The 24th Annual Convention & Trade Show is right around the corner. I hope you have marked your calendars and made your travel arrangements so you can join NATM in Fort Worth, Feb. 8–10, 2012.

If you haven’t already registered, it’s not too late! Remember, after Jan. 13, all registrations received will be considered “on-site” and will be assessed an additional $25 late registration fee. Additionally, membership dues are due Jan. 31, 2012. All exhibitors should have their membership renewals in by Dec. 31, 2011, per your exhibitor contract. If membership dues are not paid by the time of the convention, attendees will be charged the non-member rate. Don’t let that happen to you! All registration forms can be found on www.NATMconvention.com.

Please consider attending our annual membership meeting and breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9. The membership meeting provides all members an opportunity to learn more about the “state” of the association and to hear a year-end review of our programs, projects and more.

In addition, the annual membership meeting will feature our keynote speaker, Jeff Tucker, or “Tucker” to those who know him. Tucker has a varied background and multi-disciplined life experience – meaning he has proudly turned his hand at just about everything. A native of Fort Worth, he served as a career firefighter with the Fort Worth Fire department working in fire operations, a fire marshal, EMT, police officer and served with the Arson Bomb Squad as an arson investigator and as a hazardous devices technician (bomb tech). Tucker is a self-professed cowboy and grew up in central and west Texas where his family taught him the honest common sense values of the cowboy way – that a man’s word is his badge of honor and that actions speak louder than words. His passion is to lecture concerning the emphasis of defining “service.” Drawing on his many experiences as a civil servant, his message seeks to define service or a call to service with and for our fellow man.

Educational workshops will be held on all three days during the convention. Workshop topics will run concurrently with three options to select from per session. The workshop committee has provided NATM staff with informative topics, and I am proud of this year’s line up of speakers. One workshop of note is the Canadian pre-clearance session. This workshop will be at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8, and again at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. Presented by Transport Canada’s Ministry of Transportation official, Peter Zongora, this session will discuss new initiatives by Transport Canada to streamline their preclearance process for importing to Canada. There will be time for questions and answers, so bring your questions.

As of this writing, 25 spaces remain for the trade show. There is still time to sign up for space, but it’s going quickly. The trade show layout and exhibitor contract can be found on our Web site, or you can contact Monica Johnson at
Monica.Johnson@natm.com for additional information. Freeman, NATM’s exhibit services provider, has sent out exhibitor kits. NATM also has these kits, so contact Monica if you need one. All exhibitors should have received an e-mail confirming their booth space. The e-mail also links to NATM’s associate member guidelines and exhibitor general information. Please review these policies before the trade show.

The host hotel for the convention is the Sheraton Fort Worth. By choosing to stay in the host hotel, you are supporting the association and helping us fulfill our room commitments, which reduces our meeting space costs. The hotel is filling up quickly – so you should make reservations as soon as possible.

The convention Web site, www.NATMconvention.com, has all the information you need to plan your convention trip. If you can’t find what you are looking for, contact me at Allison.Malmstrom@natm.com. I look forward to hearing from you AND seeing you in Fort Worth!