Dear Auxiliary Members,
It was wonderful to see those of you who attended the NAA Conference and Show in Orlando in July and those of you that were unable to attend; we truly missed you and hope to see you next year in Spokane, WA!
As always, it was a great week full of opportunity to reconnect with friends and acquaintances, meet new people, have fun, learn and unite in our efforts to promote the auction industry. Hannes Combest, NAA CEO, and her staff again did an exceptional job with Conference & Show! I know I am not alone in my feelings that they go above and beyond to make it a very fun, productive and memorable week! On behalf of the entire board and membership, I wish to express special thanks to Hannes for her unending support and guidance. She is an inspiration and we are so fortunate to have her.
I am honored to serve as the NAA Auxiliary Chair for the next year and thank you for your confidence in me to lead such a great organization. I am looking forward to working closely with our new NAA President, Christie King Ray, and the entire board and staff of the NAA. As most of you know the auxiliary celebrated their 60th Anniversary this Conference & Show. That is so incredible and I want to say a very heartfelt Thank You to all of the extraordinary women who have served and led the auxiliary to where it is today. We treasure you and your contributions and will continue to hold you in the highest regard and will honor and preserve the past as we move forward in working to promote, grow and preserve this great organization.
I am excited about the upcoming year and we, the Auxiliary Board, have already begun working to set in motion the many ideas and goals we will work hard to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Thank you to Susan Hinson, our Past Chair for her hard work and leadership as well as the other two trustees retiring from the board this year, Susan Holder and Ramona King, for their service. A very special thank you goes out to Ramona King for dedicating 13 years to the auxiliary with the majority of those years serving as Secretary/Treasurer. That kind of dedication is hard to find and the auxiliary has been very fortunate to have her and will miss her but know she will continue to be involved and is just a phone call or e-mail away. I feel very honored to have served with each and every one of these fine ladies! I also want to welcome the two new Trustees for the 2011-2012 Board of Trustees of the Auxiliary to the NAA, Angela Johnson and Annette McCurdy.
Also, congratulations to the 2011 Hall of Fame recipient Mrs. Janet Shearer and the Auxiliary Scholarship Winners for 2011, Angela Bohn, Kyla Inman, and Luke Sheridan. They are extraordinary and deserving recipients!
I want to thank each and every one of you for being a member of the auxiliary and request that you reach out to others not currently a member and ask them to please consider joining us! As I said in the Volunteer Luncheon, we welcome everyone, women and men including auctioneers and their spouses to the auxiliary. There are many dual members - meaning members of the NAA & Auxiliary to the NAA. Also, please keep in mind that you must be a member of the auxiliary for five (5) continuous years in order for your child or grandchild to qualify to apply for a scholarship. Educating our youth is so vitally important to the future of not only the auction profession but our nation as a whole.
For those of you that have not served on the board and/or a committee, I would encourage you to do so and also welcome you to help in the booth and/or at the luncheon and fun auction at the 2012 NAA Conference and Show in Spokane, Washington.
The Board of Trustees long range planning meeting is October 21-23 in Dallas, TX and we are excited and ready to get to work. All trustees will be attending as well as our new NAA President, Christi King Ray. We have many agenda items to discuss including but not limited to membership, C&S 2012 luncheon and booth, scholarships, launch of our new website and new ideas for promoting the auxiliary and scholarship program. Please let me or any one of the trustees know if there is an item you feel the board should discuss at the meeting.
I can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 972-395-0049. The entire list of 2011-2012 Trustees including contact information is posted on the website and you can also contact us by sending e-mail to [email protected].
On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees, I want to thank you all again for your support of the Auxiliary and we look forward to serving you this year. You, our membership, are important to us and we want to hear from you if there is anything we can do for you.
Warm regards,
Lori Jones
Chairwoman
NAA Auxiliary
