President’s Message: September 2022 – Finish or Start The Year Strong. It’s All In The Way You Look At It

by Bob Duthaler

September is upon us, and it invokes many different emotions.  There have been several songs about September as well: “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – Greenday,  “September” – Earth, Wind and Fire, just to to name a couple.  For parents and teachers, it starts the beginning of a new school year.  For some businesses it’s the end of the first quarter and for those using a calendar year, you are in the final third of the year.

For JAG as an organization, its all of those above.  The Executive Board Retreat in August, signifies the beginning of planning for a new JAG year.  Having the months of July and August off from General Membership Meetings, we come back again in September like school kids coming back for a new year.  For the fiscal year, we are winding up the 2022 budget, preparing for the 2023 budget and motivating members to take a role on the board or committee.

Whatever way you look at it, you need to be “all in”.  That should apply to everything you do – work, volunteer, play and life in general.  Be present, give your all, be “All In”!  That is the approach the executive board at JAG takes.  When it comes to this organization and its future, we on the board are “All In”.  Because of that, we are taking several approaches to finish out this year or start it – however way you look at it.

We are looking to hold our first Hybrid Meeting.  The October General Membership Meeting will be held both in person at Varto Technologies in East Rutherford and virtually on Zoom as well.  This will be a first for our organization as we welcome gathering again for those interested and still giving the option to those who can’t travel to join us virtually.  Please mark your calendar for October 26th for this historic event in JAG!

Coming up for our September meeting on the 28th, we will also have another first.  We will welcome one of our newest Organizational Members, G&G Technologies, who will be doing a presentation to our membership.  G&G represents many different manufacturers and offers installation services as well.  I urge all members to take part in this virtual meeting and welcome our newer member.

During the last few months of the year 2022, we will be very busy as an organization.  We are currently preparing for our participation in the upcoming New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference in November.  JAG will be hosting two sessions with the league along with having our booth on the conference floor.  I urge you to invite your mayors and council members to come to our sessions and visit our booth.  In addition, we will be hosting a couple of webinars and round table virtual discussions.  Look for emails announcing days and times. Finally, at our September meeting you will also see our new agenda layout.  We understand your time is valuable, we have reviewed past meeting attendance and “dropout” periods and the executive board has come up with a condensed, but action-packed agenda for our meetings moving forward.  Now all we ask of you is to give an hour of your time to attend the meetings.  Then at the conclusion, we will host an “after hours” session where you can continue with questions and discussions with vendors and members alike.  For those in person, you can network with each other and explore vendor presentations up close and personal.  I hope everyone enjoys this new format and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it once we launch.  So, make the most of this new start, closing of the year or however you view it and be “all in” when it comes to everything JAG.