SPOTLight EMERGING LEADERS BUILDS


FRIENDSHIPS, LEADERS Membership increases to 43 for 2015


ELC members gathered for a meeting during the 2015 TXTA Annual Conference in August


BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer


For 23 young members of the TXTA,


the Emerging Leaders Council has given them a chance to learn more about the association, better understand the trucking industry, and become friends with their peers. For TXTA, it’s been about something


just as important: Building tomorrow’s leaders. That’s been a priority for John Esparza since he first became TXTA’s presi- dent and CEO. “No sooner than I walk in the door, I had my people saying, ‘John, one of your


44 Summer 2015


biggest challenges is we’re aging. ... What are you going to do to infuse youth, to infuse the next generation, to get more folks involved?’” he said. One solution is the Emerging Leaders


Council (ELC). The two-year course brought together young members of the trucking industry—some from trucking companies, some from allies such as insur- ance providers and attorneys. Members were required to attend four of six events both years of a two-year period that began in 2013. Events included the annual confer- ence, board of directors meetings, TruckPAC (political action committee)


functions, management conference and the TXTA’s annual Call on Washington. ELC members participated with their more experienced TXTA partners in those events, as well as in social, networking events. Esparza said he watched members of the class become friends. “It just goes to show you, at the end of


the day, it is still all about relationships and networking and the things we do to get to know each other before we can do business with each other,” he said. This is the first time TXTA has


offered the class, though it brings back memories of Leadership 2000, which


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