VTCA's Past President's Letter to Membership

by Bob Gallagher, JMT

It has been an honor to serve as your VTCA President. Becoming one of the premier state transportation construction and non-mineral mining industry advocacy organization in the United States did not happen by circumstance and certainly did not happen overnight. I trust that you are cognizant of this and will continue to assure we stay relevant and proactively engaged in the advancement, growth, and cooperative successes of our members. Over the past year, our high reputation and standards have clearly been maintained, thank you! 
  
I believe the most altruistic way that I can help with this letter is to selectively reflect on our collective larger items of accomplishment over the past year, emphasize their importance, and encourage forward participation. There is no lack of opportunity for your involvement. Some accomplishments and forward opportunities include: 

• We continued efforts to assure preservation and growth of transportation funding in the Commonwealth. Nothing was, nor can ever be taken for granted. Our VTCA Political Action Committee has remained engaged and relevant. As part of the legislative redistricting process, we now know that next year at a minimum, forty plus of our one hundred forty legislators will change, and approximately seven hundred years of tenure experience will be lost. We need your involvement to help with the education of our new legislators on the importance of sustainable transportation funding and help to assure that smart decisions are being made by our elected officials. 
• Some statistics on our collective hard work and engagement include holding over seventy committee meetings, four major industry events, and six VDOT District Dialogues. We are truly blessed to have such a hard-working VTCA staff, Board of Directors, and Committee members who are engaged year-round assuring our collective successes. When you have a chance, take a moment, and let them know how much you appreciate them.  
• The longer-term challenges of workforce development are paramount for our industries. Many efforts have taken place collaborating with the Governor’s new Workforce Agency, Virginia Community Colleges, and the Virginia Infrastructure Academy. Continue to work with the Governor's workforce initiatives. Our recent membership survey clearly showed that workforce development is a top priority for all. So, be engaged, help to “pay it forward” and be part of the right decisions on our VTCA resources allocations for this most important item. 
• We continued our “Rockin’ PD Quarry Tours” with high school teachers. This is a program that allows teachers to better understand the industry and help encourage younger high school students to consider work in the Aggregate Industry. Participate in one of the tours if you can and help us “teach the teachers why they teach geology.” 
• Our Alliance’s leadership committees continued to expand a foundation of volunteer leaders committed to VTCA’s mission, vision & values with completion of our first formal VTCA Emerging Leader program. Please take advantage of this great program, to help develop and encourage long term commitment, participation, and support of VTCA. What a great opportunity for select future leaders from our membership. 
• At the direction of our Board, an economic impact study on Virginia's Aggregate Industry was commissioned. While currently in draft form, the findings of the economic impact of the industry are quite astounding. The report being developed by Virginia Tech, indicates what a significant economic impact the industry has on our Commonwealth. I hope we can capitalize on these findings as we educate our elected officials and help to achieve the projected three to eight percent job growth over the next five years. To our knowledge, this is the first time a comprehensive economic impact study of Virginia’s Aggregate Industry has been conducted.  

Let me close by stating what I believe is the obvious. The unique true strength of our organization comes from speaking collectively as one voice. Our working relationships with the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia Department of Energy, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and other state agencies have remained strong. Our altruistic leaders have assured that our discussions with the agencies are open, honest, and transparent.  
  
Thank you for the opportunity to serve. As leaders in your respective companies and communities, I know that you will remain engaged in our mission and help foster participation by your future leaders within your organizations. Next year we will be celebrating our 80th year as an organization! 

Thank you,

Bob Gallagher
VTCA President 2022-2023