APGA's President and CEO Bert Kalisch, Executive Vice President Dave Schryver, and Vice President of Operations & Safety Erin Kurilla have continued their tour of the Southeast this week. They began the tour last week in Tifton, Ga., and traveled through Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee. After a weekend off, the team has been traveling since this past Monday through Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee; then they end out the week in Georgia tomorrow.
Once every two to three years, APGA staff leadership undertakes this two-week road trip to meet both members and non-members in the Southeast. Each stop follows the same format—a 90-minute presentation from APGA staff and a lunch followed by a roundtable discussion. Many of APGA’s members are from small gas systems, which often makes it hard for them to travel to APGA events. This Southeast tour plays a critical role in allowing us to meet APGA members who don’t often travel to our events and learn of the challenges and issues they are facing within their gas system. It also provides us the opportunity to communicate firsthand the issues that APGA is working on and get their thoughts on what additional steps we can take to be of service to them.
On Monday, August 27, APGA was in Huntsville, Ala., and hosted by John Olshefski, Huntsville Utilities’ Vice President of Customer Care and APGA Board member. John also hosted the staff at his home for a lovely dinner the night prior.
On Tuesday, our team was in Leitchfield, Ky., at a briefing hosted by Henderson Municipal Gas’ Owen Reeves, who is also APGA’s Chairman of the Board. The meeting was well attended by approximately 20 people from nearby public gas systems, as well as from CenterPoint Energy and the Public Energy Authority of Kentucky (PEAK).
Wednesday found the team in Cookeville, Tenn., where they were joined by a group from central Tennessee. Cookeville Natural Gas hosted the event at their facility and Jim Hodges, past APGA Chairman and Executive Vice President and CEO for Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District, led a roundtable discussion.
Thursday is day nine of the tour and it is in Knoxville, Tenn., which is an APGA member and the event was hosted by Brooke Sinclair. Tomorrow is the last day of the tour in Buford, Ga., where they will meet up with the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia team to close things out.
For questions on this article, please contact Dave Schryver or Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at
dschryver@apga.org or
ekurilla@apga.org.
Read the APGA Southeast Tour Blog! Keep up with APGA on the road as they travel through the Southeast. Dave Schryver and Erin Kurilla provide day-by-day recaps of the trip and each stop to meet APGA members.