 Greetings
everyone,
I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks
to each of you for your commitment to the
Tourism Development Alliance. Without your support
through membership, all of our accomplishments would be
impossible.
We have some year-end business for you to consider as we
close out 2007 and prepare for our program of work in 2008.
There are three issues that require a vote from the full
membership and our by-laws allow for this to be accomplished
electronically. After reviewing the material in this
newsletter, please respond by Friday, December 7. If you
have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
404-223-2264 or
joy@tourismdevelopmentalliance.org.Please review the
following statements. They are listed in prioritized order.
2008 Policy Platform
Our advocacy efforts on pro-tourism policy are a
cornerstone of TDAG's mission. Our public policy committee
is chaired by Andrew Ward, and we sincerely
appreciate his leadership. The TDAG Board met on Wednesday
and voted unanimously in support of our 2008 program of
work, which includes our 2008 policy priorities.
Please click here to review the 2008 public policy platform
By-Laws
As our organization matures, some changes are always
necessary to ensure our by-laws provide the right governance
framework for our organization. Thanks go to Chairman
Barry White, Vice Chair Chuck Jones and Bill
Tipton for their work to clean up our by-laws. This is
never the most exciting committee work, but it is very
important.
Please click here to review the by-laws
Nominating Committee Report
The officers and board of directors are critical to the
ongoing success of TDAG. We consider very seriously this
nominating process, as we strive to insure that our board is
representative of the diverse perspectives of each of you as
members. The nominating Committee was chaired by past
president Rod Musselman and Jim Nelems,
Lisa Smith and Joy Walstrum served as committee
members. The board unanimously accepted the nominating
committee report, and we now present their report to you.
Please click here to view the nominating committee report
A Big Thank You
I would like to thank all of our 2007 officers and board
members for their leadership this year. Chairman Barry
White has done an exceptional job leading us through
periods of change at GDEcD,
a very successful joint annual meeting with
GACVB and some
significant changes to the hotel motel tax code. Please join
me in thanking Barry for his tenure as chair. TDAG is in a
much stronger position as a result of Barry's leadership.
We have four founding board members whose terms expire
this year, and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge
their service. After our initial steering committee meeting
in Savannah, Bill Donohue, Gary Greenhut and
Merry Tipton were first in line to step up in a
significant way to support TDAG and communicate that support
to their peers across the state. The growth of TDAG
membership is very much due to their efforts, and we
sincerely appreciate their guidance.
Tony Schopp has retired from the
Savannah CVB, and he is
also retiring this year from the TDAG board. Together he and
Rod Musselman accepted the responsibility to serve as
co-chairs when we founded the Alliance in April of 2002. Words cannot express our
appreciation for the courage and vision it takes to chair a
brand new, statewide organization with ambitious goals and
only a few allies. They raised the seed money to start the
Alliance and led us through our first summit, incorporation
and all of the challenges of building a solid foundation
from scratch.
After Tony's tenure as chair, he served as public policy
committee chair through 2006. Every board member has
contributed to TDAG's growth and success, but we honestly
would not be here without Tony Schopp's leadership,
guidance and support. Tony, we wish you and Georgeanne all
the best in your future endeavors and we sincerely
appreciate your service to Georgia's tourism industry.
Once you, the members have voted, we will share this
information via TDAG newsflash with all of our subscribers.
I would also like to remind you that Tourism Day is January
29, and I hope you will make plans to join us. Many thanks
to the Atlanta Hilton for serving as our host hotel and to
the Regional Travel Associations for partnering with GACVB,
GDEcD and TDAG to underwrite this event and showcase all of
the great assets of Georgia tourism across the state. I
would also like to thank our GDEcD Regional Tourism
Representatives for their assistance in communicating our
plan of work to all of our travel regions. In the right hand
column you will find important important information on the
December 13 Joint Economic
Development & Tourism Committee Meeting, Tourism Day
details, important
Tourism Day hotel information and the
Tourism Day agenda.
I will remind you once again to please respond with
your vote by Friday, December 7.
Best Regards,
Joy Spears Walstrum
Tourism Development Alliance of
Georgia
404-223-2264
(w)
404-358-5634
(m)
404-223-2290
(fax)
joy@tourismdevelopmentalliance.org |
