The Chairman's Corner

By Thomas McCarthy

February 2020

This month I will make my last two chapter visits in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles; and my tour as Chairman will be complete. I now fully understand the commitment and time involved that comes with going through the chairs.

First, you start off as Secretary-Treasurer with the task of keeping meeting minutes, which everyone that has preceded you, gladly passed over to you. But on the other hand, this also provides you with your first seat at the head table at the convention.

Next you move up to Vice Chairman, which means you no longer have to take meeting minutes, but you are involved in the board meetings, you speak at the convention and move your way up the head table.

Then comes your Chairman year, which comes a lot faster than you think. You have a party to host at the convention, you get to give a speech telling everyone about how you got to where you are, recognize who helped you get there and do your best to keep it short and PG. The convention feels like you never stop running. I was lucky to have great support from my wife who helped me put it all together to make it look seamless.

Then comes the hard part of going out to visit all the Chapters. CMSA President Steve Weitekamp and I got together to plan our year of travel and figure out the where and the when. We looked at meetings and other conventions we might be attending as well as holidays. It worked out that we saw the first 10 chapters before the year end. Now in the home stretch, I am thinking about how great it has been so far. I have two more chapters and more fellow movers to visit, and a convention to plan for as I get to move down the table one last time to Senior Chairman.

During all this CMSA travel, work still must go on and this has been a crazy year with both AB5 and the GHC. I am seeing more and more on the news about how many people are upset with this new law and potential new lawsuits against it. In the paper last weekend, (yes, someone in our office still gets the paper) there was a big article about AB5 and how while the intentions may have been to help the worker, it does more harm than good for our gig economy and does not represent those workers who want the freedom to be independent. While talking with different movers, some think that this will all just go away since it’s already in the courts. However, just like CARB and the hopes and wishes there, everyone should be paying attention.

With regards to the GHC, from what I have heard the government is down to just four contenders who have been invited back to discuss their bid. If the timeline stays the course, while we are in Kauai at our convention, the government will announce the winner of the bid. This convention will be historic as we will remember back to this convention as the one we were at when the announcement was made.

I hope you have registered for the convention and got your rooms because it has been selling out and CMSA had to book more rooms. On top of all this traveling, all the meetings that we have to do to put our companies in the best possible position for success to keep the train going, it seems like a break never comes. While it’s a good thing to be busy and on the run, you have to find balance. Something that I suck at! My wife, Ayme, very gently reminds me that I need to turn off sometimes so I can recharge, and she is right. Make sure to spend time with your families and get out there and do some fun stuff too.

I am grateful that Tim Helenthal, CEO or National Van Lines and Chairman of the International Association of Movers, was in town last week and came by to visit us. As he had some extra time planned in his schedule to visit us, we snuck out on the golf course and had a great time. I came back the next day recharged.

I leave you with this: “Balance your thoughts with action. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee.

February 2020 - CMSA Communicator