The Chairman's Corner

By Jesse Chabot

October 2023

As September ends, the spooky season officially begins. My favorite month of the year is October. I’ve always loved Halloween and doing spooky things. I started making the rounds to chapter meetings, and I did my first Chairman’s Road trip with CMSA President Steve Weitekamp.  As we traveled, just being with Steve and his knowledge of California was amazing. The stories he could tell… he could and should definitely write a book. I hope he does one day so his stories don’t get lost in time.

Visiting the chapters was very humbling; our first stop was the Monterey chapter at a clubhouse on an old Fort Ord military base with great ocean views; Roseann Orlebeck and her sister Sally Cardinale, both of Cardinale Moving & Storage, ran a great meeting. Next, we headed down to the Central Coast chapter. Their new chapter president, Javari “Jay” Leach of Central Coast Moving & Storage is awesome, and it is great to see young people get involved. I look forward to seeing what Jay does in the future. I enjoyed seeing everyone taking the time out to hear my story and hear what Steve had to share with them.  Just meeting the movers from other areas, hearing their stories, and hearing how we all share the same problems. We also got the chance to stop by a couple of CMSA mover's warehouses; I appreciate the time they gave us. We got to chat and learn more about their businesses. One company repairs furniture; they sent one of their guys to a workshop and now he can repair the furniture damaged during moves, or new products that get to their warehouse damaged. It’s definitely a different revenue source than I’ve ever thought of.  We went to another warehouse, and I got to learn about Round Table Pizza and smoke shops. I’ll let you take a guess at who that was.

It’s great to hear the questions  that people have for Steve after we began talking about the Global Household Goods Contract (GHC). Some military movers just expressed their frustration and asked questions, but in one meeting, one mover who does not do military had common sense questions that deserve common sense answers, but in this GHC time, those common sense answers aren’t so clear.

As far as the GHC goes, in the past month, everything has been put on hold. They are only expecting to handle “local” military moves in 2023. We also got our first look at the HomeSafe Alliance (HSA) rating calculator. We got word from ATA that they will request a GAO study be done, related to operation and financial viability. I hope that more information and some transparency start to happen.

After saying all that, I think now is the time to start planning to attend the CMSA’s 106th annual convention in Waikoloa, Hawaii. Convention registration forms are included in this issue so please complete the forms  today and get them back to the CMSA as it really helps with the planning. If you have not already had a chance, go to the CMSA Website CMSA - California Moving & Storage Association (thecmsa.org) and book your convention hotel rooms now so you don’t end up down the street.

October 2023 - CMSA Communicator