Director’s note: BFFs

Kevin Gilbride

Okay, that headline may be a bit silly, but I’ve always believed that it’s good to know who your friends are, and this applies in your personal life as well as in business.

As you all well know, I’ve been bouncing around some aspect of this industry – whether it’s on the green side, or the white side, or both – for more than a decade. During that time, I have had a very strong relationship with the team at PLANET, one that’s grown out of a mutual respect for what they do and for what GIE Media does as a media leader for the green industry. Sabeena Hickman, PLANET’s CEO, and I have been talking for quite some time now on ways PLANET and ASCA can work together to jumpstart common initiatives and achieve goals that benefit both the professional landscape and snow industries.

Legislative Day on the Hill is the perfect alliance for our two organizations. This initiative has been very successful for PLANET,and the landscape industry, and I am excited for the professional snow and ice management industry to be a part of it, too.

One of the ASCA’s core missions is to spur positive legislative change for the professional snow and ice management industry. Our strategy includes initiatives at both the federal and the state level. The first step in pushing for legislative change is creating awareness with those elected individuals who are in positions to make the necessary changes. At the state level, ASCA has made great strides in creating those relationships. In fact, very soon I plan to announce some initiatives ASCA is developing in New Jersey.

At the federal level, it is critical to our mission that we educate our representatives in Congress. Legislative Day is a vehicle to create this awareness. Tom Delany, PLANET’s director of government affairs, has been working for some time now on PLANET’s aggressive and ambitious legislative initiatives, and is the driving force behind the event’s overwhelming success through the years. I am excited that ASCA will have the opportunity to tap into Tom’s extensive legislative knowledge and expertise to ensure the success of this event.

You see, there is no more effective way for our legislative community to understand the issues that affect you and your businesses than hearing directly from you.

This is what Legislative Day is all about. That’s why we invite you to gather up some of your industry friends and to join us and our friends in Washington from July 22-23. Together we’ll let your voices be heard.

At this time, we’re finalizing the schedule for Legislative Day (specifics will be announced closer to the dates), but the important items you need to know are as follows: Those who are attending will work directly with me to set meetings with your representatives in Washington.

I have coordinated joint meetings in some states with the state landscape association; I will continue to do this where it makes sense and is mutually beneficial. In the afternoon of Monday, July 22nd, there will be a briefing where we will present you talking points to deliver to your representatives.

I will attend as many of these meetings as humanly possible. In some cases, we will make sure to partner people with others who have done this before.

We will gather for breakfast on Tuesday the 23rd, and then go together to Capitol Hill to deliver our message.

There is no registration fee for this event, however, there are costs associated with it. I am thankful our friends and industry partners at Meyer Products are sponsoring ASCA’s portion of the event, allowing us to cover those expenses. However, for budgetary reasons, travel expenses cannot be covered by ASCA, and are your responsibility if you plan to attend and take part.

To register for Legislative Day, please contact me directly, at (330) 523-5368 or kgilbride@ascaonline.org.