The Chairman's Corner

by Patrick Longo

November 2015

On the road again! Busy month for me once again as I near the halfway point of my term. Last month, I headed up north to attend the Monterey Chapter Golf and Bocce Tournament. Thank you to Vince Cardinale and his team. It was an impressive event as always. Despite playing horrible golf and not getting out of the first round in bocce, I still had a great time. A couple days later, I headed out to San Juan Hills to attend the Orange County Chapter Golf Tournament. A shout-out to O.C. Chapter President Tom Smith for doing a terrific job once again not just on the event, but the overall effort he puts in is really awesome. Though these are fun events, CMSA functions are the primary source of funding for the successful CMSA Scholarship program and charities.

This month was our annual Fall Board Meeting set at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, the site of our 2017 Convention. We had a fun, energetic two days of meetings discussing everything from the state of the military industry, looking into reinstating a Young Professionals group reception at future Conventions to new logo and slogan ideas for our 100th year anniversary coming up in 2018. We also discussed the launch of our new billboard campaign that will debut in the spring of 2016. Finally at the meeting, we nailed down the site of our Centennial Year Convention to be held at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento, just across the street from the state capitol. Now how much more California can this be! Also we had the pleasure of being joined by former CMSA President and invited guests Doug Hill and his wife, Becky, at our Friday night dinner. The dinner turned out to be so much fun reminiscing about the past, discussing the present and looking forward to the future.

Next, Steve and I headed up to visit Bernie Lance and John Lance over at NMS Moving Systems in Ventura County. Thank you, Bernie and John, for the tour of your fine facility. We really enjoyed spending time with you both. After that, we went over to attend the Ventura/Santa Barbara Chapter meeting hosted by Chapter President and newly elected Board Member Casey McCann.

The following morning we headed up to Bakersfield to visit with Ben Geissel at Galbraith Van & Storage Co. From there, we headed up to Visalia to see former Chairman Brad Metzner at Jack and Jeff Transfer Co. Thank you, Brad, for taking time out of your day to show us around your great facility and town. After that, we were off to the Central Valley Chapter meeting in Lemoore, hosted by Jeanette Homan of Lambert Transfer & Storage at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino. I was told this was the largest chapter meeting turnout in a really long time. Congratulations to Chapter President Mia Longoria! Jeanette showed us around her company the following morning. In my opinion, it was one of the cleanest warehouses I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Jeanette, for everything.

This was a great trip, but we did hit a little bump in the road. The next morning we were scheduled to head back to Los Angeles when we found out about the massive mudslide, which closed on the 5 freeway and Highway 58. We were left without a decent route home until Ben Geissel came to our rescue and directed us to a backwoods route he uses to drive his motorcycle. This route saved us several hours and got us home safely to our families. Thank you, Ben! You are the man!

My last meeting of the month was at my home chapter where I spent four terms as the Greater Los Angeles Chapter President. Hosted by Chapter President and newly elected board member Eric Ortiz, he and his wife, Renee, really outdid themselves with this one. The meeting was held on the 27th floor Observation Deck of the Los Angeles City Hall. The room was amazing, full of real history and beauty. The chapter not only hosted Steve and myself, but they also put on an incredible tribute to Arzelle and Bob Hudnall. The Hudnalls have been in the moving industry for 57 years running Phil's Transfer, an Atlas Van Lines agent, in the Los Angeles area and a huge supporter of the CMSA for so many years. Congratulations to you both! Enjoy the next chapter of your lives. You deserve it.

In closing, I wanted to thank all of you who have signed up for Team CMSA or made contributions to our Walk to End Alzheimer's coming up on Saturday, November 14, beginning 9 a.m. at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Your generosity is overwhelming and, as of press time, our team has raised more than $5,000.

November 2015 - CMSA Communicator