Up Front- Managing Expectations
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- Created: 11.01.2021
Shannon Newton
President, ATA
I’m a strong believer in managing expectations. It helps avoid a lot of life’s disappointments. So as people start to sign their e-mails with “Happy Holidays,” we need to talk about setting our expectations for a “happy” season.
No one wants to talk about toilet paper again, but images of empty shelves where rolls of three-ply should have been stacked deep encapsulates the chaos of the early days of the pandemic in America. COVID-19 cases were low, only a few states were dealing with hospital capacity issues and misinformation was only starting to breach questions that scientists were just beginning to research.
We knew plenty of toilet paper existed, but the temporary disruption to the supply chain was enough to make the paper product aisles appear post-apocalyptic for a few weeks. The run on Charmin was a pandemic outcome I didn’t expect. Since then, every delicate link of the chain has been tested.
The Last Word
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- Created: 11.01.2021
State Tax Plan: Simple, Fair, Competitive
By Arkansas State Senator Jonathan Dismang
While it appears we have finally (and thankfully) concluded one of the longest sessions in recent history, we still have unfinished business.
After extending the regular session to wait for the pending redistricting census data, the legislature completed the congressional maps in a session wrap-up that ultimately had very little to do with maps. The close morphed into a difficult discussion on employee vs. employer rights and the differences between government mandates and employer requirements.
Amid the noise of the continuing debate related to Covid-19 policies and other hot button social issues, we have quietly set the stage to make responsible strides in reforming our state’s income tax structure.
Up Front-The Right Time
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- Created: 08.30.2021
Shannon Newton
President, ATA
We tend to categorize, label and rank everything around us. Being human is to analyze and keep records of the best, the worst, the most, and the least, to assign order to all the things.
This summer, I celebrated 18 years with the association. My titles and scope of responsibility have changed, but ATA is just my second job after college. My first was in the accounting department of a member trucking company. Approaching college graduation, I attended a job fair on campus and clicked with a recruiter from Maverick Transportation. Almost 20 years later, I have a fulfilling career in this industry because of an opportunity that was available to me at a time in my life when it mattered.
Who you meet, what you study, where you work and experiences you have entering adulthood undoubtedly shape your future.
The Last Word
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- Created: 08.30.2021
My Final Mile
By Gwen Moritz
A few years ago, I sat in an audience of business publishers as our keynote presenter offered a tip on extemporaneous speechifying. If you ever find yourself called upon to speak to a trade group, he said, you can't go wrong with this opening: "No industry has experienced more change in recent years than yours!"
Those of us in the audience instantly suspected that we were not the first trade group audience to hear his speech about speaking to trade group audiences. "Totally meta," as the kids would say. But he was right: Virtually every industry has navigated so much change that anyone with even a few years of experience feels that surely no one outside their industry could possibly appreciate how much they have had to rethink and relearn.
