President's Log: Join us for our spring events!

After a quiet January, where we have been concentrating on Annual Membership renewals (click to renew today!), the month was capped off by the UNF Transportation and Logistics Society's "LNG in Jax - Riding the Wave of the Future" summit, held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.Crowley's Matt Jackson, Vice President, LNG business development, served as keynote speaker. During his presentation, he discussed the positive impacts of LNG within the marine industry, reasons for the product's recent growth, and the opportunities that will be brought about by LNG. The event also featured other community business experts from Holland and Knight, JAXPORT, the Coast Guard, RS&H, Sea Star Line and JAXUSA Partnership. In February we held two activities, which were both well attended. First was our Student Port Networking Social, where UNF Transportation and Logistics majors meet and interact with club members. (Add photo)It was well attended, especially by the board, but we encourage our membership to take this opportunity to come out and meet the best and brightest prior to their graduation.On Feb. 13, our State of the Port event was sold out. Brian Taylor, the new CEO of JAXPORT, gave an extremely informative and enlightening presentation of the port’s present status, and the vision and strategic initiatives for the future. If you are interested in the presentation, the following link will take you to a copy of the presentation. For those of you that missed out due to the sell out, we apologize for the inconvenience; we accommodated every seat the room would fit. We have committed to return to the same venue next year, but with a larger room.In just two weeks we have our U.S. Coast Guard & Customs and Border Protection Appreciation Dinner, Thursday, March 13, at Jacksonville Golf and Country Club, where we recognize the efforts of our local partners in uniform, that work together with us to perform and forward the cause of waterborne commerce. Please join me for a great evening event; our guest speaker will be Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy.Our long time board member Tom Craighead from Moran, has worked diligently to put together our Spring Golf outing. This year it will be held at Queens Harbor, and as promised we have maintained our same price point again this year. Please mark your calendar for Monday, April 14 and join us.We are still working on the venue for our May activity, the Maritime day celebration, which we will be hosting in partnership with the Kings Point Alumni Association.I look forward to seeing you in the coming months as we work together to forward the agenda of our port and our industry, be safe,Best Regards,Jim GillenPresident