President's farewell address

Logistics Spectrum, Oct-Dec 2000 by Desrochers, Donald E

My fellow SOLE members, my term as President of SOLE came to an end on September 30. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my appreciation, accomplishments and future for SOLE-The International Society of Logistics.

I cannot thank all of you enough for the support you have given me over the last two years. Without it, SOLE would not be where it is today. Your management team has dedicated a substantial portion of their personal, and sometimes professional, time to support SOLE and its objectives.

When I became President in August of 1998, the Society was $230,000 in debt. Our SOLE headquarters staff had gone from six to two personnel all in a matter of a few months. Our Executive Director and Technical Director quit. These actions caused a great deal of concern at that time for both the Navy and the Army that SOLE couldn't handle their major conferences later that year. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the Board of Directors approved a substantial dues increase with only a promise that benefits would improve as a result of it. Also, our SOLEurope members were getting increasingly impatient with SOLE for some of the same reasons our US. and Canadian members were. Our President at the time had unexpectedly resigned his position along with any follow-on responsibilities as Immediate Past President. Finally, there were potential law suites against the Society that could further complicate all of these issues.

I immediately took on the responsibility as both Executive Director and President of SOLE. We had to stop the loss of members, increase revenue, pay the debt, mitigate the concerns of other organizations, resolve potential legal issues, improve working relations, supplement the benefits, establish an identity for the Society, and steer a course that would restore the Society to the levels of technical prominence it once enjoyed.

All of this had to be done in our spare time. Your management team went right to work on getting the financial situation under control. Multi-year contracts were discouraged. All contracts required the approval of the Executive Board and the signatures of the VP Finance and President.

I went to work with both the Army and the Navy to ensure them that their concerns were unfounded and that SOLE still had the required expertise to support their conferences in a professional manner, I worked with Barbara King, Director of Administration, to improve the SOLE Headquarters procedures, personnel relations and documentation.

I contacted Matt Cox and eventually contracted with him to transition SOLE's web site over to his server and begin the process of improving it for our membership. I took a firm stand regarding SOLE's identity in stating that we needed to go back to our roots in military logistics before we ventured into other areas of logistics.

We ensured the continuation of the very popular SOLEtech that is edited by Ben Blanchard, and published originally by the Coogans and now by Jim Martin. Furthermore, after almost a year and a half hiatus, the Spectrum was published beginning in January of 1999. All the while, SOLE was still trying to justify its dues increase to the membership. We took a substantial loss initially but there were enough dedicated professionals to not only keep SOLE going, but begin the process of paying down the debt. This was complemented by the successful conduction of both the Naval Logistics Conference 1998 and Army Modernization through Spares conferences that brought in $112,000 to SOLE's coffers. The Society was well on its way back, and I wanted to keep it that way. I went to England to attend the International Logistics Conference in Exeter. It was the first time a standing SOLE President in over three years attended and presented at the conference. Also, this was the beginning of a serious dialog on SOLE's relationship with its international members and SOLEurope.

This first year in office marked the first time SOLE had ever attempted to conduct the International Conference and Exposition with the use of only a committee drawn from the US and an international management team. Gary Ehrig was our General chairman for the event. Though attendance was down from what was expected, the concept of SOLE's management team conducting the event was proven out.

The first year came to a close with SOLE going from a $230,000 deficit to a $80,000 gain in one year. This was only the beginning. SOLE decided to have our accountants handle the records of the Society, not only for our yearly audit, but also for each month. This way, our financial records would always be up to date and auditing expenses could be reduced by 60 percent.

This year's efforts have focused around improving SOLE's technical agenda. SOLE is sponsoring a logistics re-engineering track at NDIA's System Engineering and Supportability Conference in October. Also in October, the new President of SOLE, Mr. Tony Trovato has been invited to the 16th ILC in Versailles, France to be their opening day keynote speaker discussing Repositioning Logistics. Furthermore, we are in the final stages of supporting NLC 2000 in November. This should prove very financially rewarding for the Society. We have also signed a contract with the Wyndham Palace Resort and Spa in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, for next year's 36th Annual International Conference and Exposition in mid-August.