2015 SAPA Summer Meeting in Williamsburg, VA

This year’s meeting was held in Williamsburg, Virginia. Some arrived early to play a couple of rounds golf, while others arrived early to visit Colonial Williamsburg and adjacent Yorktown and Jamestown.

The two day event got started with a Sunday reception at the Providence Hall House. We were led as a group from there to King’s Arm Tavern by the fife and drum to Kings Arms for dinner and then back to Providence Hall for dessert. It was good to catch-up with our fellow state executives and their spouses.

The first day of the two day meeting focused on industry association updates from the Asphalt Institute (AI), the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA), and the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA). Topics discussed included an update on industry events; health and safety regulations, coalitions, and legislative activities; a summary of completed and ongoing projects of the Pavement Economics Committee; and the Go-To-Market program deliverables, future directions, and a new resource available to the SAPAs to help facilitate file sharing.

Amy Miller (see photo below) made her debut at the meeting as the new National Director of the APA and was given and warm welcome by the State executives and their staff. She will be based out of Florida, but working closely with AI, NAPA, and the State Asphalt Pavement Associations (SAPA). For more about Amy, please click here for the August 10 media release from NAPA.

While the executives were meeting, the spouses and family took a tour of both the Shirley Plantation of the Berkeley Plantation. The Shirley Plantation offered the story of eleven generations of one family who to this day continue to own, operate, and work this grand colonial plantation. The Berkeley Plantation is where the first time Army bugle call “Taps” was played.

The second day of the meeting focused on SAPA business, including the election of next year’s officers:

•Chairman: Bill Rosener (Asphalt Paving Association of Iowa)
•Vice-Chairman: Jim Warren (Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida, Inc.)
•Secretary: Dale Williams (Missouri Asphalt Pavement Association)
•Treasurer: Ashley Batson (South Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association)

Other SAPA business included a session on knowledge transfer – case studies – as follows: 1) Everything is Bigger in Texas – The TXAPA Story, 2) Building Relationships with Your Board – Oregon’s experience, and 3) What’s Your Association’s Future? (Long Range Planning) – Virginia’s experience.

Williamsburg with its rich history, was an interesting venue for our meeting. We all thank the Virginia Asphalt Association for hosting such a wonderful and informative meeting.