Leaving Houston following the first TAPT Conference ever to be held in Texas’ largest city, the organization showed it’s diversity by heading west to another first. The 1994 Conference was held in Odessa, June 11 - 15. There was much speculation regarding Odessa as a site because of it’s distance from the more member-populated central and eastern part of the state. As it turned out, there’s very little that will keep a transportation professional away from a good conference and attendance exceeded all expectations.
The Equipment Show did not suffer too greatly from the distance as fifty-six vendors were registered by the printing deadline, compared to sixty-three who were registered for the Houston Show.
President Dan Roberts selected "A Commitment to Service" as the theme for this conference and that theme was carried out by everyone connected with the conference. School buses could be seen everywhere as they transported folks from hotels to equipment show to restaurants and even to Wal-mart Super Store.
The delegates at this 20th meeting elected the following slate of officers:
PRESIDENT: Jesse Soto,
PRESIDENT-ELECT: Fred Oppermann
SECRETARY: Joe Glover
TREASURER: Charles Whitley
HISTORIAN: John Bramlett
AREA DIRECTORS:
Area1: Sandra Riggs
Area 2: Roland Donnell
Area 3: Marcia Edge
Area 4: Ron Anderson
Area 5: Jonas Ybarra
EX-OFFICIO: Dan Roberts
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY:
Diane SherwoodJack Jackson, American Airlines, kicked off the conference with a keynote address titled "The Competitive Edge". Among the many workshops, two of the most popular focused on creating positive public relations and conducting media interviews. Other sessions dealt with Sexual Harassment, Total Quality Management for Transportation, Student Management and Alcohol and Drug Testing.
Another first was noted at this conference when members enjoyed a Casino Night with the Vendors. Gaming tables were set up throughout the vendor area and participants used their winnings to purchase prizes.
The theme for Tuesday evenings’ gala event was "The Wild, Wild West" (what else) and party-goers were instructed in line dancing and were surprised by a visit from a famous country and western singer (some still believe that Reba was really there).
Winners in the School Bus Road-e-o were: 1st Place - Dan Stefaniak, Lewisville ISD 2nd Place - Dan Neal, Mesquite ISD 3rd Place - Pat Garcia, Garland ISD
Billingsley Scholarship winner was: Erin Crone
Earl Tipton, retired TEA Transportation Director, was announced as the 1994 Honoree at the Wednesday morning breakfast. The session was brought to a close by a rousing speech from Tony Brigmon, Southwest Airlines, entitled "Are You Having Fun Yet".
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1993 - 94
Dan Roberts - President
Jesse Soto - President- Elect
Pat Crone - Secretary
Joe Glover - Treasurer
Charles Whitley - Hisorian
AREA DIRECTORS
Jerry Belt - Area 1
Roland Donnell - Area 2
John Bramlett - Area 3
Ron Anderson - Area 4
James Bailey - Ex-Officio
Diane Sherwood - Executive Secretary
