Welcome to the 2011-2012 North Central BTA program season!

After the elections at Educational Summit, I began to get very excited to lead our organization along with 11 other outstanding individuals.

Our new board consists of Michael Krebsbach, Chairman; Bernie Fautch, Allied Vice President; Tom Akin, Direct Vice President; Julie Morey, Treasurer; Jan Shoemaker, Direct Representative; Laurie Sadowski, Direct Representative; Leslie Ingiald, Allied Representative; Colleen Lattery, Allied Representative; Sarah Hill, Secretary; and Lori Reid, Allied Representative. Please join me in welcoming our new board members!

Thank you to those Board Members who have completed their term including Mary Cole, Seth Ryan, Nina Steiner, Amber Erickson and Betsy Bohl. It was a pleasure to work with you!

The 2011-2012 annual Board Planning Session took place on July 21 and 22 at the Sheraton Woodbury. Since then, I am even more excited about the upcoming year. We have a great deal of fresh ideas and initiatives to better North Central BTA.

During the Planning Session we incorporated the task force committee chairs into the meeting to exchange and present things that did not work well, things that worked very well and areas for improvement. Though I have been on the board since 2008, I have not had the opportunity to serve on all task force committees. It was an extremely valuable experience to hear each committee’s challenges and successes. More to come on this over the next few months! If you are not already a member of one of the task force committees, I highly recommend getting involved. It is a great way to expand your resources in the travel community.

This year, the Special Events task force committee changed up our summer Scholarship Fundraiser. Historically, we held a golf tournament. Laurie Sadowski and her committee did an outstanding job creating the Incredible Race. I still have “war wounds” from the mechanical bull! A big THANK YOU to our sponsors and volunteers who found creative and challenging events for each stop. Let’s kept he momentum going for the new season!

In closing, one of the main themes that kept coming up during our two day retreat is change. We all agree change is what is needed to further grow our organization. I would like to personally invite each of you to call, email or attend a board meeting to share your recommendations.

Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead your organization. I am very excited to see what this year brings!

Patrick Algyer, CTE
President