It’s not hard at this time of year to look back and think of all the things you are thankful for in the year that was. For me personally, I am grateful everyday that my children are happy and healthy and that I get to live in a beautiful state with my lovely wife and kind friends. Certainly, my role with the Utah Asphalt Pavement Association (UAPA) plays a big part in all that I am grateful for as well. Indeed, I’m grateful for a job that allows me to interact on a regular basis with people that are trying to make our neighborhoods, communities, and state better. As we celebrate this week all that we are thankful for, my hope for you is that you will take just a moment to pause and to reflect on the good that you do and the contribution we individually and collectively contribute to simply make life in Utah better. As you do, I want you to know that I am truly grateful for the work you put in to make things better for me, my family, my friends, this association, and all the good people of Utah. Thank you.
As we look forward, we know that Association life comes with its own set of inherent challenges, but in the challenges of the past year I have found strength and gratitude for the things we are accomplishing together. As an example of that work, here are just a few of the things we did in November:
- We held a full-day’s worth of education at the Southern Utah Asphalt Seminar in St. George with 120 people in attendance. The feedback we have received from the seminar this year has been nothing short of amazing, and I am grateful to all of those that presented as well as to those that attended and were able to learn something.
- Staying a little closer to home, UAPA traveled to the University of Utah to hold the first-of-its-kind Asphalt Seminar with 80 students from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Because of the high-interest garnered at the seminar from the students, we followed the seminar up with a tour of a pit and production facilities of a local producer.
- Working towards our commitment to industry, UAPA met with the APWA Specifications Committee to work on and improve the asphalt specifications.
In December, the association will be meeting with key leaders to revisit the strategic plan of the association and to ensure that we are still striving towards our core ideologies of bringing Value to Members; ensuring our Unified Voice; and demonstrating our Commitment to Industry. We’ll also be traveling to the Uintah Basin to provide some education and training on the 16th of December. Education has certainly played a key role in the development of UAPA and I am certain we will have a successful event at the Uintah Conference Center on the 16th – I hope to see you there!
Until then, Happy Thanksgiving! I want to thank you for being a part of an industry that is second-to-none and one that I am truly grateful for this Thanksgiving. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.
-Reed Ryan
Executive Director
The Utah Asphalt Pavement Association
Special thanks to everyone that helped make the first-ever Uintah Basin Asphalt Summit a great success! We had over seventy people in attendance at the newly-constructed Uintah Conference Center in Vernal, Utah on the 16th of December.
The Summit then moved to three excellent educational sessions helping attendees understand the importance of building a durable asphalt mix, the roles and history of asphalt binders, and the UAPA Pavement Preservation Matrix. We closed the summit out with some great dutch over catering and a brief message about UAPA from Reed Ryan. Special thanks to our Presenting Sponsor, Burdick Materials, for helping to make our first-ever Summit in the Basin a success!!
