PBA Members,
It is true what they say about time flying…. It’s been almost a year since I was “crowned” PBA President and I have to say I don’t feel like I had enough time.
Even with the pandemic, travel restrictions, no in-person meetings, and an overall sense of instability, I think we accomplished a lot. I am truly appreciative of everyone who has worked hard at keeping the message of this great association alive.
Our year started off strong with the formation of our Awards Task Force chaired by Frank Thompson, PBA Past President. Frank led the group to a clear and concise plan to move forward with a formal Awards Program that all our members will hopefully find beneficial.
We also started our first “Lunch with the President” complete with guest speakers and robust discussions around the lumber crisis. A special Thank you to our “regulars” (you know who you are).
While we didn’t have the mob of members, we hoped to have we got to enjoy our first “In-Person Meeting” in Hershey in October. It was good to see everyone in person, we still have a long way to go to get our attendance records up to where they have been, but our meeting discussions were SO much more productive than our ZOOM meetings. We talked more in-depth about lots of topics that our online meetings never encouraged us to have. I almost felt like we needed more time.
Before I take off my crown, I’d like to accomplish a few more tasks. We are forming a task force that will be working on finding a way to deal with the issue of dues increases so that they are not burdensome or a surprise. I’m looking forward to hearing discussion and debate on how to more efficient solution to this ongoing subject and hope to have a resolution by our Winter meeting.
As an ongoing task, I would like to encourage each of you to continue to be a champion of this association. Be an ambassador and keep sharing your story. I applaud everyone who has recruited at least one new member this year. It is even more important that we reach out to all our existing members and thank them for their membership and encourage them to continue to renew their membership. We all have a duty to keep recruiting and retaining. If you’re not 100 percent sure what to say and how to say it, reach out to any of the senior officers and we can help set you up with just the right tools.
Thank you again to everyone who had the faith in me and encouraged me to take on this role as your President. I hope I served you well and lead us into better times ahead.
All the best,
Cindy Cepko
2021 PBA President