Remarks by Gary Williams
Prepared for delivery at his final Board Meeting
December 10, 2008

...Thank you...

What I will say tonight has a beginning.  Rest assured it also has an ending!  Please allow me a few minutes to share some thoughts and deep feelings tonight, my final Board Meeting as your president.

This event is not about my past or future. It is about your future.  WATDA’s future.  You will have a new awakening, a renaissance.

Everyone here is part of it.   Dealers.   Staff.    Bill & Rhonda Sepic.

Going forward you will have new challenges, challenges unheard of by this generation of dealers.

Whatever dark nights and fear may come along, there will be also a gradual glow of dawn emerge, and then a beautiful warming sun, rising brilliant, passing you energy and confidence.

I do not speak of next morning’s sun.  I speak of a sun that must be fostered.  Earned.

This, in my mind, is why you have your WATDA.  Why you are one together.  Over the past 80 years you have learned to confront the dark, and to build the dawn together through your associations, NADA, ADAMM and WATDA.  It is a beautiful thing.

Your renaissance future will be boundless!

Before another moment passes, I want to take you back to when I first was introduced to you.  I succeeded Louis Milan, your executive for 44 years!  I started when I was 29.  Louie started when he was 21.  He set the pace. He projected the mission.  He was loved by all.  We had a wonderful relationship, both in transition and through the years to his death.

At age 30 I became your second president.

Now it is my opportunity to hand over the driver’s seat and the steering wheel to your new leader, Bill Sepic.  In the same spirit that Louis was a help to me when I asked, so I pledge to help you, Bill, get your arms around things.

When I started it was pretty bewildering.  And that hasn’t changed one iota to today.  Maybe it’s the constant bewilderment that has kept me motivated.

Bill, your staff will be hugely helpful to you.  If you need something extra, just call for a personal visit.  I’ll be there.

Let’s go back to ‘71.
As written in Dealer Point, Jerry HoIz, Hales Corners, and C.J. Thorstad, Madison, ... (so to speak) “courted” me and LuAnn to join you.  C.J. is deceased now, but what a teacher, what a leader!

Jerry Holz was my first Board Chairman.  Right from the beginning -- and ever since -- Jerry is for me the quiet hand of encouragement and direction.

That Jerry is here with me tonight, after 36 years, is truly special. Overwhelming.

Why C.J., Jerry, and others encouraged me to join Louis Milan at then called “WATA” (Auto Trades) is still puzzling.  I was 29, in debt from college loans, still in a belated UW graduate school, and with a young family.  I think the dealers liked LuAnn!

Bob Pietroske asked me about what were my happiest times as your CEO, staff leader.  This question was a bit different than the staff questions I answered in the Dealer Point.  Here’s my answer.  It may surprise you.

Hands down, I enjoyed the most the Town Meetings.  These were special.  Small groups of dealers.  Their agenda, discussions playing off of one another.  Powerful learning experiences.

Not that they were easy.  John Zimbrick did 41 town meetings with me in less than four weeks.  Ken Vance traveled back roads and detours for over 30 meetings.  Chryste Madsen, in recent years, made sure I was up in the morning, and was organized upon arrival.  When these tours were over, it was like going off the field at the end of a big game, we were totally exhausted, and at the same time, totally exhilarated.  We had spent intimate hours with our members in their communities.

There has been another joy for me.  The Capitol scene.  The legislative process.  The legislators themselves, the agencies.  You have to love it! Otherwise it will put you in the nut house.  If you are going to be an effective advocate, you sure better love the forum where it all takes place.

For me, being a lobbyist, your advocate, allowed me to serve democracy as closely as possible without being an elected person.

(I had to agree, as a condition of marriage that I would never run for public election.  Perhaps that is one more item for which you should thank LuAnn!)

Together, dealers and staff, we have so many more highlights and joys.  Some biggies are:

Creation of:

• The Used Car Council

• The Heavy Duty Truck Council

• Services subsidiary corp., WATDASI

• Growth of the Trust

• The Foundation

• Car Pac and Direct Givers

• Dealer Point

• DMV Advisory Council

• Achieving CAE status

• Seeing five other staff achieve CAE status

• Having two staff alumni go on to be CEO’s of state trade associations … and knowing more could have

• Seeing the NADA legal staff recognize Paul Norman as the most knowledgeable dealer lawyer in the USA

• The TMQDA VIP dinners

• Our 25 years of NADA Sunday breakfasts!  (And the Red Coat!)

• The give and take of negotiating legislation and agency rules

• And the Bill Signings in the Governor’s Conference Room

• Developing new services of value, creating revenue

• Developing positive working relationships with the DOT/DMV, Attorney General, DFI, OCI, DOR and other agencies.  (WHEW!)

• Knowing that we have created the most complete and balanced franchise laws and licensing laws in the nation

• Watching directors debate, go at it, challenge one another and the staff.
  Seeing worry
  Imagination
  Decision
  Commitment
  Any decision was OK with me . . . as long as I agreed with it!  Or, I would bring it up again

• How about those off-shore conventions in the '70s and '80?

So much more!

Please, I must underscore one central fact underlying all accomplishments we have had, big or small:

I never accomplished a single thing by myself.  Members.  Volunteer Leaders.  Professional Staff.  Great counsel.  Just cause.  Persistence.  All together, these are the makings of real accomplishments.

Many have asked:  What will I do going forward?  Some travel.  Some family time.  Some charitable time.  But also some productive time.  Perhaps something new, different, and creative.

On January 1, I will have formed a new business entity. I will be an entrepreneur!  The name will be Planting Ground LLC.  Why that name?

Planting Ground is the name of a lake in Oneida County, where we have a place, and hopefully will someday reside.  The name is an English translation of an Indian term.  Not too far from us was a shoreland area where the Indians gardened, grew their crops.  Thus, Planting Ground Lake.

Maybe my new company will give me a chance to sow some different seeds, to nourish a new garden, and to be productive as long as mind and body allow.

I have no customers as yet; only a myriad of thoughts.  I will have to get “grounded”, so to speak.

One new joy I will have is some added control over my time.  The management of five corporations, plus immersion in public policy, and legal policy, and industry relations requires long hours and energy.

Wherever life takes you . . . wherever life takes Lu Ann and me . . . there is one certainty that can never be reversed nor taken away.

Our personal relationships and friendships with so many over these years are profound.  Lu Ann and I are blessed in so many ways for what you have done for us. Our biggest joys stem from what you have done with us, especially in events like this one where a sense of “family” rides way atop the business issues of the day.

Together, we may not be rich as measured by how much money we have in the bank, but we are rich in WATDA in the value we have delivered to the members, and which will continue to be delivered.

Hats off to you, the dealers, from all of us on your WATDA staff team!

And now may I also say, hats off to my professional pride and joy . . . your WATDA executive staff team!!!  Present here tonight:

Matt Lavold, Vice President and Controller, 8 months
Gary Beier, Foundation Director of Development, 4 years
Julie Farmer, Office Coordinator/Executive Administrative Asst-7 years
Chryste Madsen, Manager Membership Services, 10 years
Chris Snyder, Legal Counsel & Lobbyist-12 years
Ray Pedersen, Foundation Executive Director-15 years
Sue Miller, Vice President Knowledge Development & Delivery-16 years
Mary Ann Gerrard, Legal Counsel & Lobbyist-18 years
Linda Poulsen, Director of Public and Donor Relations -24 years
Lee Bauman, Vice President, Insurance & Finance-33 years
Sue Rausch, Vice President, Insurance Corporation   35 years

Back at headquarters are 25 more dynamic employees who also deserve a salute!

Before another moment passes, let’s salute my #1 partner for 45 years and your #1 partner for 37 years . . . LuAnn.

LuAnn has given a lot to WATDA. I dare say that as a spouse of an association executive and lobbyist, she has voluntarily attended more political events and fundraisers, and covered the halls of Congress in D.C. (at least 20 times) . . . more often than any other association executive spouse in Wisconsin’s history, EVER!

LuAnn is your “Queen of the Capitols!”

We have been hosted in many homes; we’ve traveled with you to more places than any king or queen of old ever enjoyed.  Our world with you, our experiences with you, will be held in our hearts.

LuAnn, our kids, and I are deeply appreciative.  As I wrote some years ago, you have provided every piece of bread put on our table.  You even provided the table.  And you made sure that we had a house to shelter us... and to shelter that table.  How fortunate are we because of your sacrifices.

Now, seven governors later, I complete my career together with you.  Seven good Packer quarterbacks later, seven U.S. presidents later, six U.W. football coachers later, 36 WATDA Board Chairs later, now LuAnn and migrate on.

Some would call it “retirement.”  For me that word represents an unfortunate state of mind, when the reality of the matter is that we are dealing with a moment in time in which there is a physical change, and a title change.  Neither my body nor mind is retiring.  The position and title is being passed.

The change is needed.  It is time – all organizations need renewal of leadership, new energy and fresh competencies.

Is this now a “good bye” for us?

It is OK to say ”good bye” to a work position, to a title.  To that we now say “good bye.”

But we can never say “good bye” to friendships.  You are our friends…forever!

Now it is time for you to go on with your Renaissance.  Find that dawn and that new sun with Bill as your new leader!

For 37 years it has been a most high honor for me to be your advocate, to be the advocate for the automobile and truck dealers of Wisconsin.  To serve as your president.

Thank you.  Thank you.

And Best Regards!

Yeah, yeah, so it wasn’t so short.  Big deal!