OABA Update-by Bob Johnson, OABA President & CEO
FLORIDAFAIRS…IN HIGH GEAR!
As I write this update and by the
time its published, the South Florida Fair will have ended, hopefully a good run for Rick Vymlatil, his staff and board, as well as Wade Shows and the many independent concessionaires/exhibitors. Santa’s Village event in Miami finished on a high note after the first of 2016 new year with a good run for all, despite some early rain. The Mid-West Fair Association members and guests are meeting in
Fort Meyers this year, February 25-27, at the Crown Plaza, with visits to the Southwest Florida & Lee County Fair, hosted by Fran Crone.
I enjoy
this meeting with fair exec’s from all over the country and discussing new ideas, common issues and OABA strategic initiatives. Several of the large Florida fair general managers are members of this Association. This group organized by retired Minnesota State Fair CEO Mike Heffron and is led this year by Renae Korslien of the North Dakota State Fair. The OABA office staff is getting ready and extremely busy planning a
Board meeting in Tampa on February 11, followed by the OABA’s 51st Annual Meeting and in-coming Chair’s Reception at the Sheraton Tam- pa East, near the State Fair. I let Lisa know that the Florida Amusement Advisory Board, Chaired
by yours truly is meeting at the State Fair Equestrian Center, hosted by Chuck Pesano, while the State Department of Agriculture is inspecting the rides, once again this year, on Wednesday, February 3rd. This meet- ing is open to the public and we have had several Florida Fairs attend in the past, along with Lisa Hinton. We promise you won’t be bored and you will gain valuable insights as to the very high emphasis on amuse- ment ride safety placed by our State. Martha Leverock also serves on this Board and is a valuable contributor, along with many State amuse- ment parks and attractions with rides, go-carts, water parks offered to locals and tourist visiting our great State. At the end of the year, Congress passed the federal government’s Om-
nibus Funding Bill for the next nine months of the government’s fiscal year, totaling $1.2 billion dollars, and was signed by President Obama in December. The OABA lobbyists and many of our board members worked long and hard, especially our Chair Michael Wood, spending countless hours with Appropriations Chairs who oversee funding to DHS, DOL and other federal agencies. Of particular interest to all sea- sonal, foreign labor stakeholders (those involved in the H-2B visa pro- gram, a legal way to staff many carnivals and concessionaires to supple- ment their U.S. workforce) was Congress acting to de-fund, new federal dollars that DOL needed to enforce revised, unreasonable regulations seasonal businesses that rely on this guest worker program. Thanks to our friends in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, gave us
a returning worker exemption from the cap of 66,000, total workers, for all industries involved with this program. This means that any of return- ing H-2B visa workers, having worked in any of the past three seasons, would be exempt from this cap, allowing an estimated 80,000 more workers into the country under this visa program, as our economy im- proves. The longer fix to this program is new, federal legislation by our friends
in the House and Senate to stop big labor and labor activists from push- ing their agenda to make this program intolerable for business and fur- ther destroy this valuable program for carnivals and concessionaires. This seasonal labor program is necessary and essential for serving not only Florida fairs but most of America’s fairs. There are three bills that have been introduced by our friends in the legislature to do this very thing, Much more on this in the future. Wishing all Florida Fairs, Carnivals and Concessionaires a safe, fun, great season in the Sunshine State!
FAIRCRACKER--SPRING 2016 49
The Ride Advisory Committee Meeting was held at the State Fair on Wednesday, February 3rd. Attending were (left to right) Clark Converse, Pasco County Fair; Bob Johnson,
OABA; Martha Leverock, Greater Jacksonville Ag Fair; and Charles and Sheri Panacek, Belle City Amusements.
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