Howdy TAA Members,
It is an honor to be writing to you as the new President of the association. For those of you that don’t know me, I have been in the auction business now for 28 years. -And Yes I’m only 34. Dad started our company in 1989, and I started as the ticket runner at 6 years old. I got my associate auctioneers license at some point, then went to Texas Auction Academy in the summer of 2005, and soon after received my full license. I’ve been working for our auction company now full time since 2010.
I can’t be more proud of the people that I have worked with over my time on the board. Our association has made leaps and bounds to become better ambassadors for our industry, despite the setbacks we overcome. The people I have served with in the past, currently serve with, and the presidents I follow, have set our association and our industry up for success. In the time I’ve been on the board, the association has brought about many benefits including: tangible monetary member benefits; our association operating in the black throughout the year; top notch continuing education seminars for convention; and most recently begun strategies to advertise to the general population about the auction industry and specifically help market TAA auctioneers.
One of my goals for this year is to see our marketing grow in two facets. I have rearranged our board committees and created two distinct committees who can focus our marketing efforts. One committee will be our PR committee to auctioneers. They will be tasked with making sure that all auctioneers in the state know why they should be members of the TAA. The second committee is tasked with our PR to the general public. They are tasked with finding ways that the TAA can help promote the auction industry and our auctioneer members. If you have not see the PR video the association had made, make sure and visit www.taavideo.com and watch it. Then share the video, put it on your website, and use it as you see fit to advertise yourself and the auction method. This was created for our membership to benefit from.
Another one of my goals for this year is to create better communication and networking between our board members. We do a great job working together as a team, and so creating easier, and more efficient lines of communication will only help us work together, and more importantly help us be more productive and serve you better.
We as the board are here to serve our members and we need you input. As you hopefully have seen, there is a survey included in this edition of the newsletter. Please take time to either fill that survey out on the paper, or go online and fill it out. We want and need your input.
I look forward to serving as your President this year and am excited about the changes that we can make in our association and our industry in the next 12 months. If myself or any board member can help you out, please reach out to us.
Put it on your calendar now! TAA Convention 2018- College Station, Texas—- May 6-8, 2018. You need to be there
President Lance Swigert