Spring 2021

TTC Regroups, Reorganizes for Coming Year

A key ingredient of any social organization is the ability to get together to socialize! Although we are still unable to gather at live events, there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel. We are cautiously optimistic that we may meet our Toronto Transportation Club (TTC) colleagues in person for our roster of fall events!

In the late fall of 2020, the board of directors met virtually for its annual strategy meeting. This forum is generally used to discuss and develop the social events for the coming year, and is the first unofficial duty of the incoming president. At that time, we were facing a second lockdown, which made planning an agenda difficult. My plan was not to focus on events that we knew we could not responsibly host, but rather, to look at the TTC as a whole. It was time to regroup, retool, and reorganize. The challenges of operating this organization are not limited to choosing venues, developing new and innovative entertainment, selling tickets, and disbursing scholarship funds. There is an intricate infrastructure that needs management. In many cases, however, the priorities of membership experience take precedence and there often isn’t time to clean up the back yard. This year, though, the lack of live events presented an excellent opportunity to do just that!

We formed committees to focus on five of the most important facets of the Club: Newsletter & Roster, Membership, Social Media & Website Development, Scholarship, and Virtual Networking. The board quickly took to looking at the various facets of the committee work and started some virtual white boards. As a result of these efforts, the TTC will be ready to serve the industry better when we get back to normal!

Some of the notable things happening this year include the enhancement of the scholarship program to provide more offerings to corporate members and their employees, opening up the opportunity for five employees to submit scholarship applications. Back by popular demand will be a printed hardcover version of the roster, offering the most comprehensive listing of transportation and supply chain professionals in the industry and numerous advertising opportunities to showcase your company while supporting the scholarship trust at the same time. The membership profile section has been revamped to better designate members into the various segments of the supply chain, as well as enhance member contact information.

Connect. This has become a strong theme at the TTC this year, and has inspired an extremely successful series of virtual networking opportunities. The committee worked diligently to create an innovative series of interactive virtual networking events for our members. It brought together numerous volunteer speakers and panelists to discuss some of the current dilemmas facing the industry and, most excitingly, offered breakout rooms that allowed the TTC to follow its mission of providing the best opportunities to network.

We are very pleased that 94% of our members, both corporate and individual, have renewed their memberships and support for the TTC. An added benefit of your membership with the TTC this year is reciprocal membership benefits with our partnership traffic and transportation clubs around North America, including the New York Traffic Club, Chicago Traffic Club, and Montreal Traffic Club. We are excited to partner with our new affiliates; more information about this partnership will be available later this spring.

On behalf of the board of directors, thank you for your continued support. We will gather – in person – soon!

John Foss
President, The Toronto Transportation Club