The 25th Annual Conference and Equipment Show was held June
12-17, 1998 at the Adams Mark in Houston, Texas. The theme for this conference
was "TAPT-25 Years of Excellence".
The 25th State TAPT President was not elected, but appointed by the executive
committee in order to fill the vacancy created when Ron Anderson president-elect
resigned. Fred Oppermann was appointed in April just before the 24th Conference
was to be held in June. The appointed president felt that the best way to
remember what the organization had always done was to "Strive for
Excellence" and that we needed to honor all our past state presidents and
past honorees.
Another problem that this executive committee faced was that the executive
committee had to appoint two members to the board due to resignations. This
executive committee consisted of the following members elected or appointed.
President Fred H. Oppermann (appointed)
President-elect Jonas Ybarra
Secretary Marcia Edge
Treasurer Bonnie Russell
Historian Charles Stone (appointed)
Parliamentarian Walter Prothro (appointed)
Area Director 01 Connie Bean
Area Director 02 Ginny Melara
Area Director 03 Charles Whitley
Area Director 04 David Bolles
Area Director 05 Walter Prothro
Ex-Officio Joe Glover
Ex. Secretary Diane Sherwood
The President's Reception/Dinner with the vendors was the first event of the
conference. Twenty-three of the twenty-four past presidents were present for the
event. Each president was presented with a ring stating the year that they
served. This presentation was done by Richard Davis with Diane Sherwood and
Larry Colley (Vice-president of Operation of Chalks Truck Parts) presented each
president their ring. The Executive Secretary was presented with a ring for 25
years of service to the organization as its secretary. The ring presentation was
made possible by Chalks Truck Parts who paid for all the rings. The Sunday night
Presidents reception was a huge success because of the excellent meal we had
from Larry McEntire through Navistar (Chicago office), Navistar Southwest and
Longhorn Bus Sales who helped sponsor the meal.
Marcia Edge helped by putting together a program that had 26 workshops. Areas
covered were Student Management, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, school
discipline, advertising on school buses, ASE certification and a presentation by
TRS. The Mechanic Workshop covered troubleshooting, engine diagnostic equipment,
wheelchair restraints, tire maintenance, A/C troubleshooting and lift preventive
maintenance. There were 66 vendors who participated in the equipment show.
The first General Session began with a flag ceremony that had never been done
before. Erwin A. Sladek, Jr. did the honors and had every member who served this
country in any war, service groups or any support group of the armed services
come forward and all helped with the Pledge of Allegiance. The ceremony was
impressive and one did not see many dry eyes.
The 25th Convention had special guest. Mr. Ed Donn past President of NAPT was a
guest. We also had Annell Todd of the Texas School Business Magazine who came
and took pictures and honored our organization with two pages in the October
1998 edition. Gwen Santiago, The Executive Director for TASBO, came and
expressed her thanks for the two organizations working together to help the
school children of Texas.
The certification program co-chair; Don Paull and Erwin A. Sladek, Jr. did an
excellent job. They offered a class to help instructors to become better
instructors. The class taught instructors different approaches they could use to
help them make their classes more interesting and help in class participation.
Twelve certification classes were taught with a record attendance.
Wednesday morning at the Honoree Breakfast two members were honored. The
criteria to be selected is that an individual must have helped by their
contribution to the growth, professionalism, and growth of the organization and
effectiveness of TAPT and its affiliates. Two names were added to this
Prestigious List of Honorees who were present for the Honoree Breakfast. Each
honoree was given a school bus calendar, which was placed on a cedar stand with
the inscription: TAPT Honoree, 25th Conference, Houston, Texas, June 12, 1998.
The stand was especially made for this presentation from Fayette County cedar by
a local craftsman. The two Honorees at the 25th Conference were John
"Bubba" Mixon and Fred H. Oppermann. The Vendor Honoree was Tom
Searcy. The awards for the past Honorees were made possible by Dr. Harvey Graves
of Pinnacle.
The Regular Driver Award went to Lester Henry of Gonzales I.S.D. The Billingsley
Scholarship went to Michael Patterson of Copperas Cove I.S.D. The Chalks/TAPT
Vocational Tech Scholarship went to Amanda Saunders from Kilgore I.S.D.
The 25th Annual Convention was brought to a close by Mike Martin, NAPT Executive
Director, who did an excellent job. He taught us how to use cowboy hat, how to
use a "jump suit" with some good and bad jokes and he taught us to be
able to laugh and have fund and still do our job as transportation directors,
drivers, technicians, mechanics and support personnel. Larry Sanders and Don
Paull of Capital Bus Sales help provide the cowboy hat that was presented to
Mike Martin.
Twenty-five years of history and stories came to an end after four days. Jack
Edwards, a past Honoree, probably said it best when he said, "May I take
this opportunity to render a sincere appreciation for the wonderful warmth and
hospitality shown to the past honorees and past presidents. The stories and
memories were abundant and have grown in stature since their last airing. The
main factor which makes the TAPT organization a unique pleasure, privilege, and
a lot of fun to have been a participant through the years, has been the people
involved in its operation and school transportation business. The activities and
programs of the past convention significantly exhibited that people and children
still make the difference in this organization. This principal was the basis for
the growth and prosperity of the organization.
It is our hope that the next 25 years will be even better. The Executive
Committee that is in charge of the 26th convention are:
President Jonas Ybarra
President elect Marcia Edge
Secretary Bonnie Russell
Treasurer: Charles Stone
Historian Donna Field
Parliamentarian Charles Stone
Area Director 01 Sandra Riggs
Area Director 02 Ginny Melara
Area Director 03 Lane Emmett
Area Director 04 David Bolles
Area Director 05 Manual Benavides
Ex. Officio Fred H. Oppermann
Ex. Secretary Diane Sherwood
