Happy New Year! Hopefully, like me, you are looking forward optimistically to a 2013 that will be professionally and personally rewarding. The end of the year is a time of gift-giving and resolutions. If your home is anything like mine, I’m sure that the holiday wish lists, and probably some of the gifts, included hand-held electronics such as smartphones and tablets. Today’s portable devices provide greater computing power and access to information to the average preteen than was available to a team of NASA engineers when we first landed a man on the moon. What they do with it may be a different story altogether.

We know that change in our businesses and in the world around us will continue at an ever more rapid pace. Do we embrace this fact as many a motivational speaker has suggested? Probably not. But the reality is that if we aspire to remain relevant to the marketplace, we must commit to lifelong learning. Learning can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging. Our consolation is that over time, choosing not to continue on the path of adaptation is even more difficult. How are you engaging with a marketplace that would frequently prefer to not just conduct an Internet search for a product or service, but also complete the transaction? Have you taken steps to address a potential market demographic or even employee group that prefers a text to a call? How does your business look on the Web?

The year ahead will bring changes in how we do business. We know that one result of our recent legislative success with AB 2118 will be the legal electronic transmittal of data between carrier and shipper effective July 1, 2013. Do you fully understand what this change would mean to your business and how you would implement this opportunity? The upcoming CMSA Convention is the perfect occasion to speak with exhibiting Associate members about this and other issues impacting your business today.

I am pleased to report that thanks to the generosity of our members, we have received almost $6,000 in donations for the Patricia Andrews Memorial Scholarship Fund in commemoration of her service to the CMSA. This will allow the Association to award a memorial scholarship for the next few CMSA Conventions.

Now is the time to register for CMSA’s 95th Annual Convention May 14 to 19 at the Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort in beautiful Santa Barbara. As always, we will have a program that benefits you and your business as well as social events and free time that allow for appreciation of the spectacular California coast. Resolve to make 2013 an even more successful year for you and your business!