Be Alerted to Updates to This Page

Enter your email address:

Subscribe to the Inside Line

99% of these updates are originally sent to Inside Line subscribers. If you aren't receiving the Inside Line and would like to, please click here.

Legislative Updates

Legislative Update No. 19, Session 80
By Tim Lee, Executive DirectorPrinter Friendly ||| Print as PDF

February 23, 2007

TRTA Special Update—“TRTA Convention: A Capital Event”

 

Convention News and Information You Need to Know about Event Registration and the Legislator Appreciation Breakfast

 

The TRTA Convention is coming up fast.  Judging by the number of rooms sold at the host hotel (Hilton Austin), this may be one of the highest attended conventions in TRTA history! 

 

That said, many of you who may be planning to attend this year’s convention have not yet registered.  Normally, TRTA would have sent out its 1st quarter news bulletin by now, but that is a bit behind schedule and the TRTA office thought it best to send this notice now instead of waiting. 

 

Why is the 1st quarter news bulletin so important with this situation? Well, it is the issue that has the TRTA registration form and other convention information. 

 

This information was first printed in the 4th quarter 2006 TRTA news bulletin, but many convention attendees often use the second notice found in the TRTA news bulletin immediately preceding the convention.

 

If you still have the 4th quarter 2006 TRTA news bulletin, please feel free to use that registration form to get registered.

 

If you do not have that bulletin, we are providing several ways for you to get the registration form and send it back to TRTA.

 

The most current convention information is posted to the TRTA web site.  Go to www.trta.org and click on the picture of the Hilton Austin hotel and you will be taken to the TRTA Convention area.  From there you can print registration forms, read information about tours, order TRTA polo shirts, and more. 

 

The web site also provides an interactive TRTA Convention Registration form (very easy to use and it allows you to type the information instead of writing it out!).  You can fill out the form with your computer then print it out and mail it to TRTA with any enclosures (i.e. check for registration, banquet, shirt, etc.). 

 

If you do not want to use the web site, the TRTA Convention Registration form is attached with this email as a PDF file.  You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program to open this attachment.  If you do not have that program, follow the link below to that web site and download the program. 

 

(Adobe Reader Download Site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)

 

Finally, if you do not want to use the web site or if you do not want to open the included attachment, you can always wait to get this information in the upcoming issue of the TRTA News Bulletin.  That issue should be delivered to all TRTA members by March 12, 2007.  Complete the form and return it to the TRTA office.

 

I apologize for the delay in getting the news bulletin mailed to you; it’s just that time of the year (that legislative session excuse)!  Hopefully, you will be able to use the original TRTA Convention Registration form from the last TRTA News Bulletin.  If not, please consider using the TRTA web site or the attached registration form to get registered for the convention. 

 

We know so many of you have already made hotel reservations and plans to come to Austin, so if you get a chance, please fill out this registration information so that we can be properly prepared for this exciting event. As a final note, the original deadline to preregister was March 15, 2007.  That date has been pushed back to April 4, 2007.  

 

The Legislator Appreciation Breakfast

 

Many of you have questions about the legislator appreciation breakfast that is scheduled for April 17, 2007 at 7:00 AM in the Hilton Austin.  Here are answers to some of the most asked questions.

 

What is the TRTA Legislator Appreciation Breakfast?

 

This event was planned as a way for TRTA members to visit with their legislators while they were in Austin attending the TRTA Convention.  The TRTA Convention dates, more specifically the days of the week we are having the Convention (a Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), left many of us wondering if legislators were even going to be around when TRTA was in town.  And since the main purpose of having a convention in Austin during a legislative session is to participate some way in the legislative process, TRTA realized that some event needed to be planned. 

 

It was decided that since it seemed unlikely that our convention attendees were going to get a chance to go visit their legislators during the convention, we thought the best idea was to have them come to us while we were still in town. 

 

Thus, it was decided that TRTA would host its first ever TRTA Legislator Appreciation Breakfast.  The event is scheduled for April 17, 2007 at 7:00 AM in the Hilton Austin Hotel. 

 

Great, how do I register and how much does is cost?

 

All TRTA convention participants are welcome to attend this event. No special registration form is needed for TRTA Convention participants.

 

TRTA recognizes that this year’s convention expenses are going to be higher than previous convention years, mostly due to higher hotel costs, meals, parking, traveling expenses, etc.  Taking this into consideration, TRTA has decided not to charge TRTA Convention participants for this event.  We are hoping that most convention participants will be able to attend and make this a very special event for the association.

 

How will TRTA know how many people are coming?

 

Because this event was planned after the original TRTA Convention Registration form was developed, it does not appear on that document.  In an attempt to keep things from getting confusing, TRTA felt it best not to create a new TRTA registration form for this event. 

 

So, there are several plans underway to help determine how many people are coming.  TRTA is sending a letter to all local unit leaders asking them to poll their convention delegates and attendees to get a rough guess of how many will plan and stay for the event on Tuesday morning.  TRTA is also working on putting up a special booth at the convention to have people stop by and let us know if they will attend. 

 

A special email inbox is now available for people to send a note directly to TRTA saying they will attend.  If you know that you are coming to the TRTA Convention and plan on attending the TRTA Legislator Appreciation Breakfast on April 17, 2007, from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM, send a short email with your name and the name(s) of anyone else you know who will be attending with you (spouse or accompanying guest) to breakfast@trta.org.  If you choose to send an email, please let your local unit leadership know that you have already contacted TRTA and that you should not be counted in their poll that they will send the association at a later date.  The sooner we know, the better plans we’ll be able to make. 

 

TRTA will also have something of an idea of who may be coming to this event based on the number of TRTA banquet tickets sold for that event on Monday night.  It is likely that most people going to the TRTA banquet on Monday night will not have left the hotel before 8:00 AM in the morning.

 

What legislators are coming?

 

So far, TRTA has had a tremendous response from the legislature with 36 legislators confirmed.  TRTA sent a personal invitation to every state legislator, and many of them are “penciling” us in on their calendars.  To be a truly great event, we need these legislators to go from “penciling us in” to “using their permanent, I-wouldn’t-miss-it-for-the-world, markers!”

 

To get that kind of response there needs to be a BIG draw, and the big draw, here, is YOU!  A legislator will want to know that someone from their home district is going to be present at the event and knowing that you, a voting constituent, is asking them to attend and have breakfast with them means a great deal more than a mailed invitation (no matter how nice it looked, and it did look nice!). 

 

So, let’s get to work on this and if you are planning on attending the convention and the breakfast, please make a personal phone call to that legislator and ask them to join you for breakfast (they do not have to pay either!). 

 

If you get your legislator to confirm, please contact TRTA and let us know so that we make sure he/she is sitting with you at the event!! Again, you can use the special email address for this information.  That email is breakfast@trta.org.

 

7:00 AM, really?! Why so early in the morning?

 

The event has to start that early to ensure that legislators will be able to attend.  Anything later and the day’s activities will have already started at the Texas Legislature and the number of legislators willing or able to come would be considerably less.

 

This sounds like fun and I want to come, but I am not planning on coming to the Convention.  Is there some way I can participate?

 

So far, TRTA has limited its planning only to convention participants.  If the demand increases for TRTA members to attend who may not be coming to the Convention, it is possible TRTA will open the event up to anyone wanting to attend.  In that event, TRTA may decide to sell tickets for non-convention participants to help defray the costs associated with the breakfast.

 

I still have some questions, who can I contact?

 

Please contact Stephanie Rea, TRTA Assistant to the Executive Director, for any additional information.  Her email is steph@trta.org.

 

Thank you for all you do for TRTA!

Return to Legislative Updates