July 2001 Rental Rag

THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

This month, as president, I’m offering a blanket welcome to those new members to the ARA-New Jersey who may not have been acknowledged in the past. You may or may not know that, if your rental business is located in New Jersey, when you join the national American Rental Association you automatically became a member of the ARA-New Jersey, a state organization affiliated with national. This applies to rental store owners - those who supply rental stores (suppliers) can become members of the ARA-New Jersey as Associate Members by applying for membership.

For whatever reason, we were not always made aware when a new member joined the national ARA and, it wasn’t until recently, when we requested an up-to-date New Jersey membership list from national, that we realized we had missed a few. So, If you are receiving this issue of a Rental Rag for the first time it is likely you were among the "unknowns" and we apologize for the slight and you are, belatedly, sincerely welcome to ARA-NJ.

Besides this newsletter there are a number of perks available to our membership - not the least of which is our very active web-site (you’ll find the web address listed elsewhere in this issue) and our evening meetings, though infrequent, have recently been rescheduled so as to interfere less with members busy periods. Each meeting features a program of interest to a wide spectrum of the membership as well as updates from the national ARA, open discussions, input from Associate Members and enough time to socialize to get to know each other better and exchange ideas or get help with vexing problems.

Programs in the immediate future will concern loading and trailering featuring a speaker from the New Jersey State Police. Another meeting not too far off will put us in close contact with the American Equipment Dealers and a few movers and shakers from national ARA. After that a meeting on "Flooring" which should be of interest to both our party stores and equipment rental people is in the works.

We’re not "all work" either - there are also purely social events. Much the membership looks forward to what has become an annual event - our Nite at the Races: a fun night of dinner and wagering at the NJ Meadowlands track. You can look forward, too, to a day at Atlantic City with your ARA-New Jersey friends. This is new and you’ll find the first details of this event in this issue. In the past we’ve held dinner dances, moonlight cruises and baseball outings - we hope you’ll elect to participate in whatever our social committee dreams up next.

Once again, welcome aboard! Feel free to give a call to any of our officers or committee chairman if you have questions concerning our group - they are all listed in this newsletter.

Brian Higgins, President

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