Summary
In short, the two questions that will determine the future of
this program are as follows:
1. What level
of 501c3-qualified charitable donation would you or your company
be willing to make to a TWNA fund dedicated to internships
and scholarships for future journalists?
2. Would your
company commit to working with local colleges to set up a
journalism internship program to be fully or partially funded
by a grant from TWNA's internship fund?
TWNA Officers Likely To Be Re-elected
Eric Berard and Jami Jones have offered to continue to serve
as Chairman and Secretary. Susan Fall has offered to replace
Sherry White as Treasurer. Assuming there is no further interest
from other candidates, confirmation of officers is expected
to take place at the Board of Direction's next meeting, on April
22.
Member News - HDT Europe
Sweden-based Sven-Erik Lindstrand, a TWNA member since 1990,
has been appointed European Editor for Heavy Duty Trucking magazine,
published by the Newport Communications Group.
Most recently, Lindstrand
was for three years editor-in-chief of the Scandinavian Automotive
Component Suppliers' bi-monthly magazine VehicleComponent. He
is a regular contributor to a number of truck, car and motorcycle
titles through Scandinavia, UK and continental Europe.
Between 1990 and
1996 he served as European Correspondent for Fleet Owner magazine.
Subsequently, he joined the staff of DES/Truck Fleet Management
and Trucking Technology magazines as International Correspondent
until the publications were discontinued in 2000.
Lindstrand is a familiar
figure on the international scene and is well known to the longer
serving members of the trucking press from his time as Public
Relations manager for Volvo White Truck Corporation, Greensboro,
NC, in the mid '80s. During his career he spent 10 years in
international Public Relations within the Volvo Heavy Vehicle
group.
Lindstrand holds
an EU-CDL and speaks several languages. He will be serving HDT's
US readers with commentary from the many international events
he attends throughout Europe and Asia. He works from his home
base in Partille, Sweden, and can be contacted at selindstrand@truckinginfo.com
or sieben@algonet.se.
Women In Trucking (WIT) Celebrates Milestones
Women In Trucking, a non-profit organization created to encourage
the employment of women and assist in promoting a more female-friendly
environment for those already in the trucking industry, today
celebrated its one year anniversary and hit a record 1,000 corporate
and individual members.
"Our rapid
growth confirms what we've known all along," said Ellen
Voie, WIT chairwoman, "that an association like this was
long overdue! With a very active board combined with enthusiastic
members we firmly believe we can make a difference in the trucking
industry.
One of our goals
when we started WIT a year ago was to have 1,000 members before
the end of our first year. We've met that goal, and now we hope
to double again within the next six months."
WIT was officially
founded on March 12, 2007 as a means to encourage women to consider
a career in the trucking industry, but to also provide a platform
to voice the successes and struggles of those women already
in the male-dominated field.
Membership in WIT
comes in a variety of forms ranging from corporate to driver
and student members. To date, the organization's 1,000 members
include people at 80 corporations and eleven trucking schools,
as well as 203 drivers, 133 non-driving individuals and 56 students.
Nearly 20 percent of the members are men.
"Although encouraging
women to consider careers in the trucking industry is one role
of WIT," explained Voie, "it's not our only focus.
We believe that providing a greater understanding of the special
challenges that women face on the road, under the hood or behind
the desk will only serve to better the industry."
Kolman's Korner - Transportation Trivia
Challenge
By David A. Kolman, Associate Director
Do you know?
1. When was Western
Star trucks established? Bonus question: Where?
2. How many square
feet of commercial warehouse space was there in the U.S. last
year?
3. What company introduced
the first all-aluminum bottom dump? Bonus question: In what
year?
4. Mileposts are
placed every mile along freeways. Where does zero usually start?
5. Name the most
bicycle friendly cities in the US?
6. When was the first
official day of U.S. Department of Transportation? Bonus question:
When was the agency established?
7. What was the first
motor oil formulated specifically for heavy diesel engines?
Bonus question: When was it introduced?
8. When did the multi-functional
Leatherman tool hit the market?
9. When a truck driver
works for two or more employers, in whose random pool for drugs
and alcohol testing must he be included?
10. Who is the nation's
largest corporate customer of Class 1 Railroads?
(Answers in the
next issue.)
