Dear Fellow Marketer

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you well in 2008, a year that will again be full of changes and challenges in the industry. It seems we start every year with that same thought, and either fortunately or unfortunately it is true. Yet I hope this is the year that we further engage our collective talents to talk about tactics that are needed to develop our brand value and profitably grow the marketer channel of trade.

I won't talk about profits or margins or controlling expenses or the need to run efficient businesses. These topics are ever current on our minds, and if you are reading this message you have managed through another year of dealing with them. So get ready because we have to do it again in 2008. I hope that you will continue to learn from each other, draw on the strengths of your existing experiences be it with personnel, profit centers, suppliers, real estate or whatever. And above all deal honestly with the weaknesses that you see in your business. More and more these weaknesses can no longer be hidden or covered by other strengths. Your only motto should be... "Be very good at what you do or let someone else do it."

CTPMA offers many vehicles for identifying and developing needed business solutions. The board, committee and annual business forum meetings have provided excellent vehicles to debate and encourage positive steps in dealing with issues that affect the success and future of the jobber/distributor channel and the Chevron and Texaco brands. However there remains much untapped skill, ideas and energy among us. So I look forward as your Executive Director to continuing the journey with our Chevron supplier partners working on things we must do to beat the competition.

In 2008, CTPMA will be hosting its Business Forum and Tradeshow as part of our alternate year approach to hosting our conference when Chevron does not hold a North America marketing convention. This year's Business Forum will be held June 25-29 at Rancho Bernardo Inn Golf Resort and Spa in San Diego. So mark your calendars to attend this national meeting for Chevron and Texaco marketers. Registration and exhibitor information will be mailed beginning late January.

In addition to the Business Forum, the CTPMA Board and its operating committees will meet regularly with senior executives of the Chevron Products Company to discuss topics of interest to marketers. These meetings are open to marketer members who wish to participate. And as always, we invite all marketers to give us their input on those issues and opportunities you feel should be a part of the agenda for these meetings.

Well that's all for now. Keep in contact with your board and committee members. You will find them listed in the back of each issue of our newsletter CTPMA News. We want to hear from you on those things that matter most to marketers.

I sincerely hope that you each have a successful 2008.

Dave Rendall
Executive Director