From the President’s Corner
“If you own your story, you get to write the ending.” —Brené Brown he Southern is in the process of owning our story so that we can write the ending...
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At the end of April (after the publication deadline for this magazine), leaders and stakeholders in the Southern will be gathering in Atlanta for a two-day Strategic Planning meeting to take a hard look at the future of our organization and our trade show. While post-show evaluations are helpful to guide small changes from year to year, periodically you have to dip a bigger bucket into the moving river of member needs. I am grateful for the leaders of our organization who offered up their time so readily to assist us in charting our course for the coming years. Coping with change is an ongoing process. Mergers and acquisitions in the marketplace seem to be slowing but are continuing to impact our businesses and the organizations that serve us. Trends at the national level are typically felt at our regional level as well. Recent and significant changes at CDA, our national affiliate, will impact both our show and our organization going forward. In addition, we are seeing a significant increase in legislative and regulatory activity that directly affects our members as a result of states seeking to safeguard the revenue streams provided to them by the MSA. In some states, like South Carolina, that means a return to stamping cigarettes. In most other states it means our having to provide more and more complex reports on what products were sold to who and when. Staying on top of 6
technology that can assist us with this will be critical to our future profitability. These trends are all on top of the daily routine of sales, marketing, managing fleets of vehicles, managing through driver shortages, changing manufacturer programs, meeting the ever-increasing demands of customers, and the list goes on. The good news is that we don’t face these changes alone…corporately or organizationally. The Southern has been blessed with outstanding leaders who transparently share information to help each other and who willingly share their time to set the direction for our organization. As my term as your President comes to a close, I want to thank the members of my Executive Committee: Randy Long, Randy Emanuelson, Steve Douglas, and Dick Dunham, for their faithful service during my term and before. I want to thank my committee Chairs and Vice Chairs as well as the entire Board of Directors for their participation and support. April Garver has done a great job as President of the SLD during her term. Finally, I want to thank our CEO, Greg Martin and his staff for their part in making the Southern a success. The Southern will celebrate our 93rd anniversary this year on the Beach in Daytona, Florida. The program looks to be another outstanding offering and I look forward to seeing you there.
Paula Glidewell SAWD 2016